- When you need third party camera apps
- Disadvantages of third party camera apps
- Brief review of some apps I’ve used
This guide is centered around my experience using a few apps with the iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 7, and is heavily dependent on workflow and shooting style.
In many cases the default camera app is superior in capturing photos compared to manual camera apps, and produces amazing pictures with minimal user interaction.
When you need third party camera apps
One of the main benefits of using a manual camera app is if you use 3rd party lenses that attach to your phone, or when trying to capture light trails or motion blur.
Locking down lens choice
If you don’t have an iPhone 12 you can skip this part. In low light conditions the default camera app prioritizes a digital zoom through the 1x lens over the optical zoom of the 2.5x lens because of the better low light sensor, but this is a major problem when using third party lenses.
When you have a third party lens attached it will most likely block the light sensor tricking the default camera app to switch between 2.5x and 1x, this is when a third party camera app is extremely helpful as it locks down the lens of your choice.
Lower shutter speeds
The iPhone 12’s 2.5x magnification lens has an inferior sensor to the 1x, but we can overcome its pitfalls in low light conditions by simply using a tripod. Note: (some DSLR/SLR cameras are ISO invariant, not too relevant to this but good to know)
Compared to the default camera app, the third party camera apps (Firstlight, Halide, Moment) appear to prefer lower shutter speeds and ISO versus increased ISO and shutter speed when shooting on auto; however; the photos produced does not seem too different.
So unless you don’t mind motion blur, or need optical 2.5x zoom in low light (for the iPhone 12), it’s probably best to just shoot with the default camera app.
Macro photography
When it comes to macro photography it can be difficult for the default camera app to focus as close as possible or get the subject in focus at all. With manual controls and focus peaking indicators it’s easy and fast to nail subject focus.
Anamorphic desqueeze
When using an anamorphic lens it can be challenging to correctly visualize what you are shooting with all the compression that’s going on, FirstLight and Moment apps have built in anamorphic desqueeze feature allowing you to preview what your shot looks like when desqueezed.
Note that for the FilLMIC Firstlight does not state its desqueeze ratio but it is 1.33x.
Disadvantages of third party camera apps
Poor metering
While in manual mode of some third party apps tapping on blown out highlighted areas to properly expose still seem to produces extremely noisy pictures. Halide, as seen here is subject to this problem.
Certain apps also seem to handle highlights poorly in auto exposure mode compared to the default app. Precious time spent preventing clipped highlights could cause you to miss the shot, and it’s always better to have a somewhat noisy picture than no picture at all.
User interface
There are many camera apps with controls that are way too complex and it’s time consuming to navigate and adjust them for each shot.
Unless you are setting up for a specific shot that requires specific camera settings it’s almost always better and faster to just use the default camera app.
Brief review of some apps I’ve used
- Moment ProCamera
- My favourite app but has become extremely buggy over the years.
- Photo loss.
- Poor ProRaw support, pictures fail to save.
- Refuses to take pictures certain times.
- Anamorphic desqueeze preview.
- My favourite app but has become extremely buggy over the years.
- Halide
- Subscription based but very affordable. (About a dollar a month).
- Clean and simple UI.
- Pictures produced in manual mode seems to be more noisy than the default camera app although they are moving towards more AI improvements to better pictures taken.
- FilMic Pro
- Desqueezed anamorphic preview while shooting.
- Shooting in ProRaw forces you to also save HEIC version leading to larger file size.
- Regular raw could use some optimization, pictures come out very dark.
- Shutter speed only changeable by the app’s preset values.
