Comparison

ShotBOT vs HDRI Prep

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

Head to head
About

ShotBOT

This app helps visual effects supervisors meticulously track production notes for film, TV, and commercials. It allows for detailed scene and take logging, image annotation, and report generation for VFX teams. Advanced features are available via in-app purchases.

Highlights
  • Track general scenes or individual takes
  • Print or email comprehensive shooting reports
  • Built-in drawing and annotation feature
  • Supports multi-camera shoots
  • User-defined presets for fast data entry
  • Tag scenes for organization
  • Take pictures or import images for reference
Features
Read full description

ShotBOT is designed for professional visual effects supervisors, to use during production, to take all the necessary production notes when shooting visual effects scenes. It tracks all the VFX needs for film, TV, documentaries, music videos and commercial production. This app is designed by someone who has spent 20 years shooting visual effects. All advanced features are sold via in-app purchases so you only need to buy what you need. For more detailed information on ShotBOT, please check out our web site for demo screencasts and a comprehensive FAQ page. FEATURES -ShotBOT has all the fields you would expect. A full list of fields is at the bottom of this page. -Track general scenes or individual takes. -Print or email a comprehensive shooting report to your VFX artists after the shoot. -Built in drawing feature to create diagrams or annotate pictures. -App-wide built in help screens to explain every feature. -Supports multi-camera shoots. -Full support for user defined presets for all commonly used fields. Includes default set of presets for professional production. Entering the data for a scene is very fast! -Scenes can be tagged to group sets of scenes together for complete organization of the scenes. -Take pictures or import existing images for scene reference. -View and grab frames from a wireless, live video feed from the camera. (Requires Teradek wireless encoder and in-app purchase) -Print a variety of different style tracking marks in a variety of sizes. (Requires in-app purchase) -Two different interface styles. Dark for indoor, Light for outdoor. You will always be able to view screen content without blinding your eyes. -Export your data so you can import it into your own post production tracking software. (Require in-app purchase) -Optional ShotBOT Cloud option to backup your data in realtime and sync between multiple devices. (Require in-app purchase) JOB FIELDS -Job Number -Episode Name and Number -Working Title -Agency and Client Name -Product Description -Production Company Name -Default FPS -Job Description SCENE FIELDS -Scene Number -Scene Description -Slate -Shot Date, Day Number, Time of day. -Unit (First unit, second unit, plate unit) -MOS or Sync sound. -Interior/Exterior -Day, Night, or Day For Night -Shoot Location -Scene Notes -Flags for: HDR, Mirror Ball, 18% Gray Ball, Cube, Clean Plate, Tiles, Ref Plates, Dig Stills Ref, Dig Stills Texture, Set Survey, Lidar Scan, 3D Scan, Lighting Diagram, Rushed Enviroment. CAMERA FIELDS -Camera ID -Camera Type -Camera Rig -Card/Clip Info -Filters -ISO -Shutter -Color Temp -FPS -T Stop -Lens -MM Start & End -Camera Height Start & End -Camera Tilt Start & End -Camera Focus Start & End -Camera Notes TAKE FIELDS -Take Number -Hero or Circled Take Flag -Take Notes

About

HDRI Prep

Features
Read full description

HDRI Prep is a small utility for use in visual effects for creating HDRI bracketing sets for RICOH THETA 360 cameras, specifically, the V, Z1 and X. (If you don't know what all that is than this app probably isn't for you.) Different bracket settings are needed for different production situations. The THETA cameras does do multi-image exposure bracketing that you can set with the iPhone THETA app, but modifying them is painfully slow and difficult and you can't save sets and reuse them later. I wrote this to fill that need and speed up use of the THETA on set for taking HDRIs. With HDRI Prep you can: • Define brackets as X number of photos (3 to 19, always odd numbers) taken X stops apart (1 to 3) rather than setting each photo’s parameters individually • Pick the camera and you can set the Aperture, ISO and Color Temperature for all the photos at once with the settings limited to what the camera can actually execute • Pick a Center Shutter Speed and the bracket extends exposures equally higher and lower • Custom name brackets, organize by show, drag and drop reorder them, move between shows, and duplicate them as needed • View the photos taken read from the camera Quickly modify the Camera’s speaker volume and time it takes to auto-sleep (up to 60 minutes so watch your battery) HDRI Prep is not intended to be a full featured replacement for other THETA iPhone apps. It is designed only to fill a hole in the current functionality of the official THETA app (and what 3rd party apps I've played with): to make a library of Bracket settings, a method of organizing them, and a way to call them up and use them quickly on set. As such you will find it is missing various functions of the official THETA app. Those extended features may be added at some later date, but I make no promises. I recommend using it in conjunction with other apps as needed. Some limitations of the app: • Currently this only works with a direct Wifi connection to the camera (camera hosting Wifi) and it assumes the ip address is 192.168.1.1. • Image viewing is minimal. You can see what is on the camera (heads up, it's slow to load) but I am leaving the downloading and deleting of images up to other apps. You can use the official THETA app or you can manage them on a Mac using Image Capture (you're on your own with Windows). • Be aware that adjusting the camera shutter sound volume and the sleep delay time writes these changes to the camera, overwriting any previous camera setting. If you change the sleep time to 10 minutes it will stay that way even when HDRI Prep isn't connected or running. • If you want to see a live count of the images as they are taken you can actually switch to the official THETA app after beginning a capture. I hope to add this to my interface in the future.

Screenshots

HDRI Prep4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: HDRI Prep at $9.99 against ShotBOT's $29.99. HDRI Prep also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 6) and device support (3 vs 1). ShotBOT's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 6 months). On 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

ShotBOT costs $29.99 and HDRI Prep $9.99 up front. ShotBOT sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. HDRI Prep asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ShotBOT ships an update every 8 days, HDRI Prep every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
ShotBOT versus HDRI Prep: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShotBOTHDRI Prep
Price$29.99$9.99 — better
Rating4.5 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size58 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTodd FreeseSquirrel FX LLC

In-app purchases

6 purchases

ShotBOT

One-time6
  • ShotBOT Tracking Marks$4.99
  • ShotBOT Cloud - 30 Day Subscription$4.99
  • ShotBOT JSON Export$9.99
Show 3 more
  • ShotBOT TSV Text Export$9.99
  • ShotBOT Teradek Live Video$49.99
  • ShotBOT VES Export$74.99
None

HDRI Prep

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ShotBOT free?
ShotBOT costs $29.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is HDRI Prep free?
HDRI Prep costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do ShotBOT or HDRI Prep have ads?
Neither ShotBOT nor HDRI Prep shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ShotBOT or HDRI Prep?
ShotBOT ships an update every 8 days, and HDRI Prep every 6 months. Most recently, ShotBOT was updated on June 1, 2026 and HDRI Prep on September 10, 2026.

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