Best Manual Video Apps for a Professional Look 2021

I've used most of these apps already from recording YouTube videos for the AppGrooves channel as well as my own personal content projects. I set out to retest these apps in direct comparison with the new apps that I found through my research of the top manual camera apps for both iPhone and Android.

I looked at a variety of criteria, most important being cost-effectiveness in relation to the set of features included. I also considered user-friendliness and navigation of controls and the similarity to a real DSLR or film camera.

As a graduate from USC with a film minor and as a person who has directed and starred in many independent projects, I know my way around a manual camera pretty well. So in this test I really wanted to see which apps stood out with their professional, high-quality film potential. This is not to say you have to be a filmmaker to use these; again, I use many of these for my own social media content. The professional, short depth of field look with cinematic coloring stands out among more amateur-looking content, so it's worth it to have this quality no matter what video projects you are working on.

Again, as a long-time user of FiLMiC Pro now, I was not expecting to have MAVIS as my top pick. But this app is undoubtedly great, and it's hard to overlook the fact that it's almost half the cost of the full version of FiLMiC but with essentially all the same features.

That being said, I can't stress enough that FiLMiC is easier to learn for a beginner. I have a fair amount of manual camera and film camera experience, not to mention quite a bit of experience with mobile phone manual apps like FiLMiC and Moment, and I still found myself taking awhile to figure out all the controls here.

The best thing about this app is once you do figure it out it's really easy to lock in your settings and navigate between presets, which will save you a ton of time. And the picture quality was totally comparable to FiLMiC. 

I did find myself missing the big viewfinder screen of FiLMiC (MAVIS is much smaller, even when minimizing the extra settings!) but my biggest frustration with FiLMiC is that it's easy to accidentally erase all your settings by tapping the wrong part of the screen when you're trying to hit record. It's nice that this is not as much of a fear with MAVIS.

I do think that FiLMiC has a bit more robust coloring tools as well as the ability to film in log, though there is a bit of an argument amongst the iPhone filmmaking scene that it's technically not possible to truly film in log on an iPhone. Either way, the coloring features are perfectly good in MAVIS, and I appreciate just how easy it is to set white balance (just one quick tap.)

At the end of the day, we're in the game of saving money, and $13 is about the cost of my Chipotle order, so I would be okay with saving that by choosing this app over FiLMiC as someone who more or less knows what they are doing already.

The biggest snag with MAVIS is simply that it's not very beginner-friendly. This is not to say that a beginner cannot figure it out eventually, but someone without any DSLR, film, or general manual camera experience will struggle to get going without proper how-to guidance. This is where an app like our runner-up, Filmic Pro, might be a better option.

However, if you already know your stuff, even if you don't know it all, you should be able to pick things up on MAVIS pretty quickly. The controls are generally easy to figure out if you're used to manual settings; it just takes an hour two of messing around with things to feel comfortable enough to start filming.

Similarly to MAVIS, I was very pleasantly surprised at how great this app is. It's also at the same price point of $17 for full feature access, so it's the perfect direct comparison if you're not Team iPhone.

I was shocked at just how nice the image quality was here. I'm not an Android user myself, but I have to admit the camera is always better than I expect it to be, and even more so with this app. 

The features here are the real winner of just about every app I tried with all the usual analytics tools, focus peaking and false color, as well as coloring tools and lots of recording settings as well as the ability to film in log. I think this one is the absolute closest you can get to a real cinematic film camera experience on a mobile phone.

As mentioned, the learning curve is a bit steep. Part of that for me may just be because I'm not used to Android controls anyway. But it seems like there are enough tutorials from independent YouTubers and help on the app's website and FAQ sections to figure things out.

Similar to MAVIS, the drawback here is the learning curve. This was probably the trickiest app that I tried out, and I have a good amount of camera experience. But again, if you have any experience with DSLR or manual, you'll be fine. This just isn't the best place to start if you're going straight from your normal native app to trying to learn the pro settings.

If you're new to all of this, it's probably better to start with FiLMiC Pro unless you're okay with giving yourself plenty of time to learn.

As mentioned, FiLMiC has been my long-time go-to camera app for everything from YouTube videos to TikToks. It's a great app, despite being the most expensive of the bunch overall. Especially as more of a beginner, it's an excellent choice for anyone.

Do make sure to watch the YouTube tutorials; they helped me get up to speed with this really quickly. This app is so user-friendly and the interface and controls are really hard to beat (other than the mishaps I've had with erasing my settings on accident when trying to hit the small record button.)

The screen is big and easy to see, and with the analytics tools like false color and focus peaking you won't run into too many disappointments in post due to trying to work with a tiny smartphone-sized viewfinder. Whether or not it is actually possible to film in log, the log settings do help if you like to do more color correcting on the editing side.

You really can't go wrong with FiLMiC, even if you are more experienced. This is the industry favorite and the developers seem committed to continuing to make their product great, so it's a very worthy investment of $30 and the quality of your videos will pay for itself.

Moment has been another favorite of mine along with FiLMiC Pro. It operates very similarly but has an absolutely spectacular price given the features. I seriously can't believe this app is only $4.99.

I just had to include this one because honestly the first time I tried it out I did it out of sheer curiosity but was not expecting actually good results. I was pretty shocked at how well it worked to blur out the background behind me in a video!

I believe this is more of an effect, kind of like Instagram or TikTok effects that find your face and body it finds this in the foreground and then simply blurs out the background manually. But in the end, it does look pretty convincingly like you have used a DSLR camera, especially if you have a nicer, newer iPhone.

Best results are obtained from not moving around a bunch (this throws off the background effect sometimes,) but it's a nice effect that easy enough for literally anyone to use without any learning or studying required. 

It's $15 which is maybe a bit steep, but you do get tons of other effects and recording tools along with it. It could be worth it if you just really want that shallow depth of field look. Until newer phone cameras come out, this is an effect that still only achievable on your trusty Canon EOS.

ProMovie is definitely okay for the cost, but only okay. It doesn't really touch the competition as far as video quality on iPhone, but it does give you more controls than the native camera app, so it's not a bad option if you want something that's only $2.99. But since Moment is only $2 more, we think that's the better way to go.

This app was half price at the time of testing, which is nice, but we just weren't a big fan of the controls or the look of the final image. The top picks outperformed for Android for sure, so we recommend going with those.

This is honestly a pretty solid app, and an okay price all things considered. It's not the worst option, but the other Android apps just worked for us better as far as user interface and ultimate ending quality. Also this is more focused on photography rather than video, though video is possible.

If you're going to go with Manual Camera, definitely spring for the $4.99 pro version rather than this Lite version. There isn't very much to do on the Lite version and the camera quality is kind of meh.