Film Development Assistant vs FilmMeter
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Film Development Assistant
This app helps amateur photographers track their film development chemicals and sessions. It monitors chemical batch expiration, usage, and provides multi-stage timers for development processes. Users can also record notes on session quality for future reference.
- Chemical batch tracking
- Expiration date monitoring
- Session tracking
- Multi-stage development timers
- Chemical usage calculation
- Session notes and quality tracking
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Film Development Assistant provides advanced features for every at-home photographic film developer! Reduce your risk of development issues by keeping track of your chemical batches and development sessions in the app. Our ever-evolving database of home development chemicals makes it easy to track the expiration dates of your mixed chemical batches based on the suggested shelf life from the manufacturer. Once you have your chemicals mixed, you can create sessions to track how many rolls/sheets of film you are developing, and the app will track the chemical usage for you so that you don't forget how much chemical capacity you have remaining! The visual progress indicators for your chemical batch freshness are a very useful tool for keeping track of your chemicals and making sure you either use them before expiration, or prevent yourself from using already expired or depleted chemicals. With each session, you can open a multi-stage timer to track the time for each stage of development. No more creating different timers by hand with the default timer app on your phone! And if you associate an existing chemical batch with each stage, the app will automatically adjust the development times of those stages based on the previous usage of your chemicals (or you can adjust the times manually). When you finish your sessions, you can take notes about how your session went so that you can learn from your home development process over time. You can keep track of the quality of the session and add your own notes to reference later.
FilmMeter
This app transforms your iPhone into a professional light meter for film photography. It offers real-time metering, LiDAR ranging for accurate focus, and comprehensive film roll management. Features include reciprocity calculation, ND filter compensation, and an exposure log to streamline your shooting workflow.
- Real-time light metering
- LiDAR ranging and depth of field
- Film roll and camera management
- Reciprocity and ND filter compensation
- Long exposure timer
- Exposure logging
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FilmMeter turns your iPhone into a professional light meter for film cameras. Real-time metering, LiDAR ranging, reciprocity calculation, and exposure logging — one app covers your entire shooting workflow from loading film to the final frame. Metering Measure exposure in real-time using your iPhone camera. Spot metering reads any point precisely, while average metering balances the whole scene. Full control over aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. iPhone 16 users can meter and adjust EV directly with the Camera Control button. Ranging & Depth of Field Get accurate focus distance with LiDAR-enabled devices. The depth of field scale shows your sharp range and hyperfocal distance, supporting 35mm (full frame) and medium format calculations. Camera Management Create profiles for your cameras and lenses. Set focal length and aperture range for each lens, then link a camera when loading film — aperture selection is automatically constrained to your lens's actual range. Manage your digital film bag the way you manage your real gear. Film Roll Management Create a roll, select your film stock, start shooting. Push/pull processing support lets you set development stops and automatically converts to effective ISO. Each metering links to your current roll automatically. The frame counter tracks remaining shots. Mark rolls as in progress, finished, or developed. ND Filters Built-in support for ND2 through ND10000. Select a filter and exposure is compensated automatically — no manual stop conversion needed. Pair with the long exposure timer to master daytime slow shutter work. Reciprocity Compensation Film loses sensitivity during long exposures. FilmMeter includes reciprocity data for popular film stocks and calculates the corrected shutter time automatically. Long Exposure Timer Long-press the metering button to start a countdown. The timer integrates with Dynamic Island — visible even when locked. Get notified when your exposure completes. No more counting seconds for star trails or light painting. Smart Exposure Suggestions Built-in scene recognition analyzes your frame. In tricky lighting like snow, backlight, or night scenes, it tells you "add one stop" instead of leaving you to figure it out. Exposure Log Every metering saves full parameters and location. Export to CSV. Review your decisions, build your film notes. More Features • ND filter auto exposure compensation • Film LUT live preview • Aspect ratio overlays (135/120 formats) • Focal length frame lines (28-200mm) • Darkroom-friendly red-on-black interface • Metric and imperial units Free to Use • No subscription, no account required • Fully offline, no ads • English and Chinese Designed for film photography. Professional enough for experienced shooters, simple enough for beginners.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: FilmMeter at every 2 days against Film Development Assistant's every 10 months. FilmMeter also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and ratings volume (65 vs 3). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Film Development Assistant sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and FilmMeter sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Film Development Assistant holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: FilmMeter has 65 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Film Development Assistant ships an update every 10 months, FilmMeter every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Film Development Assistant | FilmMeter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 4.8 (65 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 96.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 65 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 143 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Zachary Burns | 宗 侯 |
Customer experience
Film Development Assistant
FilmMeter
In-app purchases
Film Development Assistant
- 7 Day Free TrialFree
- Film Development Assistant Pro$4.99
FilmMeter
- Buy me a coffee$0.99
- Buy me lunch$2.99
- 请我吃块蛋糕$9.99
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- 赞助开发$19.99
Questions
Is Film Development Assistant free?
Is FilmMeter free?
Which has better reviews, Film Development Assistant or FilmMeter?
Do Film Development Assistant or FilmMeter have ads?
Which is updated more often, Film Development Assistant or FilmMeter?
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