NightCap Camera: Long Exposure

This app does a great job in giving you additional control over your iPhone camera and I have made some cool Astro shots with it. I just wish it had a few items refined. 1. Ability to have it open at night with preset settings. When you open the app, it freezes due to trying to find the correct exposure and do a live view. This slows you down trying to capture your first shot. 2. Better ability to hold settings during a session. You get the ISO, focus and shutter set and take pictures. You stop to take a look in the photo app at your results. Then when you go back over to the app, all your settings are gone. Huge waste of time and effort and seems like a no-brainer. 3. EXIF data. I am shooting in tiff and none of the EXIF data is saved. That’s digital photography 101 to include the EXIF. I stopped having to write down shooting data 20 years ago. If you work around these items, you can get some nice shots.

I enjoy spending time outdoors and was looking for an app that would take great pictures in low light. Read lots of reviews about this app before buying. Unfortunately, it appears that this app isn’t really relevant any more, unless you have some unusual need or desire to control every little thing. If that’s you, then this app is for you and is great at giving you that total control. However, using the iPhone X on iOS 12... the native camera app with its automatic features outperforms the touted AI on this app hands down. Probably a great app in its heyday, but not worth the $1.99 today. Still can’t get a decent picture of the Milky Way on my phone but at this point I’m done trying. It’s clear the only way to get good pictures is with a good expensive camera, not with a cheap app in the App Store. No offense to the developer intended. UPDATE: It’s now been a few weeks of using this app, trying to give it the benefit of doubt. Unfortunately, my review took it from 2-stars to just 1, and even that is generous. This app lacks even basic functionality and pales in comparison to the native camera app. Further, the Halide app is easier to use, has more features, and actually differs greatly from the native camera app. Sorry developers. It is my recommendation to anyone considering this NightCap app to absolutely skip it. As soon as I’m done with this review, I’m deleting the app from my phone. Lesson learned— spend a couple extra bucks to get a decent app!

I’ve been using NightCap for years for astrophotography, and it’s become one of those rare apps that stays on my iPhone because I genuinely use it. Whether I’m photographing the Milky Way, star trails, or just experimenting with low-light photography, it’s consistently produced results that simply aren’t possible with the standard camera app. What really prompted me to write this review, though, was my recent experience with the developer. I reached out with a feature request after noticing that background music would stop while using the app. I honestly wasn’t expecting much, but they responded quickly, explained that the issue had already been addressed in the upcoming version, and even invited me to help beta test the new release. It’s refreshing to see a small developer who genuinely listens to users and is passionate about improving their app. That kind of support is becoming increasingly rare. If you’re interested in night photography or astrophotography on iPhone, I highly recommend giving NightCap a try. It’s been one of my favorite photography apps for years, and after interacting with the developer, I’m even more confident recommending it to anyone interested in night photography on iPhone.