Comparison

Acetate vs DropCam Capsule Camera

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” 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, Noirโ€ฆ) and art-directed looks (Teal & Orange, Bleach Bypass, '90s Cinema, Golden Hourโ€ฆ). Press and hold to preview live. OPEN LUT Tap any filter and the editor sliders move to reflect the look โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” 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

DropCam Capsule Camera

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DropCam is an art camera built around a tactile pull gesture, live viewfinder, and instant-print animation. The top capsule becomes your shooting entry: pull down to reveal the lens, tap the shutter, and your framed photo slides from the top slot before settling into a gallery grid. Key features: - Pull down from the top capsule to reveal a live camera viewfinder - A viewfinder that blends cleanly into the top edge - Retro instant-photo frames with a tactile print animation - Artistic film, darkroom, and gallery-inspired filters - Long-press the shutter to record short videos - Save to the system photo library or share prints and videos directly - Studio Pass unlocks more art filters, paper themes, clean exports, and a fuller creative workflow with a one-time purchase DropCam does not require an account and does not connect to external servers. Camera, photo library, and sharing permissions are used only when you capture, save, or share your own work. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://sspro.52xn.com/privacy/

Screenshots

Acetate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Acetate at none against DropCam Capsule Camera's 1. Acetate also leads on iOS requirement (17.2 vs 26.0). On price there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. DropCam Capsule Camera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Acetate asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Acetate versus DropCam Capsule Camera: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAcetateDropCam Capsule Camera
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 daysโ€”
AdsNoโ€”
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone โ€” betterโ€”
Requires iOS17.2 โ€” better26.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size246 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBMB ENTERPRISES LTDlecoo

In-app purchases

None

Acetate

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

DropCam Capsule Camera

One-time1
  • DropCam Studio Pass$0.99

Questions

Is Acetate free?
Acetate is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is DropCam Capsule Camera free?
DropCam Capsule Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

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