Lightframer Pro and Cutvey Viewfinder

What Lightframer Pro does better

Lightframer Pro is new, from Eric Hernandez, on the App Store since March 2026 and updated on the day we checked. It ships several things Cutvey Viewfinder does not:

• A 3D shadow map of the buildings and terrain around you, beside a world-locked sun path with golden and blue hour.
• Life-size AR stand-ins, with height and pose, two characters at once, and from version 1.0.5 beyond LiDAR devices.
• Storyboards with captions and move tags, fullscreen playback, a video animatic export and numbered PDFs.
• A LiDAR focus heatmap with cinema diopter presets, and a live color-temperature meter in Kelvin.
• Android and Mac. It is on Google Play, and its iPad app runs on Macs with Apple silicon.
• Data Not Collected on its App Store privacy label, and Family Sharing.

What Cutvey Viewfinder does better

The database, mostly. Lightframer's home page counts "50+ Cinema Cameras", "90+ Lens Series" and "500+ Focal Lengths". Cutvey Viewfinder holds 722 camera bodies, 2,309 recording modes, 707 lens series and 3,926 lenses, counted November 2, 2026, and every recording mode carries a source line naming the maker, the method and the date. Each mode is framed from its own active area, so a 6K 2.4:1 window and the open gate of the same body give different pictures.

Around the database: a depth of field panel with near, far and hyperfocal; speedboosters, extenders and phone clip-on lenses; vertical rigs that crop or turn the camera; your own bodies, modes and lens series; looks with your own `.cube` LUTs and Photoshop curves; an Apple Watch remote; and 41 languages, where Lightframer's App Store page lists English only.

Feature by feature

Prices are Apple's US prices, checked November 2, 2026, on each app's App Store record. Ratings are US App Store counts on the same day, and they move daily. "Not stated" means we found nothing either way on the seller's own pages.

A walk-and-talk between tall buildings

A short film's walk-and-talk down a narrow downtown street at golden hour, on a RED V-RAPTOR 8K VV in its 8K 2.4:1 mode with ZEISS Supreme Primes at 29, 40 and 65mm. Two actors walk toward camera from 10 m to 4 m. The scout has two questions: when does the street fall into shade, and which lens holds both actors at the end mark?

Cutvey Viewfinder on that street

1. In Setup, pick the V-RAPTOR 8K VV and its 8K 2.4:1 mode, build the Supreme kit and save the favorite.
2. Turn on the walking stand-in figure at 4 m. It is drawn flat, sized from the frame's vertical field of view, and it says whether it sits in focus at the stop you set. Step through 29, 40 and 65 with the rail chevrons and see which holds two figures' worth of width.
3. Open depth of field for the 40 at T2 with focus at 4 m, so the focus puller knows the margin at the end mark.
4. Open the sun panel and scrub the time. The path shows where the sun goes down against the skyline; the app does not model the buildings, so you judge from the path when it drops behind the tower line.
5. Prop the phone at eye height, walk to the end mark and fire stills from the Apple Watch.
6. Export a Basic PDF for the AD's schedule.

Lightframer Pro on the same street

Lightframer answers the shade question directly: its 3D shadow map shows the buildings' shadow crossing the street at the time you choose. Its AR stand-ins walk at life size in the real street, and its storyboards can turn the scout into an animatic for the director. Check that your camera is in its list first; its home page names the RED V-RAPTOR XL among its cameras.

For this street, Lightframer is the better tool on the light. Cutvey Viewfinder is the better tool on the lens and the focus, and on any job where the camera is outside a list of 50-plus.

Price, platforms and the rest

Checked November 2, 2026, on the US App Store. Lightframer Pro is also on Google Play; see their listing for its Android price.

At the same price, the choice turns on what the scout is for. See the sun path help, how to tech scout, the depth of field calculator, and Lightframer's two older rivals, Cadrage and Artemis.

When to choose Lightframer Pro

• You scout exteriors where buildings shade the street, and want the shadow map.
• You want figures standing in the real space at life size.
• You want storyboards and an animatic out of the scout.
• You work on Android or a Mac as well.

Choose Cutvey Viewfinder when the exact camera mode and lens matter, or when the kit mixes series and carries an adapter.

Questions