Hydra › Pro Camera (RAW + AI)3.0.2 - App Store

Hydra is a camera app for iPhone & iPad with innovative capture technology that lets you take gorgeous and unique pictures even in challenging lighting conditions. Making use of the latest advances in artificial intelligence & image processing, Hydra’s independent computational core offers to overcome the physical limits of small sensors, with features such as over 20-stop extreme HDR, detail-enhancing denoising, macro shooting, crisp 6/8x zooming, and a whopping 110-megapixel resolution.

But there's more. Hydra now features a new highly capable manual mode for photo enthusiasts, an improved faster shooting for reduced artifacts, and the addition of a new normal capture mode for everyday photos. It also comes with a number of presets to define your own style as well as a completely new high-fidelity photo editor.

Last but not least, Hydra’s constantly evolving photo capabilities are your best asset to continue enjoying picture quality improvements after device purchase and to obtain state-of-the-art camera innovations all through its lifetime.
“The Hydra app [...] is one of the more interesting iOS camera apps we have seen in the recent past.”
- Lars Rehm (DPReview)

“Hydra is for people who enjoy iPhone photography at a higher and more rewarding level.”
- David Robinson (iPhonographer)

“The user interface is particularly well made [...] If Apple were to purchase this app, they wouldn't have to change anything in its design.”
- Florian Innocente (Mac Génération)

“Hydra [...] is a well thought out and terrific performing photo app with solid features that will improve your images in challenging lighting conditions.”
- Mel Martin (Engadget)
KEY FEATURES

. Refined camera experience for iPhone & iPad.
. Computational photography with artificial intelligence (AI). Neural processing & fusion of RAW sensor data.
. Unique capabilities: extreme HDR (> 20-stop range) to accommodate lighting conditions, superior detail-enhancement and denoising for low-light & macro, up-to-6/8x zooming, and a whopping 110-megapixel resolution. New normal camera mode.
. Versatile viewfinder: approachable ergonomics, tactile input & sensory feedback (1-stop vibrations). “Zebra” exposure previewing.
. Manual mode for precise camera control: focus, ISO, shutter speed, white balance.
. Rich capture options: Apple Watch remote, timer, flash & selfie, geotagging, grid overlay...
. Photo style presets (tonal intent, color rendition...).
. Powerful photo editor for 32-bit non-degrading edits, including tone mapping, detail boosting, precise colorimetry, and Apple ProRAW editing.
. Side-by-side pixel-level comparison with unprocessed RAW input.
. Exhaustive output options with varied file formats, including pro options (JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, TIFF-32, OpenEXR, Radiance, DNG, Apple ProRAW, and next-gen JPEG XL) & color spaces (sRGB, Display P3, ROMM ProPhoto).
. Aftershot: saving to HyperRAW for deferred photo development, including Bracket and Fusion containers.
. Improved saving to Files (iCloud & 3rd-party apps) including shared folders for professional use cases, and folder management.
. Redesigned photo gallery.
. Lock screen and home screen widgets.
. Optimized for latest iOS, Metal, CoreML, and Apple Neural Engine (ANE) for high-speed AI computations on Apple Silicon.
. Privacy first: full on-device processing, privacy filter for social sharing.
PRICING

The free app offers unrestricted shooting in normal mode (auto & manual), including RAW, HyperRAW & Apple ProRAW (compatible devices only). Other capture modes & restrictions can be unlocked either with the Pro Pack 3 one-time purchase, or with the Pro Plan subscription. Upgrade pricing is available within the app for previous version owners.
MORE INFO

Website: https://creaceed.com/ihydra
Privacy Policy: https://creaceed.com/privacy
Terms of Use: https://creaceed.com/terms
Feedback: hydra@creaceed.com

Version History ENHANCEMENTS
- Photo editor: tiled rendering has been reimplemented for increased stability, speed, and support for wide colors (devices with P3 color space) photo previewing.
- ProRAW capture: an issue that prevented saving in certain situations has been corrected.
- Liquid Glass: user interface improvements in capture settings, and HyperRAW development workflow (iOS 27). 3.0.2 Sep 28 ENHANCEMENTS
- Regular mode: photo saving/editing has been restored.
- Fix for a crash that could occur immediately when shooting in HDR (EV alignment failure).
- Fix for a crash that relates to post-capture photo editing (value change / tiled rendering). 3.0.1 Sep 18 Hydra 3.0 introduces support for HyperRAW with a new deferred development workflow, as well as a redesigned photo gallery, and more.

Support for HyperRAW:

• Aftershot: photos are saved immediately as HyperRAW files (extended DNG) for later development, enabling continuous shooting without waiting for processing. Development is initiated later, from the photo gallery, with more time and with better viewing conditions.
• HyperRAW container types: the Fusion container stores the light accumulation into the file, while the Bracket container preserves every single input frame for that shot.
• HyperRAW photo development: saved photos can be developed as if they had just been captured, with AI parameter tuning and the full photo editor available at 32-bit precision.

Other enhancements:

• A redesigned photo gallery: built to manage multiple storage locations and enable the reprocessing of HyperRAW photos.
• Improved storage options: regular photos and HyperRAW files can be saved to third-party sync services and other supported locations, in addition to the iOS photo library. 3.0 Sep 15 Improved performance and fixed several bugs. 2.6.2 Jul 30 Improved performance and fixed several bugs. 2.6.1 Jul 16 Hydra 2.6 introduces manual mode presets: one of the most requested features.
You can now save and reuse customized camera setups for different shooting scenarios, making it faster and easier to shoot exactly the way you want.

MANUAL MODE PRESETS
• Create presets directly from Manual mode
• Fine-tune focus, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance
• Combine manual and automatic controls, or use Auto Exposure (AE) with a custom EV bias
• Save presets under custom names for quick access
• Sync presets across your iPhone and iPad via iCloud

BUG FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS
• Fixed an issue where manual mode sliders were not displayed correctly on first launch on iPad 2.6 Feb 24 PRIVACY ENHANCEMENTS: Hydra no longer relies on App Center (Microsoft) for anonymous features analytics and crash reporting. Anonymous crash reports are now handled through built-in mechanism of iOS (user opt-in), and features analytics has been completely removed. 2.5.2 Feb 12 Hydra 2.5.1 brings improvements to Liquid Glass user interface on iOS 26, and is now localized to more languages.

• Photo editor (after shoot) gets a more refined Liquid Glass look.
• Other user interface elements have been refined.
• Hydra is now localized to 24 languages. 2.5.1 10/01/2025 Hydra 2.5 brings enhanced support for iOS 26 with Liquid Glass integration for a modern experience.

- New Liquid Glass app icon
- Global Liquid Glass support in the viewfinder (lens buttons) including manual mode, camera settings, photo gallery, and after-shoot photo editor & tools (iOS 26 only). 2.5 09/11/2025 Fixed erroneous name for Control Center / Locked Screen button. 2.4.4 04/07/2025 Fixed a display issue with the Auto/Manual toggle on iOS 18. 2.4.3 03/11/2025 Fixes a crash affecting older OS (iOS 15 / iOS 16) 2.4.2 10/23/2024 NEW FEATURES
• Camera Control button (iPhone 16 + Pro): Hydra now provides full support for the new Camera Control button. Shooting (click) and settings menus (light press twice) are new offered for the following options: exposure control, grid display, timer, orientation lock, and color rendition.
• Improved camera selection (lenses) and zoom scale reporting for iPhone 16/16 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max.
• Improved neural engine post-shoot animation.
• Added compare button in photo editor: unprocessed RAW vs. AI enhancement. 2.4.1 10/21/2024 NEW FEATURES & ENHANCEMENTS
• Optimized for latest iOS
• App icons update (standard / dark / tinted)
• Control Button: action button, lock screen, and control center (open hydra with specific mode)
• Widget update (dark / tinted)
• Screen mirroring on Mac: Keyboard shortcuts (think photo studio for iPhone camera with control from the Mac)
• Screen mirroring on Mac: drag & drop of last shot picture from thumbnail directly on Mac
• Apple Intelligence (camera domain)
• Enhanced CoreML performance 2.4 09/12/2024 This release brings compatibility and optimizations for latest OS. 2.3.2 04/05/2024 Fixed a photo corruption bug (HDR mode) occurring on certain devices with 17.2 or later OS. 2.3.1 01/08/2024 Hydra 2.3 brings iOS 17 enhancements including a new Shortcuts action and improved Home Screen / Lock Screen widgets.

NEW FEATURES & ENHANCEMENTS
- New Shortcuts action to automate Hydra launch & shooting. The programmable action lets you launch Hydra in any specific shooting mode, with automatic or manual control, and lets you optionally shoot immediately or after a delay.
- iPhone 15 Pro action button: Hydra can now be launched with the physical button using the new action. Also lets you define a workflow with other actions / apps interactions.
- Spotlight: Hydra can be launched from Spotlight search results in any particular shooting mode (iOS 17).
- Home Screen / Lock Screen widgets: camera control (auto/manual) can be specified, enhanced compatibility with iPad and Mac (Sonoma), iOS 17 now required. 2.3 10/24/2023 Fixed false-color AI artefacts when processing noisy inputs with the 'smooth' neural variant in Hydra (all AI modes). This affects iPhone 14 Pro with telephoto shooting, but also other phones in extremely low light environments. 2.2.2 09/08/2023 ENHANCEMENTS
- Photo Editor: better compatibility for latest OS versions
- Interface elements adjustments in presented sheets 2.2.1 08/10/2023 NEW FEATURES & ENHANCEMENTS

• Support for the quad-pixel sensor of iPhone 14 Pro in Normal mode: Hydra currently exposes the 48MP sensor when shooting in Normal mode. Both ProRAW (for editing) and JPEG/HEIC (high speed) can be used.
• Hydra's photo editor gets updated to let you edit at the full 48MP resolution & save the result.
• An intermediary format of 27MP is offered in Hydra (Photo reduction option) when shooting with the quad-pixel sensor to enable a greater photo resolution at a more reasonable file size.
• Hydra AI modes can't currently offer support for the new sensor (48MP) as full-resolution RAW format is not offered to 3rd-party developers. Stay tuned on this subject as we definitely hope to do more when that becomes possible.
• Fixed a UI-related glitch on iOS 16 2.2 10/18/2022 BUG FIXES

- Fixed a viewfinder crash
- Volume button shutter trigger (and Bluetooth clicker) is back on iOS 16
- Device orientation related bug fix

NEW FEATURES & ENHANCEMENTS

- iOS 16 lock screen widget: you can now launch Hydra directly from your lock screen, optionally enabling a specific shooting mode.
- iOS 16 home screen widgets: the new Photographer's Dashboard widget lets you display upcoming photography-related hours (sunset, sunrise, golden hours) on your home screen, and configure launch buttons with user-chosen mode presets. The smaller Photography Hours widget lets you display just the upcoming hours without launch buttons.
- Other iOS 16 compatibility improvements & fixes.

PHOTOGRAPHIC SUBSYSTEM UPDATE

- Important stability improvement of the shooting core. Photo capture has been rewritten to address memory issues affecting a number of devices, limiting the number of in-flight photos independently of the total amount of taken pictures. Will improve shooting in all modes and in particular Hi-res, on all devices including iPhone 6s, XR, 12 mini.
- A GPU-related drawing corruption has been identified & addressed, which resolves a number of output photo artefacts as well as incorrectly reported excessive motion errors while shooting.

APPLE WATCH UPDATE

- Apple Watch: the Apple Watch app for remote shooting has been rewritten to offer an improved & modern edge-to-edge design. 2.1.1 09/23/2022 Hydra 2.1 brings specific new features for iOS 16 as well as photo capture stability improvements for all devices & OS versions.

NEW FEATURES & ENHANCEMENTS
- iOS 16 lock screen widget: you can now launch Hydra directly from your lock screen, optionally enabling a specific shooting mode.
- iOS 16 home screen widgets: the new Photographer's Dashboard widget lets you display upcoming photography-related hours (sunset, sunrise, golden hours) on your home screen, and configure launch buttons with user-chosen mode presets. The smaller Photography Hours widget lets you display just the upcoming hours without launch buttons.
- Other iOS 16 compatibility improvements & fixes.

PHOTOGRAPHIC SUBSYSTEM UPDATE
- Important stability improvement of the shooting core. Photo capture has been rewritten to address memory issues affecting a number of devices, limiting the number of in-flight photos independently of the total amount of taken pictures. Will improve shooting in all modes and in particular Hi-res, on all devices including iPhone 6s, XR, 12 mini.
- A GPU-related drawing corruption has been identified & addressed, which resolves a number of output photo artefacts as well as incorrectly reported excessive motion errors while shooting.

APPLE WATCH UPDATE
- Apple Watch: the Apple Watch app for remote shooting has been rewritten to offer an improved & modern edge-to-edge design. 2.1 09/15/2022 BUG FIXES
- Fixed problems/crashes linked to photo sharing (editor, gallery)
- Fixed a crash linked to manual mode activation 2.0.7 08/22/2022 NEW FEATURES & ENHANCEMENTS
- Handling of devices with older cameras. A number of iPad devices don't support RAW shooting which is a required feature for Hydra AI modes (HDR, Lo-light, Hi-res, Zoom, Macro). On these devices, only the Normal shooting mode is enabled within Hydra.
- Fix for a crash that could occur while loading a large photo library on older devices
- Fix for DNG (unprocessed) output in AI modes which now correctly include geotagging when requested.
- Increased speed and memory usage stability when shooting with devices equipped with Apple Neural Engine (Core ML). 2.0.6 07/11/2022 Fix for a crash that could occur while loading a large photo library on older devices 2.0.5 05/03/2022