Comparison

Seamera vs Ancient Light

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

Head to head
About

Seamera

Features
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Your dive is worth remembering in color. Blue or green underwater photos? Bring them into Seamera, adjust the color, and save the moments you want to keep. Edit your dive videos, too. One purchase includes photo, video, and batch editing. No subscription. No extra in-app purchases. FROM YOUR CAMERA ROLL TO YOUR NEXT SHARE • Photo correction — import a photo and start with automatic color correction. Compare before and after, then adjust the result to your taste. • Video correction — bring in a dive video, preview the color correction, and export the corrected video. • Batch photos — work through up to 50 photos together, review the results, and save them without editing every shot from scratch. • Fine-tuning — adjust correction strength and available color controls when you want a different look. • Before and after — compare the original with the corrected result before saving. BUILT FOR YOUR UNDERWATER MEMORIES For divers, freedivers, and snorkelers who want to improve the color of photos and videos they have already taken. Use your own files and see how the correction works for each scene. Photo and video correction runs on your device. Your media does not need to be uploaded for correction. Results depend on the source image, lighting, and water conditions. Color correction cannot recover detail or colors that were not captured. Already using Seamera? Existing users, including previous free users and Pro purchasers, get full access after updating without another purchase. Seamera does not make your device waterproof. Use suitable protective equipment when shooting underwater.

About

Ancient Light

This app transforms your iPhone into a 19th-century camera, simulating twelve authentic historic photographic processes. Apply these unique effects to new photos or import existing ones from your library.

Highlights
  • Simulates 12 historic photographic processes
  • Apply effects to new or imported photos
  • Supports ultrawide, wide, 2x, and telephoto lenses
  • Save multiple historic versions of a photo
  • ProRAW DNG output on iPhone Pro
  • Customizable effects for Daguerreotype and Tintype
Features
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Ancient Light transforms your iPhone into a camera of the nineteenth century. Take a new photograph or import a favourite from your photo library. Twelve authentic historic photographic processes - each faithfully simulated through the physics of tone, silver chemistry, grain, paper, emulsion, and light. Not filters. Processes. -- THE TWELVE PROCESSES -- Daguerreotype (1839) - The first successful photograph. A mirror-like silver surface with luminous shadow detail and seven scanned frame choices, plus No Frame. Tintype (1853) - The photograph of the working class. Robust, immediate, metallic, with regular or square format options and optional worn plate borders. Albumen (1850s) - Warm egg-white paper prints mounted as cabinet cards, with soft sepia-brown toning, aged cream stock, rounded corners, and a ruled inner border. Sepia - The warm brown tone of silver sulphide that preserved Victorian portraits through a century and a half. Cyanotype (1842) - Sir John Herschel's iron-based process. Deep Prussian blue. The print that gave photography the word "blueprint." Anthotype (1839) - Made from crushed plant pigments. Delicate, fugitive, botanical. The most poetic photographic process ever devised. Platinum (1873) - The process of fine art portraiture. Cool, shadow-rich, with a tonal range silver could never match. Autochrome (1907) - The Lumiere brothers' starch-grain colour process. Dreamy, pointillist, the first practical colour photography. Emulsion - A damaged instant-emulsion look with faded color, warm highlights, scorched edges, amber leaks, scratches, and oxidized surface wear. Bromoil (1907) - Oil-based ink on bleached gelatin. Painterly and stippled, with inky shadows and pale milky highlights. Lippmann (1891) - Gabriel Lippmann's Nobel Prize-winning interferential process. Warm amber ageing, long-exposure softness, and glass plate scratches from a century of handling. Infrared (1930s) - Light beyond the visible spectrum. Luminous white foliage, darkened skies, ethereal skin tones. The spectral world captured on heat-sensitive emulsion. -- WHAT ANCIENT LIGHT CAN DO -- * Import your own photos - apply historic processes to images from your photo library, even with camera access disabled * All four optical lenses - ultrawide (0.5x), wide (1x), 2x, and telephoto (5x) - selectable from the viewfinder * One photo, many processes - explore and save multiple historic versions of a captured or imported photo * On iPhone Pro: saves both a filtered JPEG and the original 48MP ProRAW DNG as a paired asset * Emulsion process with faded instant-film color, warmer highlights, lighter grain, and scanned edge damage * Albumen cabinet-card output with warm paper tone, aged stock texture, rounded card corners, and ruled border * Infrared process with glowing foliage, dark skies, and spectral black-and-white tonality * Tintype options - choose regular or square format, with period borders or no borders * Seven Daguerreotype frame styles plus No Frame, selectable directly from the viewfinder * Adjustments apply to the photograph while preserving Daguerreotype frame artwork * Full adjustment suite - exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, black point, saturation, vibrance, warmth, sharpness, and vignette * Auto enhancement with one tap * Precision crop tool with inset handles and rule-of-thirds grid * Landscape side-panel layout keeps the image large while all controls stay accessible * Photographer credit field - your name travels with every saved file in the IPTC metadata * Process, frame, and Tintype options stored between sessions * iPhone and iPad, all orientations * No subscription. No ads. No account required. Ancient Light is a single purchase. Everything in it is yours.

Screenshots

Seamera4 screens
Ancient Light4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Ancient Light at $0.99 against Seamera's $7.99. On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases 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

Seamera costs $7.99 and Ancient Light $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Seamera ships an update every 8 days, Ancient Light weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Seamera versus Ancient Light: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSeameraAncient Light
Price$7.99$0.99 — better
Rating—2.5 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCHANG HWAN JUNGGreg Anderson

In-app purchases

None

Seamera

No in-app purchases

None

Ancient Light

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Seamera free?
Seamera costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ancient Light free?
Ancient Light costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Seamera or Ancient Light have ads?
Neither Seamera nor Ancient Light shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Seamera or Ancient Light?
Seamera ships an update every 8 days, and Ancient Light weekly. Most recently, Seamera was updated on October 24, 2026 and Ancient Light on October 28, 2026.

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