text: NightCap for iPhone | Photography Blog
  December 23, 2011 | Zoltan Arva-Toth | Software |	Comment | |
  We all know that cameras struggle in low light. As the sun sets your photos become dark and grainy - especially with the tiny camera in the iPhone! The solution is to give the camera time to catch more light - longer exposures in photography terms. Until now that hasn't been possible on iOS, but new app NightCap brings genuine long exposure to the iPhone and iPod touch with iOS 5 for the first time: up to 20x longer than the built-in camera app. The improvement to photos can be breathtaking!
  Cheshire, United Kingdom - iOS photography and video specialists Interealtime are today delighted to announce the launch of NightCap, a photography app for the iPhone that promises to transform night-time and low-light photography on iOS.
  The iPhone camera is limited to a fairly short exposure time - roughly a twentieth of a second. NightCap extends that up to a full second - 20 times longer, which means the camera can catch 20x more light. The difference that makes in dark conditions is quite amazing: in some cases NightCap can produce a good photo where the built-in camera app barely sees anything at all.
  Even where the built-in camera app produces a bright photo, sometimes the photo can be very grainy. This is because the exposure time is very short, and to compensate the camera increases it's sensitivity by using a high ISO level. The problem with high ISO levels is that noise increases with sensitivity, so you get a bright but grainy image. NightCap improves here as well: because the camera can use longer exposure it doesn't need to use high ISO resulting in a much clearer, less grainy photo.
  There's also an artistic advantage to using NightCap: when you're photographing a moving scene longer exposure times mean moving objects start to blur. A good photographer uses this effect to create a sense of speed, following a moving object with the camera to keep the object focused while the background zooms past, or capturing a stationary subject as a crowd flows past.
  Capturing quality images with NightCap is very straightforward as it features a simple automatic mode. The camera adjusts exposure and focus automatically, and will use the flash if needed. In low light it automatically uses longer exposures. Tapping the Photo button takes a photo and saves it to the iPhone's camera roll, and there's a review button to quickly view the last photo.
  Advanced photography features are present too - there's a Manual mode that allows exposure to be set (1/20s to 1s exposures are supported), flash can be turned on and off, and the app supports tap-to-focus.
  NightCap is designed to improve low light photos without compromising elsewhere: it takes full resolution photos and preserves full photo metadata including GPS tagging. Photos are saved directly to the iPhone's camera roll for convenience.
  * 300KB download
  NightCap 1.0 is just $0.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Photo & Video category. If you are interested in covering or reviewing Camera Boost in your publication, please contact us for a free download code.