Smolcam vs Camera Lens
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Smolcam
This app offers a customizable retro camera experience with a variety of color palettes and dithering options. It provides a simple, distraction-free interface for capturing and saving photos instantly to your library.
- Customizable retro aesthetic
- Multiple color palettes (3-bit to 24-bit)
- Bayer ordered dithering option
- Zoom support for all device cameras
- Instant save to photo library
- Distraction-free interface
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Smolcam transforms your iPhone into a small, lightweight camera with a customizable retro aesthetic. Features: - Completely free: no ads or in-app purchases - Choose from 8 colors (3-bit) to 16 million (24-bit) color palettes - Enable Bayer ordered dithering, or blue noise dithering for increased detail at low bit depths - Supports zooming through all the cameras your phone has - Instant save to photo library - Simple distraction-free interface that runs smoothly on any device and won't kill your battery
Camera Lens
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Camera Lens is a familiar Photo and Video camera designed to keep partly broken iPhones useful. Disable individual physical camera lenses that shake, fail to focus, or no longer work. Camera Lens remembers disabled lenses and never adds them to its capture session. When enabled, unavailable zoom-level replacements can use digital zoom on a working lens to preserve familiar zoom choices. Features: • Photo and Video capture with familiar camera controls • Hard exclusion of disabled wide, ultra-wide, telephoto, and front cameras • Optional synthetic replacements for unavailable zoom levels • Per-lens continuous, single, locked, or manual focus controls • Per-lens focus range and remembered manual focus position • Per-lens video stabilization choices based on device support • HEIF/JPEG photos and HEVC/H.264 video formats • Capability-aware resolution, frame rate, HDR, flash, torch, timer, grid, level, exposure, and aspect-ratio controls • Recent photo, Live Photo, and video browsing with sharing • Camera Lens control for the Lock Screen on supported iPhones Privacy: Camera Lens has no account, ads, analytics, or third-party SDKs. It does not upload your photos, videos, settings, or personal information. Photos access is used only for saving captures and browsing your own library. Optional location access adds metadata to captures. Camera Lens does not repair damaged hardware. Results depend on which physical cameras remain usable on your iPhone.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Smolcam at 16.0 against Camera Lens's 18.0. On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Smolcam | Camera Lens |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jasper Morgal | Luke Rehmann |
In-app purchases
Smolcam
No in-app purchases
Camera Lens
No in-app purchases









