True NightVision 2: The most powerful night vision app

[psonice]

Hi Guys. I recently updated this app with some new tech (from one of my other apps, NightCap) to give it a bit of a boost. "A bit" ended up being a bit of an understatement, the improvements were actually massive. Here's a couple of pics from our marketing stuff that shows what I mean:

Those shots were all taken in fairly dark locations late at night with an iPhone 4s - obviously the iPhone 4 camera isn't quite so good, and the 3GS is quite a bit worse. I took the same shot with both the iPhone camera app and the night vision app, no photoshop, no flash, handicapping the camera app or whatever - they're real examples of what it can do. It's obviously not going to work in pitch blackness because the iPhone doesn't contain a big IR camera and lights, but it works in pretty dark conditions now.

The app is basically a live camera view using realtime image enhancement to enhance the picture. Version 2 improves that by adding 4 modes that switch the camera between fast (30fps) action mode and slow 'long exposure' mode, the slowest (but most powerful) being the Max mode. With that mode you need to hold the phone still (it's easiest to just prop it against a solid object) but the image enhancement is pretty amazing. It takes photos (at 1280x720, or 640x480 on the 3GS), and there's a bunch of cool filters too (stuff like green mode so it looks more authentic, thermal image (this is an effect - yes, people do believe the iPhone contains a thermal camera if I don't explain this!) and so on. There's 8x zoom too.

I'll post up some free download codes in the promo codes forum in just a moment. Here's the app store link with more info / screenshots (the app is $1): http://itunes.apple.com/app/true-nightvision/id407897439

 

[Macman45]

Now this I like....Will be installing it shortly, thanks for the info. I want to be able to use my 4S at night for atmospheric shots, and this looks just the trick!

 

[psonice]

5 codes: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=14138311#post14138311

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Now this I like....Will be installing it shortly, thanks for the info. I want to be able to use my 4S at night for atmospheric shots, and this looks just the trick!

If you want it for photography use you might be better with my other app, NightCap. That's intended for serious photography use, with no software enhancement but it does do long exposure and saves at full resolution. True NightVision is more of a night vision simulator - it doesn't save photos at full resolution because of the enhancement stuff it does, but it can go quite a lot darker than NightCap as a result.

If you've already bought night vision and think nightcap instead just let me know and I'll sort it out for you

 

[Macman45]

Thanks, will probably play with both....I got the 4S for its enhanced camera, so want to use it as a true replacement for my compact stuff where possible.

No true substitute until now, but I think it's worth persisting with.

 

[psonice]

Thanks, will probably play with both....I got the 4S for its enhanced camera, so want to use it as a true replacement for my compact stuff where possible.

No true substitute until now, but I think it's worth persisting with.

It has its limitations (no zoom, tiny lens which is bad in low light, and more) but it has massive positives to counter that I find. The app store being the number one - there are so many great apps to fix up the things it doesn't do well, and so many to just generally improve your photos.

There are hardware add-ons for some of the other issues too - I use olloclip lenses that give me wide angle, fish-eye and macro. There are zoom lenses too, not tried any though.

 

[psonice]

True NightVision is currently *free*. It'll go back to the previous price about 36 hours from now

 

[TechGirlOracle]

True NightVision 2: The most powerful night vision app

Oh come on! Everyone knows that for night vision to work, You have to have the correct lens! Without the correct lens attached, no software in the world will work!
(please forgive my over use of exclamation marks)

 

[psonice]

Oh come on! Everyone knows that for night vision to work, You have to have the correct lens! Without the correct lens attached, no software in the world will work!
(please forgive my over use of exclamation marks)

You don't need any particular lens for night vision. As a rule, the bigger the lens is the better it will be (a bigger lens is basically a bigger hole that lets in more light).

You don't need a special camera really either, although it can definitely help. Proper night vision equipment tends to have either a special super-sensitive camera, or an infra-red camera plus an infra-red light (this is cheating really, but your eyes can't see infra-red so you don't see the light), or various special devices to amplify light.

All this app is doing is putting the iphone camera in a special mode, where the camera slows down. Because it's slower it has more time to absorb light - on the Max setting it's 15x slower than normal, meaning it's absorbing 15x more light. It also enhances the image to boost the brightness.

It's not magic, and it can't see anything in pitch black conditions, but compared to the standard iphone camera it's a hell of a lot better

 

[TechGirlOracle]

ah thanks for the the explanation. I might try it.