Set up your iPhone, point it at the storm, tap Start. iLightningCam AI detects every strike and takes the shot. More phases per strike than ever, at photo resolution.
iLightningCam AI – photograph lightning without pressing the shutter.
Set up your iPhone and point it at the storm. The app watches the camera image and takes the shot automatically at every strike. Each detected strike appears as a card with all images of that moment and a combined image that brings all phases together. Save the images you choose to the Photos app.
iLightningCam AI is the successor to iLightningCam 2 and to iLightningCam, the first lightning app for iOS, available on the App Store since 2011. Existing owners of iLightningCam 2 receive iLightningCam AI as an update.
Why “AI”: the parameters for lightning detection and for post-processing in the Studio were determined with artificial intelligence, using thousands of real lightning images from iLightningCam 2 and iLightningCam AI.
iLightningCam AI is a genuine photo app. It uses no generative AI to create images. The Studio, too, only optimizes and enhances your own shots and never creates artificial lightning.
WHAT THE APP DOES
• Real-time lightning detection, day and night, with images at photo resolution
• More phases per strike: high temporal resolution captures how a strike develops across several individual images
• Much improved detection, especially in daylight against a bright sky, with few false triggers
• Higher image quality thanks to the new engine and the HEIC format
• Automatic exposure, frame rate and capture mode, tuned for lightning and for your iPhone
• Modes for every storm: Auto, Normal, Near Lightning, Distant Lightning, Sheet Lightning and Manual, with your own ISO range
• Horizon line: nothing below it is analyzed, so cars and streetlights don’t interfere
• Focus calibration for every lens, optimized for storm photography
• Detailed in-app manual in eight languages, including the basics of lightning photography
iLightningCam Studio (in-app purchase)
The optional add-on brings editing tools to the app:
• Choose the best phases of a strike and combine them into an image of your own
• Lightning Repair: bring out the bolt, remove dark edges along it, soften the bright horizontal band the camera can produce. Many image defects can be reduced considerably this way, but not all.
• Crop and fine-tune light and color
• Save as an image, Live Photo or video clip
• Time-lapse of the entire storm, with separate speed settings for the strikes and the storm
One-time purchase, Family Sharing included, no subscription. Your originals stay untouched.
The Studio only works with strikes captured with iLightningCam AI. Images from iLightningCam 2, from other apps or from the Photos app cannot be imported.
REQUIREMENTS
iPhone with iOS 17 or later, iPad with iPadOS 17 or later. For good results, use a tripod or steady support and make sure you have a clear view of the storm.
SAFETY
Thunderstorms are life-threatening. Seek shelter immediately as soon as a storm can be seen or heard, and never stay outdoors. Only take photos from inside an enclosed building, through a window. You are responsible for your own actions and for any resulting damage. The app is not intended for children or for people who cannot protect themselves from thunderstorms. The full safety information is in chapter 1 of the in-app manual.
I use this all the time for lightning photos and minus the rolling shutter which they cannot control, it gets great lightning photos. Can also work for fireworks but getting the settings correct is harder as it triggers on the flash of the payload detonating but it is set to take pictures in quick succession for lightning flashes, but fireworks are slower. The old lightning cam was better at that. Needs an adjustment for the longer time a firework lasts to get more shots of it...maybe instead of 2-4 as fast as possible do 4-8 with quarter to half second intervals.
Developer Response
Dear user We remember the fireworks mode in ILightningCam 1. We did not continue it because it’s features were limited compared to the standard camera app of the iPhone. Worst case scenario was always that a user misses a large strike because fireworks mode was active. We consider an app that is specialized on fireworks, however it should have more specific features and we need time for it. The ideas about the features are numerous.Cannot give a date though The ILightningCam team
Good at first ... issues now.
Farmer CP
I’ve gotten some great lightning pics with this app but it is very glitchy and getting worse. Often I have to delete it, reinstall and restart my phone for it to work. I’ll have a lighting strike clearly within the frame and the app will take 4 pics but capture zippo. Or it will have a weird pink light but no lightning strike which I clearly saw. Again, I’ve gotten some really amazing pics but in 2020 it’s mostly has malfunctioned. Just sat through a major cell with lots of strikes and lots of pics taken and zero lightning.
Amazing!
Moon lazy
I’ve had this app for a long time and it only gets better. Just the other night, i Lightning Cam 2 caught some amazing lightning pics from a storm. I set it up at the window and walk away. What I got was awesome. The improvements to this app make it easy when it’s on ‘auto’. If you can’t get good photos then it’s not the app. I love this app!! I live in a state with frequent summer storms. A+ to the developer. Thanks!
My all time favorite app
PeterNull
I’ve been using this since version 1 back in the 2011, I LOVE THIS APP. Over those years I’ve captured thousands of amazing lightning pictures that I cherish and even got my parents and colleagues to download the app and get into lightning photography. Thank you so much Florian and team you guys are rockstars!
iLightningCam AI is the update to iLightningCam 2, rebuilt from the ground up.
• New lightning detection: more sensitive and more robust at the same time, especially in daylight against a bright sky
• New photo engine: more phases per strike, many individual images of each strike instead of a few photos
• Better image quality from the new engine architecture, with higher resolution in daylight
• Automatic exposure, frame rate and capture mode, tuned for lightning
• Improved focus with calibration for every lens
• Optimized for current iPhone and iPad models
• New in-app manual in eight languages
• New: iLightningCam Studio as an optional in-app purchase with strike selection, custom combined images, Lightning Repair, Live Photo, video clip and time-lapse of the entire storm
Requires iOS 17 or later, or iPadOS 17 or later.
Version 5.0
The developer, Florian Stiassny, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
