Spectre Camera Reviews

by YeuxNoirs

I will feel obliged to write a good review of a underrated photo app (see hydra), but I’ve never felt so strongly that I should do the opposite until now.

What SpectreCamera promises is definitely needed and always has been, on iPhone. THIS DOES NOT DELIVER. NOT AT ALL. None of the modes, none of the settings, not with extensive testing. Any manual camera app can get a longer exposure. Why would you want the result if it’s not stabilized? Literally every part of every picture is blurry regardless of ANY settings and YES this is an XR and YES this is after the latest update. And YES I’m holding the phone very still.

I’m well above the average of patience for a specialized camera. But I can’t imagine how any user would use this and get anything but crap as a result! The results are always bad. ALWAYS. ALWAYS. I really can’t understand where the good reviews are coming from, seriously. I rarely impulse buy. But there you go. You got me. Shame on me.

by Chiq12234567

Perhaps this is user error, but I can’t imagine, particularly in using tripods, or other holders to hold the phone still, and at night, I am still unable to take a non-blurry photo. All of the photos come out blurry despite the fact that they are perfectly clear, or crisp, in the iPhones native camera app. I feel like that defeats the purpose of this product.

I have tried many variations, but the settings are very limited. I am not really sure how this party can be promoted, even less so an editors choice. Despite the low-cost, I am completely turned off, I really wish I could get my money back, because it simply doesn’t work. I’d rather pay more for a lens that works every time, then an app that does nothing that it promises.

by AquaticGarthic

Worst camera app that I and many others have used. I see a lot of the 5 star reviews sound like they are talking about a different app so I guess it’s true what people are saying, you are using paid review services. Every article written about SpectreCamera talks about how this is the best camera app ever, yet any person who isn’t in a position to be bribed into making a fake positive review has nothing good to say about it. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I’ve also seen you be sarcastic and rude to negative customer reviews “okay I’ll update SpectreCamera to make your hand more steady”. What kind of human garbage treats their customers (that they just scammed) like that? They gave you money for an app that doesn’t work and you’re gonna disrespect them? Don’t buy, and don’t waste your time.

by Yesterday_i

I posted a short review and the developer responded so I try to email the support team regarding SpectreCamera. The developer said the object had to very still to get a picture that isn’t blurry . But in SpectreCamera description it says captures “Live Photo’s”. That’s false advertisement. I’ve already screenshot everything for proof on my end . I would like my refund because SpectreCamera is useless to me . I have a 1 year old and there is no way ima get her to sit completely still for a photo ————————————————————-

Regarding the response to my review on App Store , my apologies I was under the impression this camera took Live Photo’s just as the basic camera on iPhone does I didn’t realize . It was limited to taking photos of “still” objects. Maybe you should update SpectreCamera description since it’s not technically a “LIVE PHOTO” if you’re unable to move . Also I would like a full refund for false advertisement. This camera is useless to me. I have a 1 year old who moves a lot , no way I’m gonna get her to sit perfectly still . Hope to hear back soon 🙂

My email ^^^

by Z!KeepeR

This is just not living up to expectations. I understand that many people would find it as a great improvement over stock camera app on iPhone, maybe, but... this is not even close to Google Pixel in Night Sight mode.
I’ve got XS Max with the best iPhone cameras out there, and I waited for an update to see if things got better... nope this is just another case of fake news. The results are still disappointing, and barely better then stock Camera app. Yes, lights are blurred and give nice trails, but there is no clarity however steady you held the phone. My old faithful NightCap app does equal job it seems. And it offers a greater control over exposure and ISO settings when you have a tripod. So why I should keep Spectre?

by Scott👨‍💻

Twice now this camera app has crashed my phone and caused it to reboot. No other apps cause my phone to do this. The first time I submitted a ticket they acknowledged the issue and said an update was coming to fix it, so I waited for the update and then eventually tired it again. It again caused my phone to reboot. I reopened the support ticket and now a different person responded and is blaming my phones battery....uh no. My battery health is 93% and no other apps or times my phone has every force rebooted itself until I have tired the Spectre app. I am trying to work with their engineers to debug this but they keep giving me the runaround telling me I should visit an Apple store to get my battery replaced...no! If they continue to refuse support I will be filling a report with Apple because of this behavior and demanding a refund.

by Ceyveron

This application gets results that people just don’t believe were taken with a phone. It’s only missing one feature, and it’s ridiculous: no timer! Halide has a 30 second timer, so these programmers know how to add one. The main reason to get SpectreCamera is to motion blur rivers and waterfalls. These environments introduce lots of ambient noise and if you want to include yourself in the shot, you really can’t because the odds of triggering Siri next to a real raging river or waterfall is zero. And if you hold the phone by hand, talking doesn’t make you more steady. No timer creates so many problems with using SpectreCamera that it will be a deal breaker for anyone with less patience than myself. Please add one. Even a standard 10 second timer is better than nothing, though the 30 second one from Halide would really set SpectreCamera above and beyond.

by Ethan2640

Edit: the particular bug has been fixed and I’ve been playing around with SpectreCamera . It’s pretty good, and my only complaint now is that it’s running a bit slow on my iPhone 6 Plus and that the photos I take are somewhat blurry than usual. Perhaps you could improve the performance a bit and fix the blurry photos?But other than that, SpectreCamera is still pretty good and has a good concept to it.

I think the concept of SpectreCamera is really cool and using AI to enhance your photos, so I downloaded it but I couldn’t even use it and take a picture without this weird screen tearing bug. I re-installed SpectreCamera and tried again and the problem persists. I’m assuming SpectreCamera was just recently launched, so I understand there’s a lot of bugs to be fixed and I’ll gladly update my review once this particular bug gets fixed, otherwise I’ll be deleting SpectreCamera and demanding a refund.

by MzHappyCandy

I enjoy this camera app, it performs as described. But now I see a new feature called Spectra Pro. I already paid just to download SpectreCamera. There was no option for monthly subscription, just one flat rate that allowed me to purchase and use this camera. Now you’re saying if I want support options, I have to pay an additional $5, which will also give me a discount on other apps. So you’re telling me I purchased an app that was not cheap, and I can’t get support features unless I cough up more money. What a joke. If I had known you all were this greedy, I wouldn’t have purchased SpectreCamera to begin with. You should be embarrassed.

by VisionaryWelding

Beware, version as of Dec 5th on latest iOS, drains my battery so rapidly that the phone gets warm - even when I’m “not” using it. I discovered that until I swipe to close the program, it seems to draw more power than leaving my screen on constant at full brightness. (My kid can play games nonstop without draining the battery that fast... usually.). Pure guess, but I suspect it puts the CPU on highest performance and keeps it there. I hope they’l fix this quickly, but it’s been a couple of weeks. Disappointing glitch for such a highly rated app.

by Scdouglas1999

Thank god they managed to fix this so quickly! The stabilization works perfectly and images are tack sharp now. So 5 stars right? Well almost. The only other gripe I have is that the final image is very small. Resolution isn't great and the final image I got off one picture was 617KB. This is way too small for anything useable. How about some raw functionality where the AI simply aligns the final images and outputs as a really big raw file that can be edited. For now SpectreCamera is more like a simple you to mess around with but for the most part does it really well.

by JoeXGray

I bought SpectreCamera as soon as I heard of it, because the Halide team is excellent. And this does seem to perform better than its competitors from my initial experience. That said, it has a critical weak point that seems completely fixable. I’ve taken several shots with my iPhone stabilized completely still, and then taken the same shot in Halide. Areas where there is no movement at all are not as detailed as they could be. It seems totally fixable, and I expect the Halide team will improve this flaw quickly. Which is why I still give four stars. Halide has been at the cutting edge of iOS camera apps since it was first released, and has set the bar, frankly. I expect Spectre is going to be that, even if it isn’t quite perfect from the start.

Oh yeah, and the Live Photos support works beautifully, it looks like a moving slow shutter, which is just lovely.

by Wanna Buy An Ipad?

Occasionally I would like to make a photo in a public place without showing crowds. I considered buying neutral density filters for my Lumix but good ones cost a bunch. The camera is not always handy and then putting a filter on could lose a spontaneous photograph.
I am amazed that I tested SpectreCamera as hand-held for a 5 second exposure. While using the screen guide to keep steady, I was able to produce a very nice picture. Then I tried again using a magnetic mount that I have on my windshield for 9 seconds. My second picture was not as clear but only because it was shot through auto glass as opposed to the hand held.
Anytime that I have my tripod with me I should get very nice effects. I also rigged up an identical magnetic mount on my tripod.
Guys I am as excited to go shooting as a redneck with a new gun.

by Duck'aducks

Long exposures have always been part of my photography. Often I use camera motion for long exposures. Maybe the dev can correct me, but I get the feeling that SpectreCamera is trying to fight that every step of the way and stabilize the image. While this does lead to some interesting results, it is generally unpredictable. I get much different results using a DSLR or different apps on my phone. Maybe a mode for light trails with camera motion (as opposed to subject motion) that ignores or does something different with the motion data is a path to explore? Still a good effort from the people who made Halide and worth it if you’re interested in long exposures. I’m excited to see what they do with SpectreCamera over time.

by Netscorer

Very easy to use app to achieve some seriously fun long exposure effects. As long as you can more or less hold steady your iPhone, it will produce very sharp photo with all the minion blurred out.
Unfortunately there are also quite serious drawbacks that hold SpectreCamera from achieving more serious results. There are only three time settings that you can choose: 3, 5 and 9 seconds. For great night photos this sometimes is not enough. I wish time
could be extended beyond 9 seconds to 15 and 30. If I can support iPhone or put it on a mini tripod, it should be OK to remove 9 seconds restriction.
Also SpectreCamera has the option to save photo as a Live Photo, but Apple Photo app does not fully recognize it as such and I can not use bounce or loop effect, nor does SpectreCamera capture sound during exposure to allow to export it as normal video clip.
I hope app is going to continue to evolve to become fully functioning long exposure photo tool.

by GIULIO SCIORIO

Specte is the best app of its kind AND a unique app for capturing time exposures with LivePhotos. Definitely worth the purchase!

Love being able to save images as Live Photos which I then animate and add other enhancements.

I would like to see support for the iPhone 13 Pro and ProRes video output when saving a Live Photo. Selfie cam support would be great. Also, would like to have a button to quickly move from Spectre to Halide and back.

by Rob The R

I was super excited about SpectreCamera, since I have been looking for one that can do software stabilization for long exposure photos ever since my go-to app for that (PhotoSynth), stopped working with recent iOS versions.

The features of SpectreCamera are nice and the UI is really excellent, but it's ability to take sharp long exposure photos without a tripod is what sets it apart. It took me a few tries to realize that you need to tap the screen to designate the are of the photo that should remain steady, and then be sure that the"stable"icon is turned on. But now I can get SpectreCamera to take lovely long exposure pictures.

by Joshua D.

Because I dig SpectreCamera a lot and because you didn’t go the unethical route and turn SpectreCamera into another unwarranted subscription plan. Well, I was more than glad to just make the Pro purchase. Thank you for not being immoral scum and just adding a Pro option to help support development instead of ruining SpectreCamera with another pointless subscription. If you want to add another in-app purchase that isn’t a subscription in the future I will gladly purchase that as well. I’m so very angered that you ruined Halide with a subscription. But, since you didn’t do that here I’m more than glad to show my appreciation and support and I would recommend other users do the same to show gratitude for a very rare and upstanding move on the part of an App Store developer. Thank you for being a normal, non-greedy developer in this instance. You’ve won back some of my respect that you justifiably lost with what you did to Halide. Thanks and God bless. I mean it, too, if you handle the monetization of your apps in this ethical manner I will always be glad to support you. And, I’d separate my review into multiple paragraphs like an normal person. But, for whatever asinine reason that I cannot fathom. Apple, condenses all of my reviews, regardless of having separate paragraphs, into a single paragraph every time. So, no point in trying to maintain grammatical order when they are just going to screw it up every time.

by Rishmalho

You don’t need SpectreCamera for long exposures, iPhone does have an automatic option if you edit an existing Live Photo or if you use a manual long exposure mode like in Halide. However, this is a very good app for anyone who’d like a hassle free long exposure in a simple to use intuitive app.
It’s got a really good design & very good UX. If you’re thinking of buying this, it is completely worth it, in fact I’d suggest looking at the bundle with Halide it’s a complete purchase for getting stunning shots.

Note for developer: The way light trails turn out isn’t exactly long exposure since it looks like a ton of shots are stitched together in a weird way; the trails aren’t smooth as you’d see in a true long exposure. Idk if there’s a way to fix that but great app anyway!

by Kevin Pomplun

I use a lot of camera apps, and this one surprised me. I thought it might be for more for experts. And while it has a lot of advanced features, it was so easy to shoot photos that look so cool!

My friend is kind of an expert photographer and he said these kind of photos used to take special equipment, skills, etc. When I showed him SpectreCamera he literally laughed and was amazed and how easy it is. And then when we looked at being able to remove people from a scene because of Camera’s Vision, he just said wow. Highly recommend.

by Tokyoblues

i’ll admit i wasn’t super impressed by the first couple of pics i took; i thought the pics were blurry af. but after i took a few more pics and looked at what i had just captured, i was like wow! there’s so much potential in SpectreCamera! i think the more the developers keep tweaking it and pushing updates, the better SpectreCamera will get. i’m not a pro photographer or anything like that, however i am (modestly & humbly speaking) artistically inclined. Spectre is a great art making app that pros, novices, and everything in between would likely enjoy. i really like SpectreCamera.

by Keentwo2

It's amazing what they have done here. This is a phone and to get the images your capable of getting you would be spending alone $80 on a good ND filter for a camera, then a good tripod is another $100+. That alone is worth the $2 purchase. I was able to one hand holding a baby capture a dang good test shot. Now take good breathing and two hands into account this is down right amazing for a hand held device. Of course it's just a phone but you can not go wrong with SpectreCamera. Taking pictures of moving water in on the next level. 100% if recommend the purchase. I'd also recommend you head over and get halide.