Recently the developer behind the wildly successful and useful Halide camera app for iOS released a brand new app called Spectre. Essentially it’s a long exposure app which will let you achieve motion blur and add light trails. They claim it’s not a “night camera app” (which is confusing based on their branding). They do however claim that this can all be done without the use of any hardware, which if you’re familiar with the experience of shooting long exposures is a bold statement.

Traditional long exposure image by Shawn Sullivan

Thanks to a very effective social media teaser campaign and a strong PR push with articles praising the app coming from reputable sites like The Verge and 9to5 mac, I like many others were swooned by the acclaim and fanfare. Honestly I paid $2 bucks and downloaded it without an ounce of research or hesitation.

And that was my first mistake because this app… kinda sucks.

The problem is when you open the shutter for long exposures with traditional cameras it becomes incredibly susceptible to camera shake and movement. Even the slightest nudge can result in a blurry image. This is why it’s always recommended that you use a tripod or some sort of support system when shooting long exposures.

Spectre claims that it’s AI stabilization eliminates the need for such clunky tripods by using software and I’m assuming the OIS built into recent iPhone models to be able to achieve this handheld. This is where things get fuzzy. Quite literally.

Via Halide

Through all my testing it was almost next to impossible to get a clear image with this app without either resting the phone on a steady surface or using a tripod.

Take this shot for example:

Shot on iPhone X

As you can see the highway was full of traffic but with Spectre’s motion blur all of the cars are effectively erased. The problem is it took me multiple attempts to finally get this one that was clear — and this was at it’s lowest shooting time of 3 seconds. You can go up to 9 which makes it even more difficult to keep it steady. In order to finally get the above clear image I had to push my phone up against the bridge railing to create a brace point. I simply could not achieve a clear photo handheld despite my best attempts, and I have pretty damn steady hands (self proclaimed of course). The whole experience of using this app is incredibly frustrating.

A few of the failed attempts with Spectre

The elephant in the room is also the fact that you can already create very similar looking long exposure images using iOS’s built in Live Photos feature. All you have to do is take a live photo, swipe up in the photos app, and voila. Now it doesn’t have as much motion blur as the Spectre version but it’s super easy and best of all it’s free.

Spectre says you can get a sharper image by utilizing the live photos editor but then you lose out on the motion blur by picking a clearer photo which defeats the entire purpose of shooting a long exposure.

Via Halide

So what gives? Why all the praise and acclaim for an incredibly mediocre app? An app that currently is just a slightly more elaborate and fancy live photos long exposure trick. I think it all comes down to hype and perception. Halide is a great app and so one would assume that when a solid reputable developer releases another app, especially in the same space like camera apps it’s going to be just as good.

Ultimately the most disappointing part about all of this is the blind faith praise I’ve been seeing online for Spectre. Creators and tech blogs all claiming it’s “revolutionary” — It’s like they didn’t even try the app before giving their opinion. All it takes is a quick test of the app to understand that this ain’t it chief. I’ve already considered deleting the app and requesting a refund but I do have faith in the Halide team to make this right.

Spectre is a lesson that you should not believe the hype. Make sure you do your own research before buying something even if it’s from a company you trust. A quick search on Twitter or the app store reviews shows that I’m not alone in my experience with Spectre. There’s a plethora of users running into the same consistently blurry images.

At the end of the day I think in concept Spectre is a cool idea. If they can nail down the AI stabilization and perhaps be a little bit more clear with what the actual intention of the app is they might have a winner on their hands… but for now? I’d hold off.

Unless you like blurry photos, which in that case. This app is perfect.