Comparison

Lumen vs AutoFocus

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

Head to head
About

Lumen

Features
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Lumen is an on-device AI camera for still photos. It reads the scene live and tunes focus, exposure and tone for you, then finishes each photo with a hand-crafted, film-inspired color look. Still photography only: Lumen does not record video. TWO MODES • AI · 12MP: scene-aware processing plus your chosen film look. The preview is WYSIWYG, so what you see is what you get. • MAX (Pro): the largest photo size iOS offers for your lens (24MP on iPhone 17 Pro) with the phone's native processing. Lumen's AI finishing and film looks are not applied in MAX. AI CAPTURE: QUALITY OR SPEED In the ··· menu you choose how AI mode balances processing and waiting time. Quality is the default; Speed asks iOS to trade a little processing for a shorter wait after the shutter. FILM LOOKS 14 looks (including Off), inspired by classic analog film: from neutral and soft to warm golden tones, high-contrast black & white, silvery monochrome and sepia, plus punchy street looks like Hard Light and Midnight Glow. Off, Standard and Classic are free; the other looks come with Lumen Pro. Swipe the strip to compare. STYLE CONTROLS (Pro) Fine-tune any look with strength, tone, color, warmth and grain, and add a Texture layer: Soft Skin, Glow or Film. Start from 10 built-in style presets or save your own. Quick Adjust gives you three sliders on the camera screen; the Pro Editor has the full panel. MACRO, BUILT IN (Pro) Macro switches to the ultra-wide lens itself instead of digitally cropping the main camera. Focus Peaking colors the sharpest edges as you shoot, so you always know what's in focus once depth of field gets razor-thin. Turn on Focus Stacking and Lumen shoots a few frames at different focus distances and merges them into one photo, sharp from front to back, entirely on your iPhone. Best with a steady hand or a small tripod. FOCUS TRIGGER (free) Tap a small detail, hold the shutter and rock the phone gently. Lumen watches that exact spot and fires the moment it's sharp. LUMEN BUDDY (Pro) A small mascot watches the live view and gives short, friendly tips on sharpness, keeping the horizon level and framing. When it recognizes your subject it may suggest a film look. Buddy only advises; it never touches the shutter or your settings. PORTRAIT (Pro, LiDAR devices) Background blur built on your iPhone's LiDAR depth data. Choose an f-stop from f/1.4 to f/8 and Lumen scales both the blur and the depth-of-field zone. Requires iPhone 12 Pro or later Pro models. LOW-LIGHT (Pro) Not Apple's Night mode: Lumen allows exposures of up to half a second so the sensor can use a lower ISO, then adds noise reduction and gentle shadow recovery. Hold steady after the shutter click. PRO MANUAL AND RAW (Pro) Control shutter speed, ISO, white balance and focus by hand, and shoot a DNG alongside the JPEG for editing in Lightroom, Darkroom or any RAW editor. BUILT FOR SPEED AND CONTROL • A calm camera screen: shutter and zoom up front, the look strip folds away by itself. Swipe up on the look label for Quick Adjust. • Tap to focus and meter anywhere, with an exposure slider next to the focus box. • Zoom presets that follow your iPhone's lenses, plus pinch. • Camera Control on iPhone 16 and 17: click to shoot, swipe to zoom. • Responsive Capture where your iPhone supports it, so you can keep shooting while the previous photo finishes processing. • Full EXIF preserved; photos are saved to your Photos library in a dedicated album. FREE AND LUMEN PRO Free: AI mode, the Off, Standard and Classic looks, tap-to-focus, zoom, flash and Focus Trigger. Lumen Pro is a one-time purchase, no subscription, and unlocks all film looks, style controls, MAX, Pro manual with RAW, Portrait, Low-Light, Macro with focus stacking, Focus Peaking and Buddy. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything runs on your device. No accounts, no servers, no analytics, no tracking. Your photos never leave your phone unless you share them.

About

AutoFocus

Features
Read full description

AutoFocus turns anyone holding your phone into an excellent photographer. It detects the person in the frame, adjusts lighting and exposure automatically, and tells the shooter exactly what to do until the composition is right and the shutter fires on its own. AutoFocus is for couples who can never take good photos of each other, and for the stranger who gets asked to take the group shot and delivers something unusable. INCLUDED FREE Live subject tracking Face-metered exposure Three capture formats, including 9:16 for stories PRO AF - REQUIRES A PAID SUBSCRIPTION The features below are not part of the free app. They unlock only with a Pro AF subscription, bought inside the app: Six professional-grade filters Custom photo styles Guided pose packs, updated monthly Auto-zoom Video coaching No watermark Pro AF costs $4.99 per month, or $19.99 per year starting with a 7-day free trial. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase. A free trial becomes a paid subscription unless you cancel at least 24 hours before it ends. Subscriptions renew automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends, and your account is charged for the renewal within 24 hours of that. Manage the subscription and turn off auto-renewal in your Apple Account settings. PRIVACY Photos are processed on your phone and never uploaded. When you share a shot, what gets shared is the shot "recipe" behind it, the framing and exposure numbers, not the picture itself. Anonymous usage stats is off by default unless you switch it on in Settings. ABOUT Built by a solo developer in the UK. Privacy Policy: https://autofocus.cam/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Lumen4 screens
AutoFocus3 screens

Verdict

The call

Lumen and AutoFocus are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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

Both are free to download. Lumen sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and AutoFocus sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Lumen versus AutoFocus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLumenAutoFocus
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better17.2
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMario SteenbergenSamuel Chen

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Lumen

One-time1
  • Lumen Pro$6.99
3 purchases

AutoFocus

Subscriptions2
  • AF PRO Monthly$4.991 Month
  • AF PRO Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro AF Founding Bonus$25.00

Questions

Is Lumen free?
Lumen is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is AutoFocus free?
AutoFocus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Lumen or AutoFocus have ads?
Neither Lumen nor AutoFocus shows ads.

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