Comparison

Film Development Assistant vs Second View

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Chemical batch tracking
  • Expiration date monitoring
  • Session tracking
  • Multi-stage development timers
  • Chemical usage calculation
  • Session notes and quality tracking
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Second View

This tool assists photographers in planning shots by simulating their actual camera's field of view and aspect ratio. It includes a light meter, filter logging, and reciprocity correction for film stocks. Features like LiDAR distance measurement and composition guides help refine framing and exposure before taking the shot.

Highlights
  • Precise field-of-view matching
  • Real-time light meter with spot metering
  • ND, polarizer, and color filter logging
  • Reciprocity failure correction for 60 film stocks
  • LiDAR distance measurement
  • Composition and grid tools
  • Panorama simulation
Read full description

PLEASE READ FIRST Second View is not a camera app and does not take photos for you. It helps you frame, meter, and plan shots before you press the shutter on your own camera. The photos it saves are framing aids, not final images. --- Second View turns your iPhone into a precision field toolkit for analog photographers. Set your lens and format, and it crops the iPhone camera to match what your film camera will capture: same field of view, aspect ratio, and framing. Supports 35mm, medium format (6x4.5 through 6x17), large format (4x5, 5x7, 8x10), digital sensors, and custom sizes. VIEWFINDER Precise field-of-view matching for any focal length and format. Portrait or landscape, control side of your choice, preview rotation per kit. AUTOMATIC LENS SELECTION Frames through the sharpest back camera that holds your crop (ultra-wide, wide or tele), so long lenses look crisp. Calibrate each lens with a sheet of paper. FRAMES MODE Rangefinder-style bright lines for every lens in your kit at once. WORKSPACES Design your own control panel and switch layouts with a swipe. FREEZE MODE Hold a full-resolution still to compose rise and shift, spot-meter, and measure distance without the scene moving. LIGHT METER Pick your aperture and get the shutter speed. EV compensation, hyperfocal distance, auto/manual modes, and whole/half/third stops. SPOT METERING Meter the whole frame or a spot down to 1° through the telephoto. METER CALIBRATION Calibrate against your reference meter at several light levels, per lens. BELLOWS COMPENSATION Folds close-focus light loss into the reading, set manually or by LiDAR. LENS FILTERS Log ND, polarizer, and color filters. The meter compensates and every capture records them. RECIPROCITY CORRECTION 60 film stocks with accurate reciprocity curves, plus your own: Portra, CineStill, Tri-X, Velvia, ECN-2 and more. Exposures over one second are corrected automatically. FILM PREVIEW Simulate B&W film with color filters, and preview color-film white balance from the loaded stock. LONG EXPOSURE TIMER Countdown with a full-screen progress ring, on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, with an optional end alert. HARDWARE BUTTONS Map the volume buttons, Camera Control, the Action button or a Bluetooth remote to shutter, timer, freeze, lens steps and more. LIDAR DISTANCE AND PARALLAX Measure subject distance with LiDAR (iPhone 12 Pro and later) or enter it manually. Parallax between the iPhone and your lens is corrected automatically. RISE, FALL AND SHIFT Simulate view camera movements in 1mm steps, up to your kit's maximum travel. COMPOSITION TOOLS Rule of thirds, phi grid, golden triangle, square, and custom grids up to 12x12. Bubble level with roll and pitch. PANORAMA SIMULATION Preview a stitched multi-frame panorama and save it as a plan. SHOT CHECKLIST Run a per-kit checklist in the viewfinder. One step can fire the shutter automatically. CAMERA KITS Save complete setups and switch instantly: lenses, format, stocks, workspace, parallax, and checklist. Pick a body and the format picker shows only the masks it can shoot. FILM ROLL TRACKING Know which roll is loaded and when every frame was exposed. CAPTURE AND GALLERY Save a reference photo with the exact framing and full metadata: lens, format, stock, filters, exposure, rise/shift, GPS, and time. Export with a data overlay, add notes, group into rolls, and export a CSV log. --- Terms of Use : https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy policy : https://secondview.app/privacy

Screenshots

Film Development Assistant3 screens
Second View4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Film Development Assistant at 5.0 against Second View's 4.0. Film Development Assistant also leads on ads (none vs shown). Second View's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 10 months). On price, ratings volume, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Both are free to download. Film Development Assistant sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Second View sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Film Development Assistant holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 5 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Film Development Assistant ships an update every 10 months, Second View weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Film Development Assistant versus Second View: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFilm Development AssistantSecond View
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better4.0 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews—55.6% of reviews
Number of ratings35 — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB45 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperZachary BurnsBenoit Linard

Customer experience

Film Development Assistant

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Second View

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive55.6%
Neutral11.1%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Film Development Assistant

One-time2
  • 7 Day Free TrialFree
  • Film Development Assistant Pro$4.99
2 purchases

Second View

Subscriptions2
  • Second View Basic Yearly7 Days trial$7.991 Year
  • Second View Pro Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year

Questions

Is Film Development Assistant free?
Film Development Assistant is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Second View free?
Second View is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Film Development Assistant or Second View?
Film Development Assistant is rated higher. Film Development Assistant averages 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Second View averages 4.0 from 5 ratings.
Do Film Development Assistant or Second View have ads?
Second View shows ads; Film Development Assistant does not.
Which is updated more often, Film Development Assistant or Second View?
Film Development Assistant ships an update every 10 months, and Second View weekly. Most recently, Film Development Assistant was updated on October 12, 2026 and Second View on October 24, 2026.

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