Comparison

Manual vs Spectre Camera

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

Head to head
About

Manual

Take full control of your iPhone camera with custom exposure settings. Adjust shutter speed, ISO, focus, and more to capture professional-quality images in RAW DNG format. Ideal for photographers who want to move beyond automatic settings.

Highlights
  • Custom exposure controls
  • RAW DNG image format
  • Shutter speed adjustment
  • ISO control
  • Manual focus
  • Focus zoom
  • Histogram
Features
Read full description

Custom exposure for your iPhone camera. A simple intuitive interface for powerful controls, saving images in the RAW DNG format to your camera roll. Featured in the NYTimes "If you like to manually adjust camera settings, you’ll love Manual". A powerful camera app with full control over your image. Quickly and simply adjust all parameters of your image. Every control a professional needs to take a photo is within reach. No more tapping and hoping automatic can understand what you want. Take control. Full independent control of • Shutter • ISO • Focus • Exposure Compensation Cool Things® • RAW DNG and/or HEIF format • Focus Zoom • Histogram • Level • Timer • Depth Capture • Fill Flash Mode (Flashlight) • Grid Overlays (Thirds, Square) • Light & Dark Themes • EXIF Viewer If you're a photographer tired of trying to tap your way to the exposure you want, then this is the app for you. Fighting to get the sweet spot between a blown out background and a silhouetted subject? Stop tapping and just set the ISO and shutter yourself – you know how, stop letting your silly pocket computer decide what looks good to you. Be better than automatic. Shoot Manual. — Requires iOS 11 or later. RAW capture available on iPhone SE, 6s and above. HEIF capture is available iPhone 7 and above. — Made by William Wilkinson & Deepak Mantena @shootmanual http://shootmanual.co

About

Spectre Camera

This app uses AI to create stunning long exposure photographs, making it easy to capture professional-quality shots. Remove crowds, create light trails, and achieve silky smooth water effects effortlessly.

Highlights
  • AI-powered long exposures
  • Crowd removal
  • Light trail creation
  • Silky water effects
  • Live Photos and video support
  • Automatic scene detection
Read full description

Apple iPhone App of the Year, 2019 Introducing Spectre, from the makers of Halide, one of the top camera apps in the App Store. Spectre uses AI to help you make amazing long exposure photographs. Spectre can remove crowds, turn city streets into rivers of light, make waterfalls look like paintings, and much more. Until now, it was difficult to take long exposures: from keeping the camera steady to guessing the amount of light you need. Spectre takes care of all of that! WHAT YOU CAN DO • MAKE CROWDS DISAPPEAR: Spectre helps take photos of crowded, touristy places. Simply set a medium or long duration and take a shot to erase the crowd from a location. Capture the those special moments like you remember them. • RIVERS OF LIGHT: At night, AI scene detection automatically switches modes to draw beautiful light trails, for stunning nighttime city photography or light painting. • GORGEOUS WATER: Capture waterfalls, ocean waves, fountains and more with beautiful ghostly water. LIVE PHOTOS AND VIDEO Spectre’s intelligent computational shutter takes hundreds of shots over the span of a few seconds, and saves them in an accompanying live photo. That means you can pick a different frame as your photo, apply live-photo effects, and even use the long exposure as a live-wallpaper! ENDLESS SMARTS Spectre is a packed with powerful technology from by the team that brought you Halide. From machine learning-based scene detection to computer vision aided image stabilization, Spectre is jammed full of impressive technologies to get the best possible image. DESIGNED FOR HUMANS Spectre is meticulously designed. Its dark UI is gentle on the eyes when you shoot at night. Gorgeous glowing highlights infuse it with a unique style. Custom typefaces and iconography combined with unique, smooth controls make it as tactile and delightful as an actual physical camera. Like its sister app Halide, the app is easily usable with one hand, even on the largest iPhones. HIGH-TECH SHOWCASE Build with the latest tech, Spectre isn't just a long exposure camera — it’s the cutting edge technology showcase of one of the App Store’s foremost camera apps, Halide. Here’s just a few of the latest technologies that we use in Spectre: - DCI-P3 Wide Color Pipeline - Live Photos - Metal Graphics Acceleration - Tripod Detection - Siri & Shortcuts - AI Stabilization - Machine Learning & CoreML - Computer Vision COMPATIBILITY: Spectre’s smart Automatic Scene Detection requires iOS 12. AI-based stabilization features are available on iPhone 6S and later.* For the best experience, we recommend iPhone 8 or later. On iPhone 6, Spectre captures in lower resolution. ABOUT US We’re Ben and Sebastiaan, two friends living in the San Francisco Bay Area that love building fantastic apps for photography. We hope you love Spectre! We’d love your feedback to make it even better or any reports of bugs you run into. You can always contact us directly via email: support@halide.cam, on our Twitter: @halidecamera or Instagram: @halideapp Don’t forget to share your amazing results by tagging them with #SpectreShot so we can share them on our growing social media accounts!

Screenshots

Manual4 screens
Spectre Camera4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Spectre Camera at Free against Manual's $3.99. Spectre Camera also leads on ratings volume (2.4K vs 279). Manual's advantage is chart position (#188 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (11.4 vs 16.0). On rating, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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

Spectre Camera is free to download; Manual costs $3.99 up front. Manual sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Spectre Camera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.2 for Manual against 4.3 for Spectre Camera. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spectre Camera has 2.4K ratings behind it against 279, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 41% of Manual's written reviews are positive against 46% of Spectre Camera's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Manual ships an update every 2 months, Spectre Camera every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 19, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Manual versus Spectre Camera: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterManualSpectre Camera
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating4.2 (279 ratings)4.3 (2.4K ratings) — better
Positive reviews41.4% of reviews45.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2792.4K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#188 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS11.4 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWill GlobalLux Optics Incorporated

Customer experience

Manual

All ratings279 ratings
Positive79.2%
Neutral3.6%
Negative17.2%
Written reviews372 reviews
Positive41.4%
Neutral15.9%
Negative42.7%

Spectre Camera

All ratings2,408 ratings
Positive83.5%
Neutral3.7%
Negative12.7%
Written reviews438 reviews
Positive45.7%
Neutral10.7%
Negative43.6%

User reviews

Manual

From 279 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great manual controls
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 🔍 Precise control over ISO, shutter speed, and white balance
  • 📷 Powerful photography tool for iPhone
  • 🎨 Allows creative control over photos

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and unstable
  • 👎 Finicky and unintuitive controls
  • 🔍 Difficult to precisely set desired settings
  • 🔍 Cropped viewfinder
  • 🔍 Missing features like aperture control

Spectre Camera

From 2.4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 🔍 Captures great long exposure shots
  • 👍 Convenient and intuitive
  • 🎨 Allows for creative photography
  • 💡 Innovative features

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Blurry images even with stabilization
  • 🔋 Battery draining issue
  • 🤔 Limited exposure time options
  • 🤷‍♀️ Inconsistent performance
  • 💰 Paid features not worth the cost

Bugs and requests

Manual

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Crashes and freezes
  • Settings reset unexpectedly
  • RAW images come out blurry
  • Exposure compensation not working as expected
  • Focus issues on certain devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Longer shutter speed options
  • Self-timer and burst mode
  • Ability to lock white balance
  • Improved RAW image quality
  • Volume button shutter release

Spectre Camera

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes and freezes on some devices
  • Compatibility issues with older iPhones
  • Focusing and stabilization problems

Requested features

5 requests
  • Longer exposure time options
  • More manual control over settings
  • Raw image format support
  • Apple Watch remote support
  • Improved low-light performance

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Manual

One-time3
  • Tip 1$0.99
  • Tip 2$2.99
  • Tip 3$5.99
1 purchases

Spectre Camera

One-time1
  • Spectre Pro$4.99

Questions

Is Manual free?
Manual costs $3.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Spectre Camera free?
Spectre Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Manual or Spectre Camera?
Spectre Camera is rated higher. Manual averages 4.2 out of 5 from 279 ratings, while Spectre Camera averages 4.3 from 2.4K ratings.
Do Manual or Spectre Camera have ads?
Neither Manual nor Spectre Camera shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Manual or Spectre Camera?
Manual ships an update every 2 months, and Spectre Camera every 3 months. Most recently, Manual was updated on October 19, 2026 and Spectre Camera on October 19, 2026.

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