Mark II Artist's Viewfinder and Cutvey Viewfinder

A stills tool and a motion tool

Mark II Artist's Viewfinder, from DIRE Studio, has been on the App Store since 2013, and its own pages describe it in photographers' terms. Its camera database holds "more than 800 still and motion picture cameras, 180 medium/large format backs and countless lenses". It captures DNG RAW files, removes the distortion of wide converters as you frame, has a black-and-white mode and writes a GPX track log of the walk. Anamorphic support covers 2x and 1.3x squeeze, and frame lines come in 19 preset aspect ratios.

Cutvey Viewfinder starts from the motion side. Its 722 bodies include 192 cine cameras and 30 broadcast bodies, with 1,048 cine recording modes, each mode framed from its own active area rather than the full sensor. It records video takes of the composed frame, plans the sun, works out depth of field and sends the day out as a PDF shot list. It has photo bodies too, 482 of them, Phase One and Hasselblad among them. What it lacks for a photographer is RAW.

The price

Checked November 2, 2026, on the US App Store and on DIRE Studio's own page, which gives the same price and an educational discount without naming the amount. Mark II's App Store page also says it supports Family Sharing.

One campaign, both apps: a hotel film and its stills

A hotel campaign: a 30-second film and a set of stills, shot over the same two days. The film is on a Sony VENICE 2 8.6K in its 8.2K 2.39:1 mode with ZEISS Supreme Primes at 18, 25, 35 and 50mm. The stills photographer brings a Phase One IQ4 150MP back. The brand also wants a 9:16 cut of the film.

The DP, in Cutvey Viewfinder

1. Open Setup and pick the VENICE 2 8.6K and its 8.2K 2.39:1 mode. Build the kit from the Supreme Prime grid and save it as a favorite.
2. Walk the corridor move on the 25 and record a take, so the director sees the timing. The take is the composed frame, with frame lines and the look burned in.
3. For the 9:16 cut, set Orientation to Vertical in Settings and pick the Extract rig in Setup, which crops 9:16 out of the same gate. Each rig has its own field of view, and the rig is printed in the shot list.
4. Check the pool deck in the sun panel at golden hour, then scrub to call time.
5. Export a Full PDF for the producer: one shot a page with the time, GPS, the bearing and a tappable Apple Maps link.

The photographer, in Mark II

Mark II frames the IQ4 back with its lens, saves DNG files to judge on the laptop that night, corrects a wide converter's distortion live and logs the scout as a GPX track. Cutvey Viewfinder can frame the IQ4 too, and its stills are HEIC files whose EXIF names the simulated camera and lens, but there is no DNG and no converter correction. On this campaign each person has the right tool.

Side by side

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.

Where Mark II is ahead

• RAW. DNG captures you can grade or print from. Cutvey Viewfinder saves HEIC stills of the composed frame.
• More bodies, by its own count, with medium and large format backs. Many are stills cameras, which is Mark II's ground.
• Converter correction. Wide converter distortion is removed as you frame.
• The cleaner privacy label. Mark II's says Data Not Collected. Cutvey Viewfinder's lists the email, user ID and device ID that signing in with a Cutvey account uses. It shows no ads and carries no third-party SDK.
• A record. 4.77 from 104 US ratings, checked November 2, 2026, after more than a decade on sale.
• Family Sharing, by its App Store page, and an educational discount.

When to choose Mark II

• You are a landscape, architecture or fine-art photographer who wants RAW captures.
• You shoot medium or large format backs.
• You frame through wide converters and want the distortion gone.
• You want an app that collects no data, by its App Store label.

When the shoot moves, Cutvey Viewfinder is the better fit, at half the price. See what a director's viewfinder is, framing for vertical, the PDF shot list, and the other comparisons.

Questions