2020-12-16
Not the best, go buy filter gels instead
It’s decent, hard to adjust since it’s not automatic
Updating
iPhone Screenshots
iPad Screenshots
Description
LED aquarium lights are brilliant, but blue (actinic) light interferes with your camera sensor, changing the beautiful colors of your fish and corals into a scene from a black light filled roller rink from the 1980's.
Enter our hopeful hero, Aquarium Camera. It dreams of ridding the internet of bad aquarium photography. It's designed to color correct the actinic light from LEDs in real-time on our mobile devices, the thing we use to take photos of everything else in our lives, except our tanks... until now.
"The Aquarium Camera app is an essential tool for reef tank photography." – ReefBuilders.com
You can now stop buying pro camera rigs, shooting in raw, buying gels, and turning off your blue lights to get great and accurate shots of your tank. You don't need to spend hours in post-production or photo editing apps, tweaking the hue and lighting of each of your photos. Simply put, all you need is the Aquarium Camera and an iPad or iPhone to get GREAT photos and videos of your aquarium.
“So easy to use… Love it!!! And the color changing is realtime so you can see the screen and the real thing side by side to ensure you get the right balance.”
– Carlos Chacon, IT Manager at CoralVue
Features:
• Real-time white balance color
• Real-time RGB adjustment
• *NEW* Real-time Gel mode - orange gels are typically used by professional photographers to compensate for blue light. The new gel mode works like magic by simulating what a gel over your lens will do to your shots. It goes a step further by dynamically changing it's color based on what it sees in your shot (it's like buying millions of gels and picking just the right one for each shot)
• Take Photos or Video
• Portrait and Landscape photos (obviously)
• Digital pinch to zoom
• Touch to focus
• Manually control brightness
• Toggle the flash on/off (works great if your corals are really close to the glass in your aquarium)
• Download it one time and use on your iPad and iPhone
• Quickly access your camera roll to review shots
• Share photos or videos right from the library
Special thanks to the members of Reef2Reef.com for testing version 3.0 of the app! Over 250 aquarists tested version 3.0 prior to pushing to the app store. Check out the Reef2Reef, ReefCentral, Nano-Reef and ChicagoReefs forums to see some of their awesome aquarium photos! Super big thanks to Reef2Reef members Jason Mack, Scott Nelson, Scurvy, NorthFLreefer, ReeferMadness80G, Budau18 and Stratru362 for giving me permission to use their photos in the preview!
I created the Aquarium Camera app because I was tired of seeing posts of brilliant aquariums on forums like Reef2Reef, Nano-Reef, ReefCentral that don't truly represent the health and beauty of the fish, plants, and corals inside. It wasn't as big of a problem in the days of VHO, Power Compacts and Metal Halide lighting, but with LEDs now taking over the aquarium lighting space, we needed another solution.
Let's commit ourselves to spending less time trying to correct the lighting on our aquarium photos and videos and more time enjoying our fish, shrimp, snails, plants, and corals... oh, and doing water changes.
The before and after shots in the preview were taken at the 2017 Aquatic Experience Kessil booth, A80 Tuna Blues. The video was taken under an AquaIllumination Nano LED fixture.
What's New in Version 3.1
3.0 - Checkout the all new Gel mode! It simulates the placement of a colored lens over your camera. Before making the Aquarium Camera app, buying a lens or colored gel (typically orange) was pretty much the only way you could reliably get blue light out of your aquarium shots. The thing that I think makes this app even superior to that life hack , is that it dynamically changes the color of the lens to match what the camera sees in the scene. You might have a frag that needs more yellow, or lighter orange, or more red. Another shot of that mother acro colony might actually need a lens with a bit more blueness to it. It's like you went out and bought 16,777,216 pack of gels (give or take) so you could get the perfect color correction every time. I also added in some auto controls on the sliders to get you back to par if you went a little too nuts. You can now see the values changing dynamically and get a readout of their values. This version also fixes a few users experiencing crashes with the new iPhone X.
3.1 - Includes bug fixes (classic liverock hitchhiker type of stuff) and minor enhancements
Seller
Name
John Ostler
Information
Developer
Categories
Version
3.1
Size
3.5 MB
Game Center
No
VPP Device Licensing
Yes
Rating
Rated: 4+
Compatibility
iOS 10.0 or later
Devices
iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPad (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad (4th Generation) (4G), iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)
Languages
English
App Store: Customer Ratings
Ratings & Reviews
4.3 of 5 (546 Ratings)
App Store: Customer Reviews
2020-08-21
Not full resolution images
The application does what it is supposed to do. Adding gels, controlling the white balance and temperature are all great features but are all pretty much useless when you don’t get a high resolution image output.
The lack of being able to switch lenses (on newer iphones) and the lack of being able to export full resolution images reeeally make this app not useful to me.
It’d be nice to edit images in the camera roll, but I get how images are need to be processed before taking the photo, and if the image is not raw, some things aren’t editable.
It’s a shame, I really wanted to like this app, but it is going to get deleted from my phone.
2020-07-23
Ehhhh
Bought this since it’s only 2.99. It helps, but very slightly. I’ll probably never use it again (only because I have a Polyp lab V2 kit). Just get a filtered lens.
2020-06-22
crashes
The app opens and then immediately crashes on my iPhone 11 Pro Max running iOS 13.5.1.
2020-06-15
Waste of money
Awful scam program.
2020-05-23
Unbelievable
I thought it wouldn’t work.., it does.
Finally I can’t take photos with my cell phone when blue lights are on. It does the job , and does it well !
2020-04-15
Doesn’t do much
I have taken 20+ pictures in lots of light variations
Nothing good has come ... in fact I always go back to the basic iPhone 7 camera
Don’t waste your money
I did lots of research ... I regret buying it
2020-03-18
Captured pictures do not save correctly.
On the screen, i adjust the settings to the point in which i am happy with what I’m seeing. I take the picture, and each one is saved as if i was not
Using the app, no matter what i do the settings. Not To happy
2020-02-26
So worth it
For 3$ it is so worth it wish I could show before and after pictures!! Give it a try.
2020-02-15
Awesome app! Needs update
The app works amazing! And I can get beautiful pictures of my coral. The one thing I wish it had was the ability to switch between different cameras on the new iPhone!
2020-02-08
Crashes
Not sure what happened, but when I click on the app it opens and closes immediately. I have the iPhone 11 and I even deleted the app and reinstalled it. Not much fun when you pay for an app and the only thing it does is crash. No way to contact the developer on their website that I could find.
2020-01-04
Beautiful camera
Spectacular filters for all three of my tanks, but not quite as intuitive as I would like. Also the “auto” setting isn’t always the best to highlight some of the bright reds and oranges I’m trying to capture. Overall well worth the money.
2019-12-20
Terrible
Much better off buying a filter for your phone do not spend money on this app
2019-12-19
Good color balance but some detail is lost
App is good at color balance but some detail is lost and images are not as sharp compared to without the app. Improve detail and keep the original sharpness and this app would get 5 stars from me.
2019-12-06
Great app!
At first I thought it was a waste of money until I really started playing with the app and comparing it with me regular photos. Great app!
2019-11-11
Works great! The critics probably didn’t fiddle around enough with it
It absolutely does work, you just need to fiddle with it. For me, red at 3.4, green at 1, blue at 3.9, and the automatic gel filter looks the best. It’s pretty spot on!
Those who say it doesn’t work just didn’t know what they’re doing. Trust me. Just fiddle around with it. Putting green above 1 never really does anything good. You usually want to have red and blue about the same level, but it depends on your spectrum of light. You don’t want to put blue at 1 and red at max to try to correct the intensity of blue in your photos. It doesn’t work like that, you need both red and blue. Make sure to use the gel filter also! It automatically adjusted to the best gel filter for me
2019-10-19
Camera gets the job done however.
So the camera app works as it’s supposed to. The only issue is it’s obviously not optimized to the latest camera apis as the pictures lose all sharpness and clarity. Also no way to chose between the cameras if on a multi camera phone. Needs an update.
2019-10-14
Maybe for newer phones only
Everything I adjust gel it crashes, and honestly the pictures seem very washed out and not what I personally see when looking at the tank. I know this app works I’ve seen pictures people have gotten with it, but it was a waste for me, as my phone doesn’t seem to handle it well.
2019-08-21
Not working?
I’m not sure if it’s just me or the app doesn’t work but there is almost zero change in taking a picture through the app I still can’t see anything in my tank with this app beware before buying
2019-08-18
Meh
I read some decent reviews about this app on one of the big reefing forums, and decided to give it a try since it had pretty decent reviews. Well it’s not so decent. It’s virtually impossible to get a decent picture using this app. I’d have just as much luck using the xr camera and then editing the photos with the normal iPhone picture editor. If was any more expensive I’d be less than pleased. I’ll be purchasing an actual lens for taking pictures of my tank for my phone in the future.
2019-08-01
It’s good, not great
So I was pretty skeptical of this app working, saw it had decent reviews and bought it. It actually worked much better than I thought, and I was thinking wow this thing is awesome!! And even though it is pretty cool, I compared it to my 5 dollar orange filter lens and it was one, way easier to use. And two, better. That being said I l usually don’t have my lens with me since I have multiple tanks. this is a great alternative to when you don’t have that lens that works it’s magic for you. Another thing is that unless you are pretty good at photography editing and what not. This might come as a challenge to edit the picture. All and all though I say it is worth the 3 bucks.
Happy reefing!
2019-06-30
Seriously?
I paid $3 for this? I want my money back. I really wish I could post the side by side pictures I’ve taken with my iPhone camera and then the app. There is no difference, everything still looks awful in blue light.
2019-06-02
Disappointed
Does not work as good as the phone filter , barely has any change
2019-02-27
Not great.
Has potential but really doesn’t filter out blue color at all. Slightly better that the normal camera but not worth $2.99. Better off buying an actual camera filter. Crashes a lot also.
2019-02-27
Awesome but Missing a must have feature
This app is amazing for reef pictures, in order to be 10 star app they must add a feature to be able
To take pictures using the volume button. This will allow underwater pictures to be taken since screen becomes unresponsive underwater. I have a macro lens and can’t use it because of that reason. Please add this feature
2019-01-18
Not better than standard iPhone camera
I purchased this app after seeing some of the pictures posted using the app. I was impressed, but after using it myself I feel like there must be something wrong. With auto filters going the pictures almost always turn out worse than if I were to take it with the normal camera.
I’ve seen the developer dm other reviews saying the users settings may be incorrect; however, there is no way to contact the app developer. I’m sure it is a fine app when set correctly, but I have no way of doing that.
I had high hopes for the app, but regret my purchase.
2018-12-22
Good app
Great app
2018-09-25
Nifty tool
Easy to use and does what you need it to
2018-09-02
Corrects color perfectly
Does a great job with colors. Just wish the quality of pics could be more HD tho. Seems to come out blurry at times for me.
I really appreciate the reply. It happens even if I tap. The resolution is not the same as with my phone’s camera. I can send you comparison pics if you give me a contact email.
2018-08-10
Worse that standard ipad camera app
Wish I had my money back. Pictures are horrible. It looks way better using the standard iPad camera app.
You ask people to message you if they have issues but you provide no contact info
2018-08-03
App quits
App quicks when I mess with gel. Also would be nice if there was a yellow adjust.
2018-06-16
Finally I can take pics
I love the app... with LEDS it is near impossible to take pics of your corals with the blues turned up . But this nails it and it dosent look distorted or like you photoshopped .i which I could post before and after pics ... definitely worth the 2.99 if you have a reef tank or saltwater tank it is a must buy!!!
2018-05-18
Nice reef app
I was definitely skeptical about getting this app, but it really captures the true color of my fish and coral. I run LEDs on my 60 gallon mixed reef tank so having a camera that lets me adjust colors in real time is a huge help.
2018-04-27
Best Reef Pics with My Phone Yet
I’m really happy with the results of this app using my 7+. I had also bought a clip-on filter that just ended up turning things orange. This app allows me to tweak and take video and stills that turn out great every time. Worth the money!
2018-04-26
Not worthy
This does not work
2018-04-15
Just get it!!!
Great app, it’s effortless to capture the true colors of my fish and coral under my AI prime HD, and if you’re reading this it’s because you know how hard it is to show your stuff off to fellow reefers even with gel filters. Hands down best 2 bucks I’ve spent in this hobby.
2018-04-07
Taking pics underwater is merely impossible
Really love this app. It does such a great job and it’s so easy to use. Wife and I have life proof cases and we hoped to take pics underwater but because of the water the screen doesn’t respond. It would be awesome if an update could be made to snap a picture with the volume up or down button. Then this would have 10 stars!
2018-02-25
Useless
it’s just an app that lets you adjust colors. Many other “FREE” apps allow you to do the same. I was expecting this would automatically sense the blues and adjust...
2018-02-24
I am sorry I paid for this
It’s just an auto camera app. Doesn’t take photos any better than my camera on my phone.😡
2018-01-06
Love it.. It's way better than the stock camera on my 8+
Stock camera can't touch this app taking pics of reef tanks. Well worth the price
2018-01-03
Works great
Does everything it says. Takes awesome photos of corals. Well worth the money.
2017-12-28
Gel filters
New auto gel filters are awesome!!!
2017-11-29
Crashes on iPhone 6 Plus
Just downloaded the latest version and it’s crashing on my iPhone 6 Plus when setting the filter. Wanted to love this app and now feel like I’ve wasted my money.
2017-11-22
Simple and effective
Nice app - simple controls to get huge improvements in photos in a reef tank. Well done!
2017-11-07
Really works magic!!!
I wish I can post some photos here. The effects are stunning! I have white egg crates as frag rack in my tank. After adjusting the colors of the corals to best match the human eye view, the egg crate appears white on the phone! White balance is spot on!
Thanks for such an amazing app! It’s the best $2 I spent on this hobby!!
2017-10-27
A Must have for Reefers
Version 2.0 is head and shoulders above the original version. Color matching is for pics to trade corals or track changes is super easy, and gets easier the more you use it; even under heavy blue lighting.
Fantastic app
2017-10-25
Worth every penny!
I love this app! It’s the perfect camera for taking accurate pictures of your corals!
2017-10-24
Amazing update
Hoping for good things in the future.
Kessil A360w.
Amazing job with the update. I can now dial in true colors under heavy blues with IPhone 6. Great job John.
2017-10-08
Waste of money
Garbage. It isn’t even as good as the stock camera. A complete waste of money.