Comparison

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.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Manual exposure controls
  • Focus Peaking and Loupe
  • Customizable framing guides
  • Dedicated Macro Mode
  • Photographic Looks
  • RAW file support
  • Photo Lab editing
Features
Read 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/

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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 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

Halide Mark III4 screens
MyStudio Photo Assistant4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Halide Mark III versus MyStudio Photo Assistant: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHalide Mark IIIMyStudio Photo Assistant
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (14K ratings) — better4.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews41.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings14K — better4
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#160 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size87 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLux Optics IncorporatedSean von Tagen

Customer experience

Halide Mark III

All ratings13,678 ratings
Positive86.4%
Neutral2.5%
Negative11.1%
Written reviews914 reviews
Positive41.1%
Neutral8.1%
Negative50.8%

MyStudio Photo Assistant

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

3 purchases

Halide Mark III

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Camera, Editor, and Lessons$9.991 Month
  • Pro Camera, Editor, and Lessons7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • One Time Purchase$69.99
None

MyStudio Photo Assistant

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Halide Mark III free?
Halide Mark III is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MyStudio Photo Assistant free?
MyStudio Photo Assistant is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Halide Mark III or MyStudio Photo Assistant?
Halide Mark III is rated higher. Halide Mark III averages 4.4 out of 5 from 14K ratings, while MyStudio Photo Assistant averages 4.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Halide Mark III or MyStudio Photo Assistant have ads?
Neither Halide Mark III nor MyStudio Photo Assistant shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Halide Mark III or MyStudio Photo Assistant?
Halide Mark III ships an update weekly, and MyStudio Photo Assistant every 4 months. Most recently, Halide Mark III was updated on November 6, 2026 and MyStudio Photo Assistant on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons