This is the first time my iPhone 14 Pro felt inadequate.
The app is so heavy that the phone is overheating after the first photo. it consumes so much resources that’s the music was playing in the background stopped because my AirPods connection dropped. For the very first time on this phone I felt like I need an upgrade, it felt like the last days of my iPhone 6s. I didn’t know you can do that to an iPhone.
The photo quality is supperb though, obviously not DSLR replacement but it really gives you that feel. Apple’s own processing has become too boring, sometimes I use Halide just to have unprocessed raws.
Same experience on 14 pro - it got noticeably hot after 2nd photo, and after 3rd the app crashed and OS was choppy for a few minutes. And that was indoors, in 22C and screen fairly dim. Never seen anything like it; as-is I’d avoid the app lest it actually damages something.
The photos themselves do look better than apple’s default cam, but not by a huge amount. Most noticeable is better range, like a photo of a blue sky with a few clouds seen through your window that takes up a third of the photo, which by default is either very dim inside or mostly indistinct blue-gray or blown out if focusing inside. Super-resolution however, especially at 6x (double 14 pro’s 3x optical zoom) is actual wizardry.
On the other hand night photos seem like garbage - there’s a bit more stuff visible than on default 3sec night mode but the colors are nonsensical and details nonexistent, certainly nothing even remotely close to what adobe promises on their webpage.
All in all I’m not sure what use it is with the terrible performance, outside of long-range photos that you really want to shoot at 6x zoom and keep as much detail as possible.
Another datapoint with an 15 Pro Max. I shot a couple of pics indoors in my own room and got the message. Seems the app is continuosly processing what's coming from the sensor.
> The app is so heavy that the phone is overheating after the first photo.
I have the same phone and no overheating errors here.
Do you mean the phone got slightly warm? That’s not overheating, it’s just what happens when you use an app that leverage the CPU for anything non-trivial. It’s not overheating.
EDIT: The screenshot below clarifies that the heat warning is a message in the app, not the actual iOS overheating protection as ( https://support.apple.com/en-us/118431 ). Regardless, I still can’t trigger the in-app temperature warning on my phone.
It will dim the screen soon, so much that it's unusable outdoors. I wasn't able to capture a photo outdoors yesterday using this app because of this. The first photo slowly finished processing but the app crashed, lost the photo. Then the device was overheating, the screen dimmed to unusable and the FPS dropped, the app become unresponsive and the music went away, the AirPods re-connected. Couldn't even try to capture a second one.
Agreed on some points but when used properly adobe apps usually have quite good output. There's a reason Photoshop has been the industry standard for so long.
>For the very first time on this phone I felt like I need an upgrade, it felt like the last days of my iPhone 6s. I didn’t know you can do that to an iPhone.
Apple got caught purposely slowing down older model iPhones.
Wow I love that. The processing looks like a Leica indeed, the UI has a Leica feel and put me in a mood for candid Leica style photos haha :)
When using a DSLR I almost always shoot in (A)perture mode, it helps you control how much you separate the subject from the background and it's the thing I miss the most on phone. The portrait mode isn't quite the same.
It's the first app that I came across to have an aperture mode, cool.
PS: Apparently it lets you capture in all modes, but to edit the parameters after taking the picture it requires the pro mode.
I don't think phones have adjustable apertures actually on their mobile cameras. That being said each camera will have a different aperture and you can exploit this to get real DSLR like bokeh (blurred backgrounds).
Basically you want to make sure probably to use real focal lengths (disable digital zoom). This applies to all iPhones and androids.
Usually the main (normal) focal length camera will have the largest sensor and best aperture. Have the phone focus on something close and find the closest distance the phone can manage. This will create the biggest background blur.
On phones with longer length telephoto this will often also work if you find the closest focus point and do the same process. Depending on the actual focal length to sensor size ratio (and aperture) of the telephoto lens it may either have more or less blur than the main camera.
The Ultrawide will usually never have much background blur ability but that is generally true for a real DSLR as well
I really love this app, but I'm not a fan of the subscription model. While I understand the business reasoning, I'd much prefer having the option to purchase individual presets instead of committing to a full subscription.
I recently used the B/W preset by Greg Williams during my trip to Iceland, and the results were fantastic. The grainy texture it added to my photos was exactly what I was looking for and really enhanced the dramatic Icelandic landscapes.
You could probably shoot in apple raw with the built in app and then find a free Lightroom preset (I think Lightroom mobile can have custom presets uploaded to it) and get better results.
Lightroom mobile also actually might require a subscription to edit raw files however (then again it can do a lot more for the price). It also has a free version and you might have good results shooting in a high quality .heif
And if you want the shutter button accessory they advertise, that’s $395 (but sold out currently). That’s a lot of money for a MagSafe button. A person could get an entry level DSLR from Canon for about the same price.
I’m impressed they managed to make an app that makes me not want to use it or my phone to take photos! After I used it for about 5 mins I resolved to dust off my older DSLR and use it instead.
It's not a dslr replacement, what a weird claim. My Nikons and Fujis are so much nicer to hold, to adjust, to shoot. But for a phone camera the s.w is ok. More adjustable than the iPhone app. I like the controls, the current settings text, and built in help text.
Only knock so far is it runs hot: never seen an overheating warning ever on my iPhone 14pro. Now i get one every ten or fifteen minutes when using Indigo.
Marc Levoy is an "engineer"? Sure, but maybe more relevant is the fact that he's a well-known computer graphics researcher and professor emeritus at Stanford.
I'm surprised they did a hardware check within the app rather than just restrict the app on the iOS app store side. Surely they should've marked your phone incompatible before you wasted your time downloading the app?
I do wonder what makes older phones incompatible, though. Others are complaining about the performance, so it could be that the low amounts of RAM Apple puts in their phones is starting to catch up, or it could be as simple as them not having trained their AI models for some older phones yet.
If you want something lighter weight with manual controls and a much longer history I highly recommend the iOS app "Camera M".
Unfortunately Apple restricts some control of the hardware only to the official iOS camera app so in some cases you are actually best off tweaking the built in app as much as possible. I believe Camera M actually has some details about this on their support page and FAQ.
One time fee - often updated - no subscription. The UI isn't fancy but it does everything well and I've found their email support responds quickly and enthusiastically.
I know this is ranty, but I really miss internet sites that aren't 60% adverts, 30% padding and 10% actual thing. This isn't anything more than an announcement page.
Readit News
The app is so heavy that the phone is overheating after the first photo. it consumes so much resources that’s the music was playing in the background stopped because my AirPods connection dropped. For the very first time on this phone I felt like I need an upgrade, it felt like the last days of my iPhone 6s. I didn’t know you can do that to an iPhone.
The photo quality is supperb though, obviously not DSLR replacement but it really gives you that feel. Apple’s own processing has become too boring, sometimes I use Halide just to have unprocessed raws.
On the other hand night photos seem like garbage - there’s a bit more stuff visible than on default 3sec night mode but the colors are nonsensical and details nonexistent, certainly nothing even remotely close to what adobe promises on their webpage.
All in all I’m not sure what use it is with the terrible performance, outside of long-range photos that you really want to shoot at 6x zoom and keep as much detail as possible.
I have the same phone and no overheating errors here.
Do you mean the phone got slightly warm? That’s not overheating, it’s just what happens when you use an app that leverage the CPU for anything non-trivial. It’s not overheating.
EDIT: The screenshot below clarifies that the heat warning is a message in the app, not the actual iOS overheating protection as ( https://support.apple.com/en-us/118431 ). Regardless, I still can’t trigger the in-app temperature warning on my phone.
It will dim the screen soon, so much that it's unusable outdoors. I wasn't able to capture a photo outdoors yesterday using this app because of this. The first photo slowly finished processing but the app crashed, lost the photo. Then the device was overheating, the screen dimmed to unusable and the FPS dropped, the app become unresponsive and the music went away, the AirPods re-connected. Couldn't even try to capture a second one.
It wasn't even that hot, just 28C.
Apple got caught purposely slowing down older model iPhones.
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936268845/apple-agrees-to-pay...
https://leica-camera.com/en-SG/photography/leica-apps/leica-...
When using a DSLR I almost always shoot in (A)perture mode, it helps you control how much you separate the subject from the background and it's the thing I miss the most on phone. The portrait mode isn't quite the same.
It's the first app that I came across to have an aperture mode, cool.
PS: Apparently it lets you capture in all modes, but to edit the parameters after taking the picture it requires the pro mode.
Basically you want to make sure probably to use real focal lengths (disable digital zoom). This applies to all iPhones and androids.
Usually the main (normal) focal length camera will have the largest sensor and best aperture. Have the phone focus on something close and find the closest distance the phone can manage. This will create the biggest background blur.
On phones with longer length telephoto this will often also work if you find the closest focus point and do the same process. Depending on the actual focal length to sensor size ratio (and aperture) of the telephoto lens it may either have more or less blur than the main camera.
The Ultrawide will usually never have much background blur ability but that is generally true for a real DSLR as well
I recently used the B/W preset by Greg Williams during my trip to Iceland, and the results were fantastic. The grainy texture it added to my photos was exactly what I was looking for and really enhanced the dramatic Icelandic landscapes.
But I hate subscription apps. And the rest of the UI seems quite clumsy.
Lightroom mobile also actually might require a subscription to edit raw files however (then again it can do a lot more for the price). It also has a free version and you might have good results shooting in a high quality .heif
Only knock so far is it runs hot: never seen an overheating warning ever on my iPhone 14pro. Now i get one every ten or fifteen minutes when using Indigo.
I do wonder what makes older phones incompatible, though. Others are complaining about the performance, so it could be that the low amounts of RAM Apple puts in their phones is starting to catch up, or it could be as simple as them not having trained their AI models for some older phones yet.
Unfortunately Apple restricts some control of the hardware only to the official iOS camera app so in some cases you are actually best off tweaking the built in app as much as possible. I believe Camera M actually has some details about this on their support page and FAQ.
One time fee - often updated - no subscription. The UI isn't fancy but it does everything well and I've found their email support responds quickly and enthusiastically.