Circa 1948 vs Graflex Light Meter
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Circa 1948
Explore a historically inspired, film noir-style city from the late 1940s. This immersive art app uses photorealistic 3D illustrations and audio to recreate two distinct Vancouver neighborhoods, offering a glimpse into urban planning and social divisions of the era.
- Extensive historical detail
- Period music and audio
- Film noir influenced conversations
- Historically accurate environments
- Real-time 3D engine
- Touch and gyroscope navigation
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“This trip to the past is a glimpse at the future” - TIME. Enter the shadows of a post-war North American city through this film noir inspired, historically based immersive art app. Requires iPhone 4S/iPad 2 and above. The first Real-time 3D art app to tell a story inspired by real events. An immersive experience created by internationally renowned artist Stan Douglas and the award-winning NFB Digital Studio. Through photorealistic 3D illustrations rendered from Douglas’ extensive historical research, Circa 1948 takes users to the late 1940s, Vancouver, BC, a young city in the midst of urban planning, but divided along lines of race and income. Eavesdrop on long lost conversations in two carefully recreated locations: an Old Hotel in Vancouver’s affluent west side, then squatted by homeless war veterans, or the muddy streets of ethnically diverse Hogan’s Alley in the working class east side, populated by racial minorities, gamblers, prostitutes and corrupt police officers. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Features - Extensive historical detail - Period music and audio - 44 film noir influenced conversations - Historically accurate props, architecture and landscapes - Open-source real-time 3D engine - Touch and gyroscope-driven navigation modes Supported Devices - iPhone 4S, 5, 5C and 5S - iPad 2, 3rd and 4th generation iPad, iPad Air, iPad Mini and 2nd generation iPad Mini.
Graflex Light Meter
This app provides precise curtain aperture and shutter tension settings for Graflex cameras with built-in curtain shutters. It eliminates the need to consult physical charts, offering instant, accurate readings for your photography.
- Curtain aperture settings
- Shutter tension settings
- Instant light readings
- Designed for Graflex cameras
- Eliminates physical chart use
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This light meter is designed specifically for Graflex cameras with built-in curtain shutters. It instantly gives you the correct curtain aperture and shutter tension settings based on your light readings. No more squinting at the dim bronze chart on your Graflex—just take the values directly from the app and start shooting.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Graflex Light Meter at 4.5 against Circa 1948's 3.4. Graflex Light Meter also leads on monetization model (free vs paid) and update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). Circa 1948's advantage is ratings volume (22 vs 2) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.6). 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.
Graflex Light Meter holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Circa 1948 has 22 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Circa 1948 ships an update fortnightly, Graflex Light Meter every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Circa 1948 | Graflex Light Meter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (22 ratings) | 4.5 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 39.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 22 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.9 GB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | National Film Board of Canada – Office national du film du Canada | Ari Jaaksi |
Customer experience
Circa 1948
Graflex Light Meter
Bugs and requests
Circa 1948
Reported bugs
49 issues- Keeps crashing
- Barely works
- It would not load
- Crashed the first time I loaded it
- Stayed on the opening music and screen
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- Got endless loop instead
- Tough to run
- Can’t get the app to load reliably
- Goes into endless loop after introduction
- Hangs on story selection
- Screen turns black too often
- Occasionally crash
- Crash after selecting story lines
- Crash as you’re puttering about
- Crashes so often
- Occasionally crashes
- Crashed in the middle of the 3rd story
- New iPad crashes as soon as I select my story option
- All it does is crash
- Shut down and locked me out
- Crashes sometimes
- App crashes
- Intriguing idea but crashes
- Crashes a lot
- Doesn't work
- Runs sloppy
- Frame-rate suffers badly
- Crashing and glitching every 5 minutes
- No sound in Hogan's Alley
- No way to get instructions back or return to Home screen
- Very laggy
- App only runs inverted
- Takes long time to download
- Won't download
- Choppy, lags a lot
- Graphics are not smooth
- Won't load
- Makes me noxious
- App appears not to be built well
- Crashes every time after selecting location
- Runs kind of choppy
- Still not downloaded
- Still crashes but better
- Floating through walls
- Had to listen to the same conversations a few times
- Crash in the first 30 seconds
- Game would crash when trying to go into neighborhoods
- Can't get past the selection on the map
- Crashes (iPhone 4: IOS 7.1.1)
Requested features
7 requests- Update to fix loading and crashing bugs
- Take advantage of newer device resolutions
- More levels/floors to explore
- Add subtitles
- More content and surrounding communities
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- User options for controls and sensitivity
- PC-based site version
Graflex Light Meter
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Circa 1948
No in-app purchases
Graflex Light Meter
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Circa 1948 free?
Is Graflex Light Meter free?
Which has better reviews, Circa 1948 or Graflex Light Meter?
Do Circa 1948 or Graflex Light Meter have ads?
Which is updated more often, Circa 1948 or Graflex Light Meter?
Other comparisons
