Comparison

LookPocket vs Ariadne

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

Head to head
About

LookPocket

This app allows real-time color grading for compatible cameras, directly adjusting your camera's internal color decision list (CDL). Save your custom looks to camera files for easy recall in post-production without altering original exposure.

Highlights
  • Real-time color grading
  • Customizable grading menus
  • CDL adjustment
  • Save grading to camera metadata
  • Import/export .cdl files
  • Compatible with Arri and Sony cameras
Features
Read full description

WHAT IS LOOKPOCKET LookPocket connects directly to your camera, and gives you more than a dozen color grading parameters to get your look to exactly where you need it. Moreover, the grading menus are fully customizable, so you can grade comfortably in your own way. HOW DOES IT WORK LookPocket calculates and updates your camera's internal color decision list (CDL) with your grading parameters in real time, allowing it to stay responsive and lightweight. Your underlying exposure (e.g. your log image) is not changed in any way. Instead, the CDL is saved in your original camera files' metadata along with your LUT, so you can recall your grading at any point in post production, but stay confident that your image stays exactly the way you exposed it. WORKFLOWS Because connection to the camera is established quickly and easily, the iPhone or iPad running LookPocket can stay on your pan bar, in your pocket, on your cart, or any where else on set. Then, when you need to adjust your colors, just pull up your phone, connect the camera, and away you grade! COMPATIBILITY - CDLs are saved directly in the original camera files, so post production receive them automatically - Import and export .cdl files for sharing and managing looks - Compatible with certain Arri and Sony cameras, such as Alexa 35, Alexa Mini-LF, Alexa Mini, Amira, Venice 1, and Venice 2 Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.lookpocket.com/support

About

Ariadne

Read full description

Ariadne needs an iPhone Pro. It uses the LiDAR sensor and all three rear cameras, and the colour tools need Apple Log: an iPhone 15 Pro or later. The download is 3.3 GB: start on 5G or Wi-Fi. Ariadne shows a location through the camera and lens you plan to shoot with. Select a body, a sensor mode and a lens, and the picture is cropped to that field of view. The band below states the T-stop that camera needs for the light you stand in, and holds to about a third of a stop against an incident meter. One purchase, no subscription, no account, and nothing you shoot leaves the phone. A cinematographer built it, and it keeps the conventions of the trade. THE VIEWFINDER Seven ARRI bodies, two Sony Venice bodies and three film formats, at their real sensor modes. A searchable catalogue of real lens sets, primes and zooms, spherical and anamorphic, with 1.4x and 2x adapters. Where a lens set carries image circle data, Ariadne works out whether it covers your sensor. Where there is no published figure, nothing is drawn: a blank is never filled with a guess. THE LIGHT METER A live T-stop for the scene in front of you, at your rating, shutter angle and frame rate. Declare the ND in your matte box and every stop accounts for it; Ariadne also states which filter would put your widest mark back in reach. HOLD A STOP AND WALK Tap the A below the exposure readout and metering stops. The wheel becomes an iris ring in T-stops that re-exposes the sensor, so a bright room reads over and a dark corner under, as one stop on film does. FALSE COLOUR, ON FILM TOO Touch and hold the picture and the frame paints by exposure, in stops from mid grey. On a film body it reads the selected stock at box speed: exposure monitoring a film camera has no path for. There is no over-exposure band: the phone's sensor clips long before the negative does, and a red band would report the phone's limit as the shot's. LOOKS AND LUTS Import .cube, and ARRI Look Files in .alf4 and .aml, with no round trip through the ARRI Reference Tool. Each look renders in the colour science it was authored for. The sheet shows the graded picture, the response curve, and where 18% grey lands. FILM STOCKS Vision3 50D, 250D, 200T and 500T, Verita 200D, Vision 320T, Ektachrome 100D and Double-X, from the manufacturers' published data. Negatives are shown as lab-corrected prints, reversals uncorrected under the light you stand in. AR BLOCKING Stand the scene up on the location. High-resolution, lighting-grade stand-ins, height-adjustable, placed on the real floor, seen through the lens you selected and occluded by the real foreground. Backings dressed with your own photograph, vehicles, interior cutaways, tables and seating. Scan your own actor with LiDAR and place the double. SUN AND TIME OF DAY True solar position for where you stand, scrubbed a quarter of an hour at a time and drawn across the frame. In AR it drives the light: direction, colour temperature and the shadows stand-ins cast on each other. PLAN VIEW A top-down, north-up plot: the camera at its centre, its real field of view as a wedge, every figure with its facing, and a compass ring with the day's solar arc. Saved beside a photograph it adds a scale bar and lens to subject distances, to hand the blocking to other departments. CAPTURE One shutter. Tap for a still, hold to record, hold two seconds to latch the take. Framelines, hooks, compass and exposure are burnt into the frame; a JSON sidecar carries the rest. CALIBRATE THIS PHONE Two measured tests: the true field of view of each camera, and the cameras matched on a grey card. The meter holds to about a third of a stop; an optional step calibrates it against your own. FROM THE DEVELOPER Ariadne is made by one working cinematographer, from what I needed on set and could not buy. If something does not do what this page says, jakescottstudio.com/support reaches me directly: tell me the body, the lens and the light and it is usually fixed in the next build.

Screenshots

LookPocket3 screens
Ariadne4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: LookPocket at Free against Ariadne's $99.99. LookPocket also leads on iOS requirement (16.6 vs 27.0). Ariadne's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 7). On update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

LookPocket is free to download; Ariadne costs $99.99 up front. LookPocket sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per 7 days. Ariadne asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

LookPocket ships an update every 2 weeks, Ariadne fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
LookPocket versus Ariadne: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLookPocketAriadne
PriceFree — better$99.99
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationSubscription—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.6 — better27.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB3.1 GB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAljoscha KirschnerJake Scott Studio

In-app purchases

7 purchases

LookPocket

Subscriptions3
  • 1 Week$11.997 Days
  • 1 Month$29.991 Month
  • 6 Month14 Days trial$99.996 Months
One-time4
  • Permanent - Venice Connection$129.00
  • Permanent - Arri Connection$179.00
  • Permanent - Venice Connection$199.00
Show 1 more
  • Permanent - Arri Connection$249.00
None

Ariadne

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is LookPocket free?
LookPocket is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ariadne free?
Ariadne costs $99.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do LookPocket or Ariadne have ads?
Neither LookPocket nor Ariadne shows ads.
Which is updated more often, LookPocket or Ariadne?
LookPocket ships an update every 2 weeks, and Ariadne fortnightly. Most recently, LookPocket was updated on October 17, 2026 and Ariadne on October 9, 2026.

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