Cameo Waves vs Knurl Camera
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cameo Waves
This app offers advanced manual camera controls and on-device AI editing for photographers and filmmakers. It provides professional tools for capturing and enhancing images and videos without uploading your data.
- True RAW+ capture
- Live histogram and focus peaking
- On-device semantic masking
- Portrait relighting tools
- LOG color profile for video
- Computational photography modes
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Cameo Waves is the precision camera for people who care how light feels. Shoot with real manual control — shutter, ISO, exposure, focus, and white balance — then finish with on-device AI that never uploads your images. Clean, calm chrome. Pro tools when you want them. Nothing in the way when you don’t. LIGHT COACH • Live, on-device tips when highlights clip or the frame is too dark • One-tap apply of suggested exposure • On iOS 26+, refined by Apple Intelligence — free, private, on-device • Built for learning light — not another filter pack SYSTEM CITIZEN • Hardware Camera Control and capture button support • Siri & Shortcuts — take photo, toggle video, open camera • VoiceOver-friendly controls across the viewfinder CAPTURE LIKE A PRO • True RAW+ with DNG when your device supports it • Live histogram, zebra stripes, focus peaking, and electronic level • Tap to focus · hold to lock AE/AF • Burst, bracketing, and real time-lapse video • Pinch zoom, aspect guides, and film looks INTELLIGENT EDITING — ON DEVICE • Semantic masking: Sky Pop and selective color without affecting the rest of the frame • Portrait relighting: studio-style Contour, Stage Light, Soft, Rim, and Golden Hour • Super-resolution to recover detail in crops • Object cleanup, noise reduction, and one-tap Magic Enhance • Film simulations from Portra to Cinematic CINEMA-READY VIDEO • Dual front + back recording on supported iPhones • Teleprompter and a soft screen ring light for talking-head takes • In-app studio — trim, film looks, social reframes, captions, cover frames, anamorphic de-squeeze, slow-mo, and export • LOG color profile for grading in DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro • ProRes 422 on supported iPhones • 4K capture and live audio monitoring so you never clip CAMEO AI STUDIO • Prompt-to-still and motion clips, on-device • Image Playground on supported iPhones; a cinematic local look as fallback • Hand off into the photo editor or video studio CREATIVE COMPUTATIONAL MODES • Silky Water & light trails — multi-frame stacks that simulate an ND filter • Star Trails for night-sky motion • Macro Assist for close-up lens and focus WORKFLOW THAT TRAVELS • Import professional .cube LUTs • Save exposure + film looks as shareable Cameo Presets and recipe cards • Scan a recipe QR or open a .cameo file to apply a look • Pro EXIF viewer — lens, aperture, shutter, ISO — plus copyright and location edits CAMEO WAVES PRO Unlock full manual controls, RAW, advanced AI, LOG/ProRes, computational modes, LUTs, presets, clean exports, and no watermark. Built for photographers and filmmakers who want control without complexity. All AI runs on-device. Your work stays yours. Privacy Policy: [https://textwaves.org/privacy-policy/](https://textwaves.org/privacy-policy/) Terms of Use (EULA): (https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/)
Knurl Camera
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Knurl is a camera for people who would rather develop the photo themselves. It captures true Bayer RAW: the sensor's own mosaic, written straight to a DNG with none of the computational photography that normally happens on the way. No multi-frame fusion, no tone curve, no sharpening. What lands in your library is undeveloped data with all of its latitude intact, ready for Lightroom or Photos to interpret however you like. THE CONTROLS ARE THE POINT A mode wheel you turn, with the real designations: P for program, Tv for shutter priority, Sv for ISO priority, M for full manual. Every position clicks. ISO and shutter move in thirds of a stop along the standard photographic ladders, on a dial that detents at every rung. Whole stops click harder than thirds, so you can count them by feel without looking. The ends of each ladder are the sensor's genuine limits rather than round numbers, which means base ISO, the cleanest the sensor gets, is actually reachable. Exposure compensation on its own scale, in thirds, with a firmer detent at zero. In manual it becomes the meter, because compensation has nothing left to act on when both controls are already fixed. An AF/MF switch and a focus ring you turn like a ring: relative, so touching it never jumps focus, and marked near to far rather than in invented distances. Three lenses, each at its native focal length, read from the hardware. HONEST ABOUT ITSELF Bayer RAW is 12 MP and does not permit zoom. The 48 MP path would mean Apple ProRAW, which is demosaiced and partially processed, so Knurl does not offer it. When the exposure you have asked for is not achievable, it says so rather than pretending. Your shots go to a Knurl album you can browse in the app, pinch to zoom, and swipe through. Volume buttons fire the shutter. Add the Control to your Action Button, Lock Screen or Control Center to open it without unlocking.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Knurl Camera at none against Cameo Waves's 2. On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Cameo Waves sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Knurl Camera asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Cameo Waves | Knurl Camera |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | TextWaves Inc | Dimitrios Zarkadas |
In-app purchases
Cameo Waves
- Cameo Waves1 Month trial$9.991 Month
- Cameo Waves$39.99
Knurl Camera
No in-app purchases









