(Not Boring) Camera vs Ancient Light
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
(Not Boring) Camera
Capture unique, honest, and inspiring photos with a playful camera interface. Offers professional-level controls, natural image processing, and customizable color grading with LUTs. Enjoy a tactile, 3D interface and one-second capture from lock screen.
- SUPER RAW™ capture
- 3D LUT color grading
- Customizable camera interface
- HDR support
- 3D camera interface with haptics
- Manual pro controls
- One-tap fast capture
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"The most fun camera app I've used in forever." — The Verge "My go-to for iPhone photography" — Washington Post "It’s so fun to use." —MKBHD Capture unique, honest, inspiring photos like the Pros in a fun, playful camera. SUPER RAW™ No AI or over-processed photos. Just natural grain, sharper images, & film-like exposures. Save Raw digital negative files (DNG) for processing in other tools like Darkroom, Lightroom, or Photoshop. Or capture using Apple's professional-level ProRaw. SKIP THE EDITS From snap to share. !Camera is the first camera app to enable professional color grading with 3D LUTs (”lookup tables”) used in high-end workflows by professional photographers to achieve realistic film simulations and unique cinematic looks. Use !Camera’s presets, add LUTs from your favorite creators, or make & import your own! New Styles and pro collaborations released every season. MAKE IT YOURS Customize every part of your camera to fit your vibe. Share colorways with others. HDR Extend your photo’s dynamic range with HDR to save additional highlight detail and color depth. LOVE THE FEEL Click. Tick. Snap. First fully-3D camera interface with dynamic lighting, sounds, & custom haptics that evokes the feel of holding a real camera. PRO CONTROL Use Auto mode for easy captures or switch to Manual for full control over exposure, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, and focus with pro-level tools like focus peaking, histogram, and zebra stripes. ONE-TAP FAST From lock screen to first snap in under 1 second. Add shortcuts to your lock screen, home screen, widgets, camera control, control settings, wherever. 100% PRIVATE We collect nothing. We store nothing. We share nothing. Plans: https://notbor.ing/plans Support: https://notbor.ing/support Terms: https://notbor.ing/terms Privacy: https://notbor.ing/privacy
Ancient Light
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Ancient Light transforms your iPhone into a camera of the nineteenth century. Twelve authentic historic photographic processes - each faithfully simulated through the physics of tone, silver chemistry, grain, paper, emulsion, and light. Not filters. Processes. -- THE TWELVE PROCESSES -- Daguerreotype (1839) - The first successful photograph. A mirror-like silver surface with luminous shadow detail and seven scanned frame choices, plus No Frame. Tintype (1853) - The photograph of the working class. Robust, immediate, metallic, with regular or square format options and optional worn plate borders. Albumen (1850s) - Warm egg-white paper prints mounted as cabinet cards, with soft sepia-brown toning, aged cream stock, rounded corners, and a ruled inner border. Sepia - The warm brown tone of silver sulphide that preserved Victorian portraits through a century and a half. Cyanotype (1842) - Sir John Herschel's iron-based process. Deep Prussian blue. The print that gave photography the word "blueprint." Anthotype (1839) - Made from crushed plant pigments. Delicate, fugitive, botanical. The most poetic photographic process ever devised. Platinum (1873) - The process of fine art portraiture. Cool, shadow-rich, with a tonal range silver could never match. Autochrome (1907) - The Lumiere brothers' starch-grain colour process. Dreamy, pointillist, the first practical colour photography. Emulsion - A damaged instant-emulsion look with faded color, warm highlights, scorched edges, amber leaks, scratches, and oxidized surface wear. Bromoil (1907) - Oil-based ink on bleached gelatin. Painterly and stippled, with inky shadows and pale milky highlights. Lippmann (1891) - Gabriel Lippmann's Nobel Prize-winning interferential process. Warm amber ageing, long-exposure softness, and glass plate scratches from a century of handling. Infrared (1930s) - Light beyond the visible spectrum. Luminous white foliage, darkened skies, ethereal skin tones. The spectral world captured on heat-sensitive emulsion. -- WHAT ANCIENT LIGHT CAN DO -- * All four optical lenses - ultrawide (0.5x), wide (1x), 2x, and telephoto (5x) - selectable from the viewfinder * Shoot once, save many - save multiple historic versions from a single capture * On iPhone Pro: saves both a filtered JPEG and the original 48MP ProRAW DNG as a paired asset * Emulsion process with faded instant-film color, warmer highlights, lighter grain, and scanned edge damage * Albumen cabinet-card output with warm paper tone, aged stock texture, rounded card corners, and ruled border * Infrared process with glowing foliage, dark skies, and spectral black-and-white tonality * Tintype options - choose regular or square format, with period borders or no borders * Seven Daguerreotype frame styles plus No Frame, selectable directly from the viewfinder * Higher-resolution Daguerreotype frame output, scaled to the photo instead of the source frame artwork * Adjustments apply to the photograph while preserving Daguerreotype frame artwork * Full adjustment suite - exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, black point, saturation, vibrance, warmth, sharpness, and vignette * Auto enhancement with one tap * Precision crop tool with inset handles and rule-of-thirds grid * Landscape side-panel layout keeps the image large while all controls stay accessible * Photographer credit field - your name travels with every saved file in the IPTC metadata * Process, frame, and Tintype options stored between sessions * iPhone and iPad, all orientations * No subscription. No ads. No account required. Ancient Light is a single purchase. Everything in it is yours.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: (Not Boring) Camera at Free against Ancient Light's $0.99. Ancient Light's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). On ads and device support 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
(Not Boring) Camera is free to download; Ancient Light costs $0.99 up front. (Not Boring) Camera sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Ancient Light asks for nothing beyond the download.
(Not Boring) Camera ships an update every 2 weeks, Ancient Light every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | (Not Boring) Camera | Ancient Light |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $0.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (5.1K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 69.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 5.1K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.2 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 191 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Not Boring Software LLC | Greg Anderson |
Bugs and requests
(Not Boring) Camera
Reported bugs
1 issue- Inability to focus on nearby subjects
Requested features
2 requests- Video and slow-motion mode
- Brightness matching between viewfinder and final image
Ancient Light
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
(Not Boring) Camera
- Super !Boring Monthly$7.991 Month
- !Camera Plus Yearly$14.991 Year
- !Camera Plus Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year
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- Super !Boring Yearly$29.991 Year
- !Camera Plus Lifetime$59.99
Ancient Light
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is (Not Boring) Camera free?
Is Ancient Light free?
Do (Not Boring) Camera or Ancient Light have ads?
Which is updated more often, (Not Boring) Camera or Ancient Light?
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