MacroShader vs Brightroom
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MacroShader
Capture stunning close-up images with advanced manual camera controls and specialized processing. Features include focus peaking, RAW saving, and a unique focus shutter for precise macro shots.
- Focus shutter
- Focus peaking
- Manual camera controls
- Save in RAW
- Customized image processing
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A macro photography app for iPhone. Features include: - Focus shutter: Tap, hold, focus and release to shoot a photo. Also just tap to shoot - Focus peaking - Manual camera controls - Save in RAW - Customised image processing for macro photography to preserve details Future releases will add more camera controls, editing tools and more
Brightroom
Transform your iPhone into a high-quality film scanner. Easily digitize color negatives, black-and-white negatives, and color slides with advanced editing tools for perfect results. Save your scanned memories directly to your device or cloud storage.
- Film negative and slide scanning
- Color and B&W negative conversion
- Live editing controls
- DNG and ProRAW import support
- Save to Photos or Files
- IPTC caption embedding
- Workflow optimization
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Brightroom turns your iPhone into a precision film scanner. Photograph color negatives, black-and-white negatives, or color slides — on a lightbox, iPad screen, or bright window — and Brightroom instantly converts them into sharp, accurate digital photos you can crop, adjust, caption, and save. FILM CONVERSION • Color Negative (C-41) — removes the orange film base cast with per-channel auto-levels and white balance correction, plus an S-curve for shadow richness and highlight pop • Black & White Negative — desaturates before inversion with a classic film contrast curve • Slide / Positive (E-6) — gentle levels correction preserving the film's inherent color balance ADJUSTMENTS • 10 live controls in a scrollable toolbar: Crop, Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Black Point, Saturation, Vibrance, Warmth, Sharpen, Vignette • Every slider updates the image instantly as you drag — no tap to apply • Changed controls highlighted in orange; one-tap reset per control IMAGE QUALITY • Supports DNG and Apple ProRAW imports alongside JPEG and HEIC • Single-pass Core Image pipeline — no intermediate resampling steps, maximum sharpness at full sensor resolution • Captures full pixel density from both 1x and 2x lenses CROP & SAVE • Manual crop with corner handles and rule-of-thirds grid • Save to Photos Library or directly to any Files location — iCloud Drive, network shares, NAS, cloud services • Save location remembered: pick a folder once, Brightroom saves there automatically • Save with optional 90° rotation — corrects sideways negatives at save time CAPTION • Type or dictate an IPTC caption before saving — embedded permanently in the JPEG, readable in Lightroom, Photos, and any IPTC-aware app • Voice dictation uses on-device speech recognition — nothing leaves your iPhone WORKFLOW • Scan → camera direct; Convert → camera or library (supports DNG/RAW) • After saving, immediately prompts for the next negative — no extra navigation between frames • Before/after toggle: tap Converted badge to compare with the original capture • Full-resolution JPEG output with EXIF orientation and IPTC metadata embedded
Screenshots
Verdict
MacroShader and Brightroom both sit at 5.0 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of MacroShader's written reviews are positive against 0% of Brightroom's. MacroShader also leads on price (Free vs $0.99). Brightroom's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs every 4 months) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). On rating, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
MacroShader is free to download; Brightroom costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for MacroShader against 5.0 for Brightroom. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of MacroShader's written reviews are positive against 0% of Brightroom's.
MacroShader ships an update every 4 months, Brightroom every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MacroShader | Brightroom |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $0.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | AstroShader Limited | Greg Anderson |
Customer experience
MacroShader
Brightroom
In-app purchases
MacroShader
No in-app purchases
Brightroom
No in-app purchases









