Comparison

Simply B&W vs Lucent Camera

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Simply B&W

Explore monochrome photography with a focused set of tools for tone, contrast, and creative effects. Adjust color translations, add film-like grain, and apply unique optical effects to give your photos character. Save in high resolution while preserving image data.

Highlights
  • Monochrome color translation
  • Photographic filters
  • Adjustable grain simulation
  • Optical effects (Toy, Prism, Bokeh)
  • Selective focus
  • Tone, brightness, and contrast controls
  • RAW file support
Features
Read full description

Simply B&W is an easy, focused way to explore monochrome on iPhone. Start with tone, brightness and contrast, then go further with photographic filters, grain, optical effects and selective focus. FIND THE BLACK & WHITE WITHIN Black and white is about more than taking the color away. Simply B&W lets you change how the colors in your photograph translate into shades of grey. Red filters can turn a blue sky dark and dramatic. Yellow filters brings out clouds more gently. Green changes the balance of foliage and skin. Orange falls somewhere in between. They work like the familiar color filters used by black and white photographers, but applied to the photograph you’ve already made. There’s infrared too, for luminous foliage and dark skies, and a polariser effect for deeper skies and stronger definition. GIVE IT CHARACTER Not every photograph needs to be perfectly sharp. Toy adds the soft corners, swirl and gentle vignette of a plastic lens, with a sharp area you can position anywhere in the frame. Prism fractures and repeats your subject, inspired by the faceted filters of the seventies. Bokeh uses Portrait depth information to soften backgrounds and draw attention to your subject. Out-of-focus highlights can bloom into luminous, softly edged bubbles, creating the dreamy optical character of classic vintage lenses. THE FEEL OF FILM Add grain from the almost invisible texture of ISO 25 to the gritty character of ISO 3200. Shape the finished photograph with exposure, brightness, contrast, shadows, highlights and vignette. Everything is controlled from one set of dials, right under your thumb. Choose what you want to change on the outer ring, then turn the inner one to adjust it. The controls stay out of the way. Your photograph fills the screen. MADE FOR YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS Simply B&W works with JPEG, HEIC and RAW photographs from your library. With RAW files, it develops the original image data rather than using the embedded preview. Save your finished photograph as JPEG, HEIC or lossless TIFF, with EXIF, IPTC and location details preserved. Find a look you love and it stays with you, photograph after photograph. Everything happens on your iPhone. Nothing is uploaded. No account. No subscription. Simply Photography. Simply B&W.

About

Lucent Camera

This app offers a classic black and white photography experience with granular control over lighting and composition. Manually adjust focus, ISO, exposure, contrast, and brightness to master your shots. Its simple interface provides gentle haptic feedback and optional grid lines for precise framing.

Highlights
  • Manual focus control
  • Adjustable ISO and exposure
  • Contrast and brightness settings
  • Tap to auto focus
  • Pinch to zoom
  • Simple interface with haptic feedback
  • Optional grid lines
Read full description

Lucent Camera is a classic black and white camera. It's interface lets you control every detail of the lighting and composition of your photographs. Features include: • Ability to manually focus the lens. • Ability to manually adjust iso and exposure settings. • Ability to set the contrast and brightness levels. • Tap to auto focus. • Pinch to zoom. • Simple interface with gentle haptic feedback. • Optional grid lines to line up your shots. • Totally private. Shooting in black and white can take your photography to the next level and Lucent Camera lets you control every detail to achieve mastery with the camera in your pocket.

Screenshots

Simply B&W4 screens
Lucent Camera4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Lucent Camera at Free against Simply B&W's $3.99. Lucent Camera also leads on rating (4.6 vs 3.8) and review sentiment (100% vs 78%). Simply B&W's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (28 vs 7). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Lucent Camera is free to download; Simply B&W costs $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Lucent Camera holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 28 and 7 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 78% of Simply B&W's written reviews are positive against 100% of Lucent Camera's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simply B&W ships an update monthly, Lucent Camera every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Simply B&W versus Lucent Camera: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimply B&WLucent Camera
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating3.8 (28 ratings)4.6 (7 ratings) — better
Positive reviews78.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings28 — better7
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJames MooreBenjamin Lucas

Customer experience

Simply B&W

All ratings28 ratings
Positive71.4%
Neutral7.1%
Negative21.4%
Written reviews65 reviews
Positive78.5%
Neutral4.6%
Negative16.9%

Lucent Camera

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Simply B&W

Reported bugs

15 issues
  • Blank screen on iPhone 14 Pro Max
  • App jams/frozen
  • Adobe CC login broken
  • App pauses frequently
  • No 'cancel' option on a pic
Show 10 more
  • App freezes when using 'save' and 'X' for cancel
  • Surface cannot return to edit mode after saving (iOS 13)
  • Crashing on saving
  • Does not orientate on iPhone 6 plus
  • Not work for iPad 2
  • Crashes on saving on iPod 5 & iPad Air (iOS 7.1.2)
  • Crashing while saving on iPhone 5
  • Crashes every time after a few pictures
  • Saving an image crashes the app (but image is saved)
  • Tool menus orientation wrong (portrait photo, landscape menus)

Requested features

15 requests
  • Add camera function back
  • Option to choose 'no filter'
  • Clarify shutter speed vs. exposure adjustment
  • Add sepia or cyan tones
  • More filters and tweaking abilities
Show 10 more
  • RAW support
  • Option to toggle back to old interface
  • More presets
  • Option to not use border with presets
  • Ability to send photos to and from other apps
  • Create a canvas around the image instead of cropping
  • Import more than one photo at a time
  • Utilize iOS extensions
  • Varied formats (e.g., 1:1)
  • More options for grain control (size, amount in highlights/shadows)

Lucent Camera

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Simply B&W

No in-app purchases

None

Lucent Camera

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Simply B&W free?
Simply B&W costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lucent Camera free?
Lucent Camera is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Simply B&W or Lucent Camera?
Lucent Camera is rated higher. Simply B&W averages 3.8 out of 5 from 28 ratings, while Lucent Camera averages 4.6 from 7 ratings.
Do Simply B&W or Lucent Camera have ads?
Neither Simply B&W nor Lucent Camera shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Simply B&W or Lucent Camera?
Simply B&W ships an update monthly, and Lucent Camera every 2 months. Most recently, Simply B&W was updated on November 1, 2026 and Lucent Camera on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons