Hydra 2 › AI Camera: RAW + HDR

Name: Hydra 2 › AI Camera: RAW + HDR
Rating: 3.4 (248 reviews)
Author: Creaceed SRL

Pro RAW/HDR camera with AI

Free · In‑App Purchases

248 Ratings
Ages

4+
Years
Category

Photo & Video
Developer

Creaceed SRL
Language

EN
+ 23 More
Size

60.6
MB

Hydra 2.6 introduces manual mode presets. Save and reuse customized camera setups for different shooting scenarios! 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, designed-with-care camera experience for iPhone & iPad. • Computational photography with artificial intelligence (AI). Neural processing & fusion of RAW sensor data. • Unique capabilities that'll make your DSLR blush: 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). Exposure tuning with “zebra” previewing. • Manual mode for precise camera control: focus, ISO, shutter speed, white balance. New advanced priority modes. • 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 for later reprocessing (JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, TIFF-32, OpenEXR, Radiance, DNG, Apple ProRAW, and next-gen JPEG XL) & color spaces (sRGB, Display P3, ROMM ProPhoto). • Saving to Files (iCloud & 3rd-party apps) including shared folders for professional use cases. • Integrated photo gallery. • Lock screen and home screen widgets. • Optimized for latest iOS, Metal, CoreML, and Apple Neural Engine (ANE) for high-speed machine learning 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 & Apple ProRAW (compatible devices only). Other capture modes & restrictions can be unlocked either with the Pro Pack 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

Events

MAJOR UPDATE

New: manual mode presets

Hydra 2.6 introduces manual mode presets to save and reuse custom camera setups for any shooting scenario.

Ratings & Reviews

3.4

out of 5

248 Ratings

Not a good app for novice photographers
04/26/2022

Toucan395
Unless you have photography as a hobby / job etc., I would not recommend this app. I have an iPhone 13 pro — I got the 13 pro because I liked the idea of being able to take really high quality photos with my phone. I am by no means even an entry level photographer / have 0 photography background. I am an outdoorsman, among other things & wanted the convenience of taking nice photos with my phone, but am unlikely to buy a ‘nice’ camera outside of whatever my phone can do. I downloaded this app on a whim specifically to take some off road shots of my vehicle, & felt like the standard camera app had been lackluster recently. Needless to say, the app is going to get my $11 bc I took a bunch of photos with it, & did not realize they had a huge water mark on them, if you only have the free version. All of that being said, unless you have a photography background this app has a lot of features that a ‘rookie’ would not be aware of (ie., myself) — hence, I only see this app being worth the money if you ~really~ know what you’re doing, then I’m sure it could be useful. Overall it is not an ‘intuitive’ learn as you go type camera, & that’s my opinion as a ‘gen Z college student’.

Developer Response
Hi. Thank you for your feedback. The free app lets you shoot in Normal mode including JPEG, HEIC, RAW, and ProRAW without a watermark, and gives you auto and manual camera control for free, which basically corresponds to a free, full-featured camera app. The AI modes can be tested with a watermark and a purchase is needed to unlock them. /RS
Not a good app for novice photographers
04/26/2022

Toucan395

Unless you have photography as a hobby / job etc., I would not recommend this app. I have an iPhone 13 pro — I got the 13 pro because I liked the idea of being able to take really high quality photos with my phone. I am by no means even an entry level photographer / have 0 photography background. I am an outdoorsman, among other things & wanted the convenience of taking nice photos with my phone, but am unlikely to buy a ‘nice’ camera outside of whatever my phone can do. I downloaded this app on a whim specifically to take some off road shots of my vehicle, & felt like the standard camera app had been lackluster recently. Needless to say, the app is going to get my $11 bc I took a bunch of photos with it, & did not realize they had a huge water mark on them, if you only have the free version. All of that being said, unless you have a photography background this app has a lot of features that a ‘rookie’ would not be aware of (ie., myself) — hence, I only see this app being worth the money if you ~really~ know what you’re doing, then I’m sure it could be useful. Overall it is not an ‘intuitive’ learn as you go type camera, & that’s my opinion as a ‘gen Z college student’.
Developer Response 09/22/2022
Hi. Thank you for your feedback. The free app lets you shoot in Normal mode including JPEG, HEIC, RAW, and ProRAW without a watermark, and gives you auto and manual camera control for free, which basically corresponds to a free, full-featured camera app. The AI modes can be tested with a watermark and a purchase is needed to unlock them. /RS
Looks to have some useful new features
03/22/2022

Happy little user
Longtime user of original. While I appreciate power features there was a flow state in original letting one focus on capturing great moments. The update loses some of that and is a little jittery. That is taking a picture goes to editor but had to learn how best to get to other controls. Also the image seems to tile in inconsistently. Do like having control of amount of compression. Taking a photo in hdr seems faster but then spends more time processing. Finally I consistently crash in zoom and sometimes macro. Happy to revise rating when issues are resolved. Til then will continue using legacy version for expediency. Also sad to lose hdr video.

Developer Response
Hi. We take note of your feedback. About crashes, we are aware of iPhone XR related ones (is it the phone you have?), and a fix is on its way (2.0.2) with also file format corrections. Photo editor can be discarded altogether if you want it that way (there's a setting for that), but you have to know that instant editing gives you more room for changes as the image is more accurate (dynamic range) before encoding. The processing time is mostly linked to artificial intelligence and can vary greatly across devices. Apple Neural Engine was introduced in XS/XR and gives a strong speed-up. Also, Hydra has 2 neural computation modes (Fast, High Quality) that also affect speed & which you could try. The capture time itself (that is, before AI processing) has been greatly reduced from Hydra 1 (about 0.5s vs over 10s, 20x speedup), and that in turn makes it more comfortable to shoot and creates fewer artefacts (number one issue reported on Hydra 1). Feel free to contact support@creaceed.com if you want us to look into specific issues. Thanks /RS
Looks to have some useful new features
03/22/2022

Happy little user

Longtime user of original. While I appreciate power features there was a flow state in original letting one focus on capturing great moments. The update loses some of that and is a little jittery. That is taking a picture goes to editor but had to learn how best to get to other controls. Also the image seems to tile in inconsistently. Do like having control of amount of compression. Taking a photo in hdr seems faster but then spends more time processing. Finally I consistently crash in zoom and sometimes macro. Happy to revise rating when issues are resolved. Til then will continue using legacy version for expediency. Also sad to lose hdr video.
Developer Response 03/24/2022
Hi. We take note of your feedback. About crashes, we are aware of iPhone XR related ones (is it the phone you have?), and a fix is on its way (2.0.2) with also file format corrections. Photo editor can be discarded altogether if you want it that way (there's a setting for that), but you have to know that instant editing gives you more room for changes as the image is more accurate (dynamic range) before encoding. The processing time is mostly linked to artificial intelligence and can vary greatly across devices. Apple Neural Engine was introduced in XS/XR and gives a strong speed-up. Also, Hydra has 2 neural computation modes (Fast, High Quality) that also affect speed & which you could try. The capture time itself (that is, before AI processing) has been greatly reduced from Hydra 1 (about 0.5s vs over 10s, 20x speedup), and that in turn makes it more comfortable to shoot and creates fewer artefacts (number one issue reported on Hydra 1). Feel free to contact support@creaceed.com if you want us to look into specific issues. Thanks /RS
Great app. Nice addition to photo workflow
04/19/2022

LuckyLuyckx
This review is based on using the app on a 13 pro Max. This app has some very nice features. I love the Hi-Res mode. Beside the obvious processing to get to the resolution, photos do not look as over processed as it may happen in native app. One little are of improvement would be low-light. I have encountered a few cases where the low-light (equivalent to night mode as far as I can tell) would not capture a photo while the native night move would in similar conditions. I am not sure if this has to do with low light conditions as it was in every case involving extremely dark scenes. I like the simplicity of the macro mode compared to native app. Just pick the mode. Great! No wondering whether it’s “on” or not. One of my favorite feature is the ability to save in .dng I can now skip the so-so camera app in Lightroom, use this superior app instead and still have my DNGs in Lightroom. I do recommend this app.
Great app. Nice addition to photo workflow
04/19/2022

LuckyLuyckx

This review is based on using the app on a 13 pro Max. This app has some very nice features. I love the Hi-Res mode. Beside the obvious processing to get to the resolution, photos do not look as over processed as it may happen in native app. One little are of improvement would be low-light. I have encountered a few cases where the low-light (equivalent to night mode as far as I can tell) would not capture a photo while the native night move would in similar conditions. I am not sure if this has to do with low light conditions as it was in every case involving extremely dark scenes. I like the simplicity of the macro mode compared to native app. Just pick the mode. Great! No wondering whether it’s “on” or not. One of my favorite feature is the ability to save in .dng I can now skip the so-so camera app in Lightroom, use this superior app instead and still have my DNGs in Lightroom. I do recommend this app.
Amazing App
04/28/2022

trex nootan
I have some high end camera gear and some good low end gear. I had this app hanging in my iPhone 12 mini for a few years but rarely used it. At a recent event I had no camera so I decided to use my phone. Instead of Pro Camera app I used Hydra. WOW!! I took some of the most amazing pictures of flowers. I take a lot of pictures but these where the best ever taken. I went to LR before printing but didn’t need to make adjustments. I printed 13 x 18” without any noise. It even looked better blown up. Went to get them framed and people walking by thought I was a professional. “Why yes I am”. Since then I tested Hydra with my Sony A7iiiAnd Ricoh GRiiix. Hydra was the best clarity and color. I have money to buy more expensive camera gear but having discovered Hydra I am rethinking it. I can’t believe the quality.Trust that this is my first review ever for a product. Wish you had this program in a mirror less camera.

Developer Response
Thank you for your nice words and for sharing your experience. One of our longer term goals is to offer Hydra's processing for other brands of cameras too, as software really is where a lot of the innovation resides these days. /RS
Amazing App
04/28/2022

trex nootan

I have some high end camera gear and some good low end gear. I had this app hanging in my iPhone 12 mini for a few years but rarely used it. At a recent event I had no camera so I decided to use my phone. Instead of Pro Camera app I used Hydra. WOW!! I took some of the most amazing pictures of flowers. I take a lot of pictures but these where the best ever taken. I went to LR before printing but didn’t need to make adjustments. I printed 13 x 18” without any noise. It even looked better blown up. Went to get them framed and people walking by thought I was a professional. “Why yes I am”. Since then I tested Hydra with my Sony A7iiiAnd Ricoh GRiiix. Hydra was the best clarity and color. I have money to buy more expensive camera gear but having discovered Hydra I am rethinking it. I can’t believe the quality.Trust that this is my first review ever for a product. Wish you had this program in a mirror less camera.
Developer Response 09/22/2022
Thank you for your nice words and for sharing your experience. One of our longer term goals is to offer Hydra's processing for other brands of cameras too, as software really is where a lot of the innovation resides these days. /RS

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