Obscura — Pro Camera App Reviews

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Good camera, but bad UX. I like all the manual controls this app exposes, but the UI could use some improvement. The iconography can be very difficult to understand—some text labels would help greatly.

I love this app I can’t believe I have never herd of it. I downloaded this app cuz it says it works with the Fjorden camera handle and omg I’m in love with this app it’s reasonably price too for it’s nice features I would recommend it to everyone

Very Interesting Camera. Have been in discussions with the developer of this camera app. Always responsive, they have made some very recent updates turning their app into a powerful camera. Highly recommend using it.

Pro Raw Crash. App crashes every time I select the pro raw format.

From Darkroom. Just bought your app because I saw it featured in an update to Darkroom. Anything Darkroom recommends, I’m in.

Moved to Subscription Model. Don’t support developers that move the goalpost and certainly don’t support developers that do subscription-only. Vote with your wallets. Never going to support this developer again!

Really wanted to like the app. I really wanted to like this app. The photography controls are nice and I liked the granular controls for video. What brought this down to two stars for me is that even after multiple short tests of video to make sure everything was working, when I finally recorded a longer video—nothing saved. 20+ minutes later I have nothing recorded. Even though the recording timer continued to increment. Very disappointed. 14ProMax at latest iOS

Cool camera but not working with Fjorden grip. Bought this app so that I could use it with my new Fjorden Grip. it is supposed to be compatible. I can even see it paired in the Obscura3 settings but I cannot get any of the Grip’s buttons to work within the app. I can find nothing on the web on how to fix it. Frustrating! Edit: it now suddenly seems to work with the Grip but will not zoom (only changes lens with zoom slider on grip).

Intuitive controls, doesn’t support 15promax. Nice intuitive controls, WB option is great, but doesn’t support iPhone 15 pro max lenses and outputs at the moment, will revisit if it does.

Love the interface, hate subscriptions. I’ve been looking for something to replace FilmMic Pro since it had gone to a subscription model and rediscovered Obscura. I like the interface, very accessible even for new users. However, for advanced users or anyone looking for video, you’ll have to cough up more bucks to get to the “Pro” features. Once again, subscription raises its ugly head. I understand why people use it, but my issue is that these models tend to trap you by holding your media hostage if you decide not to renew, or they use some other way to keep you paying. Here the developer teases. Want to record video? You gotta pay. Want access to Raw? You gotta pay. Want to do anything beyond taking a snapshot? Pay up. I’d rather pay for versions and decide if upgrading to the latest is worth it. Guess I’ll keep looking.

Great update!. Obscura 4 is a huge update! Aesthetically beautiful and functional, this app can be as simple as a drop-in camera.app replacement while still offering many advanced features under the hood if you need them. Highly recommended.

Portrait mode?. I'm not sure this is just me but portrait mode doesn't do anything. It takes just a normal photo.

Subscriptions? No thanks. Easy problem to solve: add forever license at 3x-4x cost of a year subscription.

As a semi pro, I love this camera. This is a wonderful camera app. The UI takes a minute to get accustomed to, but it’s obvious a lot of thought was put into the IxD (interaction design). It’s super easy to change settings on the fly. What I love most is that you can live preview filters, just like you can with Fuji recipes. It’s so much fun. For those complaining about a subscription fee, it’s $10 a YEAR. I’m more than happy to pay that for a well designed, lightweight, and highly functional camera app. Cheers to the development team!

And yet another subscription... A subscription for a camera app is just insane at this point. Like, just sell it for a few bucks but don’t try to make people pay for it forever. Smh

Not friendly at all. Tried to select 32 ISO kept stopping at 100, then finally relented sort-of and would go to 64, but never got 32. What other surprises are there? A UI that requires spinning wheels that aren’t accurate is pretty stupid when you could provide a simple row or better just the option to enter the numbers on a keypad. Much more intuitive and usable than trying to pretend it’s a camera dial on a flat piece of glass.

I want my refund. I had a Canon mirrorless camera, this app doesn’t allow to set aperture. It’s set at one setting. Whatever happened to Manual settings. This is not an accurate app. I wanted to give a try but I’ll stick with Lightroom camera.

Powerful but confusing. I simply don’t understand what is going on in the app when I want to use it. I thought maybe that the Photo Mode was like point and shoot mode and Pro Photo Mode was for photography but in Pro Photo Mode I have to remember to turn off the secondary file HEIC or JPG every time I shoot. I want to use this because I prefer the one-time payment to the subscription model but the UI controls are just too confusing. And unfortunately the Walkthrough documentation doesn’t really help me. Searched YouTube today for possible walkthroughs or tips and tricks and there’s nothing. Update (7/5/2022) Thank you for the reply and I appreciate that this matters. I’m going to reply here so maybe other people looking at the app can find the right menu - It’s not the gear icon on the camera app itself. You have to tap the photos icon (or pull down the camera) and there’s a second gear icon for other settings. This changes my review. It’s not 5 stars because this settings menu was not at all discoverable.

Thank you, no, not another subscription.. As soon as I saw that upgrading would require a subscription, I deleted the app. Doesn’t matter how good it is, I don’t do subscriptions for productivity apps. If a developer wants money, show me an upgrade. But I am not going to pay a subscription price just to get things done.

Photo album not working and…. So interface is fantastic, issues, 1. With the setting on limited photos I can not get even the photos taken with the app to be viewable in the app. 2. Subscription apps are hard to like. I decided to try it for one year againat my pure hate for subscription based apps, I’m currently using 12 different camera apps and so for the interface is by far the best, I’m hoping the photo issue is just a bug, my plan is to test all the apps until I can find the one that I gravitate to by the ease of use, the main concern is that somewhere I think I read it’s made by one person, what happens if that person decides to stop or can’t keep support up? I hope this app keeps going it has great features and huge potential, I’ll be happy to give 5 stars if the album loads without issue, even with the dreaded subscription.

You can’t even adjust the shutter speed w/o subscribing. It advertises its manual controls, but you need to get a subscription service in order to access it. There are dozens of apps that give you this ability for free. Deleted.

The only 3rd party photo app I use. This is the complete solution if you’re looking for more pro-camera features. Very intuitive, yet very powerful.

Super customizable creative camera app. Obscura 3 has a unique and clean design and the controls are powerful and intuitive. I especially like the radial dial control for adjusting focus with fine tune increments. There's also a lot of power behind customizing the app for whatever works best for you. You can customize each mode to have different presets or you can change what different gestures do. There's a lot packed into this!

Top App. I've tried a number of camera apps and I find that the design of Obscura is far and away the best. The ease of knowing and seeing the affects of camera adjustments is very good as is the ability to know the exact setting whether I'm wearing my glasses or not. There is a consistency of approach to the settngs and it is all intuitive. The images themselves are better than in ohter apps and I can more easily get just the effect I want.

photo capture failed. Always prompted to take pictures can not be saved

Almost impossible to use - worthless. The controls on this app are incomprehensible and, strangely, bear little resemblance to the App Store displays. The challenges don't arise simply from not being a pro photographer - the app interface and controls are simply not competently designed for easy interpretation and use. It's so worthless I would give it 0 stars if that were an option. Fortunately, it didn't cost me much and there is no periodic subscription charge that I have to cancel. MacLife Magazine gave this app a good review, but again, their description is not what you find on opening the app. Makes me wonder if I should respect the magazine any more as well.

1x 2x 1.9x 1x 1.6x 2x 2.5x. Why yes, I did pick 2x just so it could go 1.9x or 2.5x… Perhaps it’s an iPhone 7 Plus issue but I cannot recommend this app

Quickly becoming my go-to mobile photography app.. I've been on iOS since iOS 11, using an iPhone 6, and currently I''m on iOS 16, using an iPhone 13. During that time I've purchased, downloaded and used many apps in the category of mobile photography and still have a folder loaded with them. I make an effort to bounce between different ones, giving each a chance to stand out to me, especially after an update. Typically my favorites are Pro Shot and Halide, and Obscura was more or less an impulse buy at the time, which sat on my homescreen exactly where it downloaded to. But once I took the time to try it out I was surprised I hadn't gotten it sooner. Easy UI, flexible controls and great photo processing have made Obscura the app I keep finding myself gravitating towards everytime I see a shot I want to take. I own DSLR's and am amazed by how far mobile photography has evolved especially on iPhones - and I believe the team with Obscura is utilizing every bit of technological innovations to not only emulate DSLR grade photography, but to exceed and stand in a category it's own. Amazing job to the developers! Carpe Diem

Disappointed. Disappointed that you moved to subscriptions, but I understand it. What I don’t understand is why you won’t continue supporting the old version we already paid for.

Great design, stupid subscription.. A beautifully designed app locked behind yet another stupid subscription. Even the most pro photography apps on the app store has some sort of lifer buy-in. Can you give us this option? Also to lock RAW shooting behind the subscription is an instant delete for me. This isn’t cool at all when I can quickly use iOS’s built-in camera RAW shooting or any other app like Halide for example.

Love it but customized shutter color please?. I just want to suggest it would be nice if I could choose a color for the shutter button. I’m older, glasses help but even still, if the shutter button could be a color I’d stop pressing the white lens change circle when I want to take a picture. I’m so used to pressing a white shutter circle for the iPhone camera. And, if each lens choice could have a color I’d not have to read the small print. Thank you otherwise all very nice. !

Clean interface. Fantastic to use with one hand. Well thought out UI for drilling down to the manual settings. My new go to camera app for manual photography.

Excellent App. For anyone who’s had a bit a bit of experience with a variety of iOS camera apps. I probably have too many. Obscura is opinionated and clever about USER INTERFACE and that’s a good thing. It may feel intuitive to some, maybe not so much to others. But, like anything, I gave it a moment and find it to be a very compelling photography app, with smart ideas and excellent performance.

Best for Me. I wasn’t that impressed with the earlier versions, but the latest, Obscura 4, is perfect for me. Easy to navigate and takes great pictures. It is my main camera app now.

Terrible. This is the least intuitive app I’ve ever used. It’s actively infuriating.

Paid for the upgrade, but now it won’t save photos. “photo capture failed” when I take 48MP ProRaw photos. I will gladly change my rating to what it deserves (5*) but without the ability to save photos, it’s useless!

Improvements over Obscura 2. I’ve recently purchased Obscura 3 to see what it had in comparison to Obscura 2. The simplification is amazing compared to 2. I will miss the way the settings were on the wheel, but the much more simple UI is amazing. Definitely recommend this app if you want to up your photo game.

No privacy, hidden photos. Need to fix private photos, they’re not private at all.

So good it’s replacing the Camera app for me. Really been digging Obscura 3 since I got a chance to dig into it & have actually taken more photos *because* of the app than I have in a while. I’ve had other pro camera apps, but having Video in this version is a big deal because it can totally replace the Camera app for daily situations rather than trying to specifically serve as a tool when I want to practice photography. Plus, the minimalist design has settled in version 3 into a fine-tuned mechanism with discrete capture modes, all the controls I want, and I literally noticed myself think “Oh it should have *this* feature” and then promptly found it in Settings. I’ve picked a few filters, taken some shots that I’m pleased with, and it’s now on my Home Screen too – I look forward to putting it through some more tests soon & if I have any suggestions will send them to the dev team 👍

Amazing UI, responsive developer. To be honest, I was having issues with this app originally. I loved the look, but it was crashing and not showing RAW photos correctly. I posted the issue on here and the developer reached out almost immediately and said they were working on it. Shortly after, I was added to the beta program and since then everything is working great. I’m enjoying the app and the opportunity to give feedback on improvements. I highly recommend Obscura 3. You have to praise an app that doesn’t copy the others and takes a fresh approach. Very well done!!

Good job, Ben.. I've been using Obscura since its first iteration. They are always solid cameras. Obscura 4 is so versatile and predictable and stable. 🔥💯👍🏼

Don’t like it. Read the reviews though ide try it crashed on me 3 times takes forever for it to swap between front and back cameras not worth the ten bucks how do I get my money back

Instant purchase. As an Obscura 2 user I was glad to see 3 out with so much features. I applaud the dev for not going the subscription route. This app is loaded. I just want an option to preserve settings. I shoot 16:9 but camera launches 4:3 by default

Not Playing. I have developed a case of severe subscription fatigue. As developers flock to this subscription business model, they must realize that it is not sustainable for the consumer. We’re not ATMs where you can drain endless funds. As much potential Obscura has demonstrated as a first-class camera app, I’m not playing — the app is now deleted.

Just one more feature and it’s perfect. This camera app is amazing, the ui is simple and you adapt to its unique controls pretty quickly, but there’s one feature I really miss from the pro mode on my Samsung phone. It would be great if you can set the exposure and iso to be manual or automatic separately. For example, manually setting the exposure to 1/1500 but letting the iso stay on auto. It’s a really useful in situations where you’re photographing fast moving objects but don’t have time to adjust the iso for each shot. Like I was photographing my dog on my Samsung as he ran around and jumped in the air and i relied heavily on the auto iso to adjust for each time I was at a different angle or in a shadow, facing the sun, under a tree, etc. So being able to manually set exposure without also locking the iso into manual would be greatly appreciated! At the moment I need to use ProCamera since it offers that feature. But I like the UI of Obscura much more so that feature would make this camera app perfect in my book.

Just saying no to subscription. It’s death by a thousand cuts with all these subscriptions. I’m done!

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One of the best camera apps. The support and update is great and the follow up when the App Store had a bug in it I got quick good support and it was fixed and they follow up to make shore the app is all good on my phone .

Long time user.. Obscura 3 is an excellent camera app. I’ve now bought and used all 3. The app is faultless and is as professional as you can get on an iPhone. The developer of Obscura has done a brilliant job with all variants of Obscura.

请问怎样启用48 mP镜头？谢谢. 请问怎样启用48 mP镜头？谢谢

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Obscura 3?. Just saw the App telling me to update to Obscura 3, but the link takes me to Obscura 4. Where do I get ver 3?

Beautiful design. This app is a joy to use.

Meh. Takes great pics when app actually stays open. After ios16 it just closes after you take a pic. No reset helps. Wasted money.

None of the settings save.. Camera seems alright so far, but its annoying AF to have to go into setting every time you open the camera to turn on histogram, level, and grid. I can’t find the setting that would let you save it for every tine you open the camera. You'd think by default however you set your interface, is what it would open up as for each mode provided: photo, film, pro, etc. Please save settings or give a profile for each mode you can save your preferred settings to so you don’t have to waste your time going back to the settings to enable everything. Update: every time you switch modes, in the app: switching from photo to pro and back again, the settings you had set for both modes do not stay.

Outstanding App. Not only does this app elevate your iPhone camera to a new level, the customer support is stellar. I had a pretty quick question and I got an extremely quick response. And then even quick responses to my follow up questions. Highly recommended.

No iPad App.. Pretty good app, the only downside is that it doesn’t have its dedicated iPad app.

Burst shooting. Been trying the app for a few days now, much better than stock iPhone camera app. But…. One thing seems to be missing and that’s burst shooting mode. Is that an upcoming upgrade or am i not finding that option with this app. Would like the ability to use burst with the faster shutter speed ability.

Great camera app. The newest update makes it way more user friendly and it is now my camera app of choice.

One of my favourite iPhone camera apps. I really like the (as far as I know) unique way this app allows the user to precisely adjust the focus, shutter speed, ISO or colour temperature with a single tap and swipe action. Apple should adapt a similar methodology for some of its apps. One feature request: please add a variable zoom function to the “pro” mode.

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