One of the best features on the iPhone X is the camera. It is the best iPhone camera to date, with exclusive features like the wider aperture and OIS on the tele lens. We scourged the App Store to find the best apps for shooting photos and videos that have been updated for the iPhone X, and this is what we found.
There are many great apps in the App Store for manually shooting, but only a few have been updated to support the iPhone X’s display, the HEIF supported in iOS 11, and depth features of the amazing dual-camera setup.
We will be looking at apps to shoot video, photos, and even editing in our roundup. To get the best idea and see them for yourself, check out our hands-on video.
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FiLMiC Pro
FiLMiC Pro is the only app on our list that focuses purely on videography. It has been around for quite a while, and is generally regarded as the best app, hands down, for shooting professional video on your iPhone.
There is everything you would need from a video shooting app. A few of my favorite features include the ability to set stop points and animate the zoom while shooting, the custom white balance configurator, and the overlaid live analytics.
Name: FiLMiC Pro
Cost: $14.99
Best for: Shooting professional quality video on your iPhone
Darkroom
Darkroom got a bunch of new features in its 3.2 update. It has Metal 2 graphics support, support for wide color gamut, and a new UI for the iPhone X.
Darkroom is best for editing your photos, with minute levels of detail. You can easily crop your photos, apply filters, adjust via sliders, user curves, and more.
They’ve updated the app to utilize all of that beautiful display, even adding buttons to the “ears” on either side of the notch.
Name: Darkroom
Cost: Free with in app purchases from $3.99 to $7.99
Best for: Editing and adjusting your photos
Halide
Halide is another fo my favorite apps that got updated for the iPhone X. It has a whole new UI that really focuses on having everything usable with one hand.
There are ton of manual shooting options, such as manual focus, RAW support, depth support, exposure adjustment, and more.
Just like FiLMiC Pro highlights the focus area, Halide will put a live layover on the screen to help you decipher which parts of your photo are sharp. It is a really handy feature when shooting, especially when you are using a manual focus.
They also take advantage of every millimeter of screen real estate. The left “ear” is used as a live histogram of your image, and the right “ear” is used to show the exposure compensation. Really smart to move these metrics there, and get them off the view finder.
Name: Halide
Cost:Â $4.99
Best for:Â Manually shooting photos
Hydra
If you are looking for exceptionally high resolution images, low light shots, or HDR photos, Hydra is a smart choice.
HDR photos are created by taking a series of photos, at different exposures, then combining them into one shot that has a properly exposed background, and foreground. Hydra does just that. It will shoot a series of photos, and combine them into a great looking HDR photo, then gives you three options of B/W, medium effect, or strong effect.
Additionally, you can shoot lo-light photos, zoom, and hi-res. The hi-res photos are especially cool. It takes between 50-60 photos, then combines them into a photo that can be up to 32mp. Significantly more than the default resolution of your iPhone’s images. When you zoom in, photos are still surprisingly sharp.
Name: Hydra
Cost:Â $2.99
Best for:Â Shooting stunning HDR, low light, and high resolution photos
ProCamera
ProCamera is another manual photo app that has an easy-to-use interface. Compared to Halide, it also has controls for shooting in video.
The interface is a bit simpler than Halide too, with only a couple controls visible while shooting, but still having the options available inside a menu. The main aspects, like independent focus, exposure controls, and exposure compensation, are easily accessed right away.
Name: ProCamera
Cost:Â $4.99
Best for:Â Shooting manual photos
Focos
Probably one of the coolest and unique apps out there is Focos. There are a number of really neat features available on this app, and they all utilize the dual camera setup of the iPhone X.
To start, you are able to snap a photo, then adjust which part is in focus after the fact. This is similar to those Lytro cameras that cost hundreds of dollars.
Aside from the post-shooting focus adjustments, you can also adjust the amount of blur and bokeh in your photo. For pro users, you can change the shape of the aperture’s diaphragm, so that the bokeh in the background have specific shapes.
What is exceptionally cool, is how you can apply different effects to different parts of the image. They take the image, create a 3D sliced model of it, and display it from the side.
You can adjust the amount that gets the back bokeh, and how much of the front. Then you can apply any number of different edits, filters, or effects.
My favorite effects are those reserved for the pro tier. Namely, snow, rain, sandstorm, and fog. They are shockingly good effects, and even use the depth of the image in the overlay.
Here is a moody portrait photo of my cat using the rain effect. Fog is also quite cool, and would look really stunning in some outdoor photos.
Name: Focos
Cost:Â Free with in-app purchases of $.99 a month, or $9.99 for lifetime pro
Best for:Â Adjusting focus and applying effects using the dual cameras
Wrap up
There are so many other great camera apps out there, and overtime, I’m sure more will be updated for the standout features of the iPhone X.
Let me know which of these was your favorite, as well as any of your own submissions, down below in the comments.