Halide Mark III vs MyStudio Photo Assistant
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Halide Mark III
This app offers advanced manual camera controls and unique image processing for natural, film-like photos. It provides tools for precise focus, composition, and editing, allowing users to capture and refine professional-quality images directly on their iPhone.
- Manual exposure controls
- Focus Peaking and Loupe
- Customizable framing guides
- Dedicated Macro Mode
- Photographic Looks
- RAW file support
- Photo Lab editing
Read full descriptionHide full description
Halide unleashes your iPhone’s camera. Disable iPhone processing for natural photos, apply powerful film situations, access manual controls, and more. Halide has over 24,000 5-star ratings and is an App Store Editors’ Choice and Apple Design Award winner. Halide’s Looks are built into the camera itself, changing how your photo is captured and processed - not just a color filter applied after the fact. These are the best photos you can get out of an iPhone. Start with Process Zero for natural, film-like results, without any AI or computational photography. Explore our rich set of creative Looks developed with Hollywood colorist Cullen Kelly, and powered by sophisticated film simulation. For nine years, Halide has set the standard for professional iPhone camera control. Nail your manual focus with Focus Peaking and the Focus Loupe. Compose your shots with intention using sophisticated framing guides, from a basic grid and rule of thirds, to the golden ratio and rabatment of the rectangle. Get perfect macro shots with Halide's dedicated Macro Mode. Hate editing? Halide gives you amazing results straight out of the camera. But when you need to fine-tune, Photo Lab makes it fast and intuitive. Try dramatically different Looks, adjust framing and exposure, experiment with film simulation, or rescue details in highlights and shadows with Tone Fusion. You can even import and load RAWs from other apps, such as Apple’s own camera app, or standalone cameras by Canon, Nikon, Sony, Leica, Fujifilm, and Hasselblad. Specific formats are listed below. *Halide is a paid app. Try it free for 7 days with an annual membership, or buy it outright with a one-time purchase — no subscription required.* Features: - Shoot without Apple’s computational photography for stronger contrast and more natural results. - Photographic Looks developed in collaboration with esteemed Hollywood colorist Cullen Kelly. - Rescue details in shadows and highlights with a Tone Fusion slider inspired by darkroom dodging and burning. - Try any Look on existing ProRAW files - including photos shot in Apple’s camera app. - Become a better photographer by signing up for our 10-day tutorial directly from the app. - Full manual exposure controls including shutter speed, ISO and white balance. - Technical Readout to view all details of your iPhone camera hardware. - Also runs on iPad, for an amazing Photo Lab experience. RAW File Support: - DNG (iPhone, Leica) - CR2 (Canon) - CR3 (Canon) - NEF (Nikon) - RAF (Fujifilm) - ARW (Sony) - FFF (Hasselblad) Terms of Use can be found here: https://halide.cam/terms Privacy: https://www.lux.camera/privacy/
MyStudio Photo Assistant
This app simplifies product photography for users of specific portable lightboxes. It provides recommended exposure settings for both smartphone and DSLR cameras, allowing for easy adjustments and saving photos directly to your device.
- Recommended exposure settings
- Smartphone and DSLR support
- Manual mode adjustments for DSLR
- Live camera view adjustments for smartphones
- Save photos to camera roll
- Works with MyStudio lightboxes
Read full descriptionHide full description
Product photography finally made simple! Designed especially for use with MyStudio® Table Top Photography portable lightboxes and photo studio kits, the MyStudio Photo Assistant helps users get the perfect exposure for their product photos based on their own individual setup and MyStudio® equipment. No prior photography experience is needed! Whether using the camera on a Smartphone, or a DSLR-type camera that allows shooting in Manual Mode, users will get detailed recommended exposure settings based on the specific MyStudio® light box kit and lighting equipment that they are using. DSLR users can also change one or more of the recommended exposure settings to see how the other settings change to keep the same exposure. Smartphone users can fine tune their Exposure, Zoom, White Balance and Tint settings right from the live camera view! Photos can then be saved to the smartphone’s camera roll and further edited with the their phone’s native photo editor or other third party editing apps. Privacy Policy URL: https://tabletopphotography.com/privacy-policy/ Terms And Conditions URL: https://tabletopphotography.com/terms-and-conditions/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: MyStudio Photo Assistant at 100% against Halide Mark III's 41%. MyStudio Photo Assistant also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). Halide Mark III's advantage is rating (4.4 vs 4.0) and update cadence (weekly vs every 4 months). On price, ads 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. Halide Mark III sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. MyStudio Photo Assistant asks for nothing beyond the download.
Halide Mark III holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Halide Mark III has 14K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 41% of Halide Mark III's written reviews are positive against 100% of MyStudio Photo Assistant's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Halide Mark III ships an update weekly, MyStudio Photo Assistant every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Halide Mark III | MyStudio Photo Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (14K ratings) — better | 4.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 41.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 14K — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #160 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 87 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lux Optics Incorporated | Sean von Tagen |
Customer experience
Halide Mark III
MyStudio Photo Assistant
Bugs and requests
Halide Mark III
Reported bugs
3 issues- Photos not saving properly
- Zoom functionality issues
- Landscape mode UI problems
Requested features
5 requests- Shutter speed adjustment
- Live depth/bokeh preview
- Custom white balance
- Time-lapse and video recording
- Ability to save settings/presets
MyStudio Photo Assistant
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Halide Mark III
- Pro Camera, Editor, and Lessons$9.991 Month
- Pro Camera, Editor, and Lessons7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- One Time Purchase$69.99
MyStudio Photo Assistant
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Halide Mark III free?
Is MyStudio Photo Assistant free?
Which has better reviews, Halide Mark III or MyStudio Photo Assistant?
Do Halide Mark III or MyStudio Photo Assistant have ads?
Which is updated more often, Halide Mark III or MyStudio Photo Assistant?
Other comparisons















