NightCap Camera

Shown for US

• Price: $2.99

Last verified 31 Jul 2026

Shown for US

4.4 2930 ratings · App Store

1. 4/5Great to have more control over iPhone camera

   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.

   txjlc · 31 Jul 2026

2. 1/5Maybe back in the day...

   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!

   WyoBret · 31 Jul 2026

3. 5/5The best time lapse app for iOS hands down

   Time lapse photography is my hobby, and I use a variety of hardware and software to do it, from a GoPro to a mirrorless camera to a retired iPhone... and I wish all of that hardware had the software that is Nightcap. Easily the best thing about this app is its ability to combine its virtual slow shutter function with its timelapse function. This is amazing if you want to capture wind, blur moving people out of public spaces, or just make motion look smooth. The latest version appears to have resolved one of my two major complaints about the app: it used to have problems with smooth exposure ramping in slow shutter mode, causing big exposure jumps when shooting a sunrise for example... it appears that has been resolved in my last few shoots, and I imagine (although I haven’t tried it yet) that I could do a beautiful night-to-day timelapse with it and have it come out seamless. (The other complaint was how if the phone runs out of battery during a timelapse the whole video is lost, I haven’t looked into that yet.) Thank you so much to the developer for making this, it has turned an old iPhone I no longer use into my favorite timelapse camera. Cheers!

   Drallamekard · 31 Jul 2026

4. 3/5It does the job

   This app is okay. I wouldn’t really recommend using it for taking pictures of the moon (unless you have a telescope handy). Even if you use their tutorial on how to take a picture of the moon, it’s still left grainy and undefined. The stars mode definitely helps taking pictures of the stars, but they are kind of just a glob in the sky. My BIGGEST issue is the constant lag and freezing. It seems that if you try to adjust the settings too much, the app doesn’t know what to do so it ultimately freezes, leaving you to close the app and start again. I’ve tried uninstalling the app, powering my phone off.. but the lag continues. It does get the job done to a certain extent, but you need lots of patience to work the app. It definitely isn’t worth $3 though. With all the downfalls this app has, it honestly should be free. The only reason i’m giving it a three star is because it does help me take pictures of the moon with my telescope. Otherwise, this is app is just messy and not worth it.

   sammjenner · 31 Jul 2026

5. 1/5Focus logic doesn’t work

   I had good experience with NightCap with my iPhone 13 Pro. However, when I recently upgraded to an iPhone 15 pro NightCap is no longer compatible - it can’t focus on the stars. Testing against four other low light/astrophotography camera apps, infinite focus on my iPhone 15 pro is at around 0.95 (it was actually lower on my iPhone 13 Pro). Unfortunately with NightCap I run the focus all the way out to 1.00 and it still hasn’t achieved focus on the stars. I know the AI in NightCap is supposed to “learn” the camera and self calibrate the focus settings. But, after working with the phone outside for a while to see if it could learn, it didn’t. I still can’t achieve focus. I even tried deleting and reinstalling the app to see if had, perhaps, ported over the calibration data from my old iPhone 13 Pro. Still can’t achieve focus. I emailed the NightCap developers several times - no reply. Hence the review. Unfortunate, since otherwise NightCap was a pretty capable app for this application.

   cascadia442 · 31 Jul 2026

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