Comparison

Acetate vs ManFocus

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

Head to head
About

Acetate

Features
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The Digital Darkroom for Purists. Acetate bridges pure RAW capture and the soul of analog film β€” now for stills and motion. Built for image-makers who understand that a frame is made, not taken. Every adjustment runs on-device: no cloud, no account, no tracking. PURE RAW CAPTURE Shoot Apple ProRAW (DNG) on every supported iPhone. Acetate bypasses standard processing and writes the sensor's uncompressed data straight to your library, preserving every stop of dynamic range for post. PRO SHOOTING MODES Full manual or assisted: Auto, Program (P), Shutter Priority (S), ISO Priority, Manual (M), Night, and Long Exposure to 30 seconds. Swap ultra-wide, wide, and telephoto with a tap, or flip to the front camera. Self-timer and burst on the hardware shutter. MOTION β€” SHOOT CINE Video with the same discipline as stills. Full manual ISO, shutter, white balance, and focus. Up to 4K, high frame rates on supported devices, 10-bit Apple Log, ProRes 422, or HEVC. Cinematic stabilisation, Cine mode with shutter-angle control, broadcast timecode, and multi-source audio with a live meter. Bake a LUT into the file, or keep it monitor-only and grade later. THE VIDEO EDITOR Open any clip β€” from your library or shared straight into Acetate. Trim with frame-accurate handles, scrub and step a frame at a time, apply any look or your own .cube LUT, push exposure and tone, hold to compare, and export at source quality. The same colour pipeline as the photo editor, frame by frame. FILM LOOKS Twenty 3D LUTs in two families: research-informed film-stock emulations (Soft 400, Warm 200, Slide 100, Mono, Noir…) and art-directed looks (Teal & Orange, Bleach Bypass, '90s Cinema, Golden Hour…). Press and hold to preview live. OPEN LUT Tap any filter and the editor sliders move to reflect the look β€” see exactly what each LUT is doing and tweak from there. A tick mark shows the filter's value; reset snaps back, long-press clears to zero. Works for built-in films, looks, and imported .cube LUTs. BAKE YOUR OWN LUTs Save any edit as a portable .cube LUT and apply it to photos and videos with one tap β€” or load it in the camera and shoot your own signature look. Import from Files, iCloud, or AirDrop, in the camera or the editor. Export to Lightroom, Premiere, or DaVinci. THE EDITOR Full-strength tools: three-way colour grading wheels with per-range luma, OkLab perceptual HSL, RGB curves, split toning, filmic highlight rolloff, dehaze, texture, edge-aware denoise, and selective masks β€” radial, linear-gradient, and one-tap Subject / Person / Background / Sky via Apple's Vision framework. ON-DEVICE INTELLIGENCE Smart tools that run on your iPhone β€” and explain themselves. Smart LUT writes a per-scene recipe, then drops it onto editable sliders so you see and adjust every move. Plus auto-enhance, auto-straighten, and one-tap Object Removal (A15 / M1 or newer). PRO TOOLS Live RGB and luminance histograms, a luma waveform, zebras, false-colour exposure, focus peaking, a manual-focus loupe, framing guides, and a haptic level indicator. Continuous Kelvin/tint white balance with lock, plus AE lock β€” in photo and video, no drift mid-shot. PRIVACY FOCUSED Your photos and videos are yours. No account, no cloud, no analytics. Location is used strictly for EXIF geotagging on what you capture, and never leaves your device. Capture, edit, AI, and export all work offline. Don't just filter. Develop.

About

ManFocus

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ManFocus transforms your iPhone into a professional light meter and exposure calculator. Whether you're shooting film or digital, take full control of your photography with precise manual settings. PROFESSIONAL LIGHT METERING β€’ Capture accurate exposure readings in real-time β€’ View EV (Exposure Value) for precise calculations β€’ Color temperature display in Kelvin for white balance reference COMPLETE EXPOSURE CONTROL β€’ Adjust aperture from f/1.0 to f/22 in 1/3 stop increments β€’ Shutter speeds from 1/8000s to 30 seconds β€’ Full ISO range with standard photography values β€’ Lock any two parameters and let the app calculate the third INTUITIVE DUAL-SCALE DISPLAY β€’ Visual aperture and shutter speed scale β€’ See equivalent exposure combinations at a glance β€’ Exposure compensation from -3 to +3 EV FILM PHOTOGRAPHY MODE β€’ Lock your film's ISO and freely adjust aperture/shutter β€’ Perfect companion for analog camera shooters β€’ No more mental math for exposure calculations DEPTH & DISTANCE MEASUREMENT β€’ Real-time distance detection using advanced sensors β€’ Helpful for manual focus confirmation PHOTOGRAPHER-FOCUSED DESIGN β€’ Dark interface optimized for shooting conditions β€’ Customizable overlays: grid, crosshair, distance indicator β€’ Haptic feedback for tactile parameter adjustments

Screenshots

Acetate4 screens
ManFocus3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Acetate at none against ManFocus's shown. On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference Β· 5 level
Acetate versus ManFocus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAcetateManFocus
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 daysβ€”
AdsNo β€” betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.2 β€” better18.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size246 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBMB ENTERPRISES LTDJiafan Shao

In-app purchases

None

Acetate

No in-app purchases

None

ManFocus

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Acetate free?
Acetate is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ManFocus free?
ManFocus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Acetate or ManFocus have ads?
ManFocus shows ads; Acetate does not.

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