Comparison

Cam vs EMST Camera

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

Head to head
About

Cam

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Cam Era turns your iPhone into the digital camera you grew up with. no ugly skin sharpening. no janky HDR. no computational photography. skip the over-processing. your photos come out looking like they were taken on a camera, not a phone. choose between 4K, HD, and SD resolution. add bloom, chromatic aberration, film grain, and lens vignette for the full analog look. burn the date into your photos like a real camera date-back. choose your font, color, format, and style. skeuomorphic design with physical shutter button, zoom rocker, flash toggle. tap to focus. add stickers because why not. no two cameras look the same.

About

EMST Camera

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EMST Camera is a film-inspired camera app you operate like a camera. Not a filter you drop on afterwards. Pick a look, set your exposure, aperture and focal length, and shoot. Live preview of the settings directly in viewfinder. YOUR CONTROL • A dial-based shooting interface: one scroll wheel drives exposure, aperture, focal length and aspect ratio. • Aperture dial with depth-of-field rendering. • Focal length presets pinned to your iPhone's real lenses. • Mirrorless-style autofocus: a persistent AF box, tap to move it, AF lock to recompose. • Grid and level overlays when you want them, nothing when you don't. YOUR LOOK • Built-in film-inspired looks, from warm evening color to cool dusk tones and true monochrome + Natural for a clean, untouched capture. • Every look is tunable: grain, halation, vignette, clarity and color temperature. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no ads, everything happens on your device. Open the camera straight from control center or lock screen with shortcut extension. EMST Camera iOS app from Emaki Studio, a small independent photo toolkit.

Screenshots

Cam4 screens
EMST Camera3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: EMST Camera at Free against Cam's $2.99. Cam's advantage is iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

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

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

EMST Camera is free to download; Cam costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cam ships an update every 11 days, EMST Camera every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
Cam versus EMST Camera: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCamEMST Camera
Price$2.99Free — better
Update frequencyEvery 11 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size171 MB64 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMax RetikTomas Ourednik

In-app purchases

None

Cam

No in-app purchases

None

EMST Camera

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Cam free?
Cam costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is EMST Camera free?
EMST Camera is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Cam or EMST Camera have ads?
Neither Cam nor EMST Camera shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cam or EMST Camera?
Cam ships an update every 11 days, and EMST Camera every 2 weeks. Most recently, Cam was updated on October 8, 2026 and EMST Camera on October 18, 2026.

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