Obscura vs DoubleHalf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Obscura
This app offers a powerful yet intuitive photo editing experience. It provides a range of pre-set filters and advanced tools for creative adjustments. Unlock full functionality to save and export your masterpieces.
- Gorgeous pre-set filters
- Custom filter creation
- Pro editing tools
- Exposure, curves, white balance
- Grain and vignette adjustments
- Hue/saturation/lightness controls
- Edits saved between sessions
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Obscura Studio is a brand new image editor that’s intuitive to use, but allows for a lot of creativity. Obscura Studio evolved from working on Obscura, an award-winning, pro camera app. Now Obscura and Obscura Studio are deeply integrated, sharing edits and filters between them. This means that you can edit a photo, save your edits as a custom filter, and then use that filter in Obscura’s camera. Library Obscura Studio integrates with the system Photo Library, so you have access to all your images. It has smart filters to help reduce the clutter and by default, just shows you the photos you care about. You can browse all your albums too, for easy organisation and navigation. Organisation Obscura Studio lets you rate images with star ratings, or mark them as flagged or rejected, to help you stay organised. Editing Obscura Studio has a variety of pro editing tools that let you bring your own taste to your photos. Everything from the basics like Exposure and Contrast, to a Curves Editor, HSL tools, and so much more. Filters In addition to the range of built in filters, you can save any edits as a custom filter if you want to reuse it regularly. Custom Filters are shared with Obscura so you can use them live in-camera. ———— Privacy: https://benricemccarthy.com/apps/obscura-studio/privacy.html Terms: https://benricemccarthy.com/apps/obscura-studio/terms.html
DoubleHalf
This app emulates a vintage film camera, combining half-frame and double-exposure techniques to create unique, composited images. It offers manual focus and various film styles for a retro photographic experience.
- Double exposure effect
- Half-frame camera simulation
- Manual focus control
- Multiple film emulators
- Flash and exposure settings
- Volume button shutter
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DoubleHalf is a double-exposure half-frame film camera emulator for iPhone. Half-frame cameras split one frame of 35 mm film into two tall pictures side by side. Double exposure takes the same roll of film and runs it through the camera twice. DoubleHalf does both of these: four captures composited into a single frame. FIXED EVERYTHING There is no autofocus, no HDR, and no computational processing. White balance is pinned. You point it and you press it, and you find out later what you got. With the flash on, exposure is pinned dark and the lamp carries the picture, so a subject falls off hard into black. Turn the flash off and the camera meters the room instead. FOCUS There is no autofocus, so you choose a distance and commit to it. Press the focus button to cycle between near, medium and far. Near pulls in close, medium sits around arm's length, and far finds infinity — the lens is set there once, when you choose it, and then stays put. FILM EMULATOR SETTINGS Ember 64 - dense reds, deep blacks Prism Three - separated primaries, hard colour Night Bloom - cold light, red halation glow Violet Field - greens shift to magenta Scorch 200 - harsh, blown-out halation False Summer - false-colour infrared None - just an out of focus iPhone camera! A CAMERA, NOT AN APP Hold it sideways like a compact or upright like a phone. The back is a camera: a screen, four exposure lights that count your shots, three buttons for focus, film and flash, and a shutter. Turn it and the buttons stay exactly where they are — only the lettering turns to face you. Nothing to swipe, nothing to pinch. ALSO The volume buttons work as a shutter release. Shot upright, a frame is two tall pictures side by side; shot sideways, two wide ones stacked. Finished frames save straight to your photo library. Every saved photo carries its settings in EXIF: film, flash, focus, exposure, zoom. No accounts, no ads, no analytics, and no network access at all.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: DoubleHalf at none against Obscura's 5. DoubleHalf also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 5 weeks). Obscura's advantage is ratings volume (4 vs 1). On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. Obscura sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. DoubleHalf asks for nothing beyond the download.
DoubleHalf holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 1 respectively.
Obscura ships an update every 5 weeks, DoubleHalf every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Obscura | DoubleHalf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 108 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ben McCarthy | Brian Ellis |
Customer experience
Obscura
DoubleHalf
In-app purchases
Obscura
- Obscura Studio+ Monthly3 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Obscura Ultra - One Month7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Obscura Studio+ Annual7 Days trial$11.991 Year
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- Obscura Ultra - Annual7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Obscura Ultra - One Time$64.99
DoubleHalf
No in-app purchases









