Comparison

Live Vintage Camera vs Samatic

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

Head to head
About

Live Vintage Camera

Capture photos and videos with authentic vintage film looks applied live in real-time. Choose from a wide selection of era-specific films and lenses, with effects baked in at the moment of capture. Enjoy a premium experience with no subscriptions, ads, or watermarks.

Highlights
  • Live vintage film effects
  • Era-authentic films and lenses
  • Effects baked in at capture
  • Shake, sound, and dust effects
  • 4K video output
  • Full-resolution photos
  • No ads or watermarks
Features
Read full description

What you frame is what you get. Vintage Reel applies era-authentic film looks live in your viewfinder. The grain, the light leaks and the flicker are baked into your photos and videos the moment you capture them. Nothing is pasted on afterward. What you see while shooting is exactly what you keep. ONE HONEST PRICE Pay once and everything is yours: every film, every lens, every future update. No subscription, no ads, no locked content, no watermarks. Ever. 24 FILMS, 8 LENSES • Era: six decades of color, from the 1920s to the 90s • Black & White: four moods of silver and shadow • Character: eight bold looks, from golden glow to cross-processed • Broken Film: six beautifully damaged stocks. Expired, leaked, scratched • 8 lenses that bend, blur and flare like real vintage glass SHOOT LIKE IT'S REAL FILM • The look happens live at capture. Preview and recording share one pipeline • Press and hold to set shake, sound and dust, with three levels each • A 36-exposure roll ritual with a satisfying reload. Pure atmosphere, never a real limit • Double-tap to flip, pinch to zoom, long-press to lock focus and exposure SERIOUS OUTPUT • Video up to 4K with the look baked in • Full-resolution photos • Auto-save to your Photos library • No recording time limits BUILT NOT TO LOSE YOUR FOOTAGE A phone call, a full disk, a jump to another app. Whatever interrupts your recording, everything captured so far is saved. Always. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts, no analytics, no data collection. Your camera roll stays yours. Vintage Reel only ever asks permission to add photos, never to read your library.

About

Samatic

Read full description

A slide projector, for the photographs already on your phone. Samatic is two halves of one machine. Your iPhone is the clicker — the corded remote, with the switch, the counter, the focus and the tray of slides. Your Apple TV is the projector and the screen. Load an album. Slide the switch across to LAMP. Press FOR, and the first picture comes up on the television. HOW IT WORKS 1. Open Samatic on the Apple TV and leave it showing. 2. The phone finds the television by itself. The cord at the bottom of the clicker shows when the two are joined. 3. Tap the label slot near the top of the machine and choose an album. That album is your tray of slides. 4. Push the switch across to LAMP — push it with your thumb, it doesn't answer a tap. 5. FOR for the next picture. REV to go back one. 6. Hold FOCUS to send the picture soft, and the other end to bring it sharp, the way a real lens does. 7. Press AUTO and the pictures change by themselves. The timer decides how long each one stays up. 8. Switch back to OFF when the show is over. THE MACHINE The lamp takes a moment to come up to temperature. The fan runs while it's warm. The tray clunks as it turns. You can switch the sound and the vibration off if you'd rather it ran quietly. There's a service record inside the leaflet, counting the shows you've given, the slides you've projected and the hours on the lamp. Nothing here can be broken and no photograph can be lost, so press whatever you like and see what it does. YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS STAY YOURS There is no account. There is no sign-in. There is no Samatic server, because there is no Samatic company — just one person who wanted this to exist. Your photographs go from your phone to your own television, directly, over your own Wi-Fi. They are never uploaded anywhere. Nothing is collected, nothing is tracked, nothing is sold, and there is no analytics, no advertising and no crash reporting of any kind. FREE, AND ALL OF IT No subscription. No in-app purchases. WHAT YOU NEED An iPhone and an Apple TV on the same Wi-Fi network. Samatic is an original design, made in homage to the rotary-tray slide projectors of the 1960s and 70s. It is not made by, endorsed by, or associated with Eastman Kodak Company, and no manufacturer's trademark or letterform is reproduced.

Screenshots

Live Vintage Camera4 screens
Samatic4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Samatic at Free against Live Vintage Camera's $0.99. Live Vintage Camera's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Samatic is free to download; Live Vintage Camera costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Live Vintage Camera ships an update every 6 days, Samatic every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 6 level
Live Vintage Camera versus Samatic: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLive Vintage CameraSamatic
Price$0.99Free — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Update frequencyEvery 6 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, Apple TV — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAhmet Burak OzyurtMAXWELL PHOENIX COMMER

In-app purchases

None

Live Vintage Camera

No in-app purchases

None

Samatic

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Live Vintage Camera free?
Live Vintage Camera costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Samatic free?
Samatic is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Live Vintage Camera or Samatic have ads?
Neither Live Vintage Camera nor Samatic shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Live Vintage Camera or Samatic?
Live Vintage Camera ships an update every 6 days, and Samatic every 3 days. Most recently, Live Vintage Camera was updated on October 16, 2026 and Samatic on October 3, 2026.

Other comparisons