Intent
“Freeze the tackle”
f/2.8·1/1000·ISO 800
Shutter comes first. Obtura spends aperture and film speed to buy it, and stops at the widest aperture your lens actually has.
your frame — 3:2, 1600×1067
For manual & film cameras
See the photo before you take it.
f/2·1/250·ISO 100·+0.3 EV
the answer, before you touch a dial
Point your iPhone at the scene. Say the photograph you imagine. Obtura returns the settings your camera can actually be set to — and shows you the frame they'll give you.
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One scene. Two photographs.
EV 12.3·24 mm·ISO 100–800
Intent
“Silky water”
f/16·2s·ISO 100
Same light, opposite answer — with a warning that two seconds means a tripod, before you've wasted the frame.
your frame — 3:2, 1600×1067
Both answers snapped to the click stops of the lens actually mounted.
How it works
- Point
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It meters the scene through your camera's eyes — your film speed, your lens, your body's shutter ladder — not the iPhone's.
- Say the shot
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In plain words. “Freeze the tackle.” “Silky water.” “Keep the background soft.” No exposure jargon required — that half of the job is the app's.
- See it first
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The settings to dial in, and a simulated preview of the frame they'll give you. Change your mind before you spend the shot.
On-device intelligence
The words are understood on your phone. The numbers are physics.
Apple's on-device model reads your sentence and turns it into a photographic intent — subject motion, depth, how much grain you'll accept. From there nothing is guessed: the exposure is solved arithmetically from the metered light and your camera's real dials. The model never picks your settings, and your sentence never leaves the phone.
- Reads your intent
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Apple Foundation Models
On device, no request to a server, works in airplane mode.
- Solves the exposure
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Deterministic, no model
The same light and the same lens always give the same answer.
- Leaves your phone
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Nothing
No prompt, no photograph, no telemetry. Ever.
The instrument
Built like a light meter, not an app.
Dark from edge to edge, one-handed, tabular numerals. The raw EV stays on screen at all times, so you can check the app against your own judgement — and calibrate it to the body you trust.
- Reflected & incident metering
- Half, third or full-stop dials
- Per-lens aperture ranges
- Calibration offset per body
app screenshot —
previsualisation screen
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previsualisation screen
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What it does
- Your camera, not a camera
Your lens's real aperture range and click step. Your body's shutter ladder. If f/1.7 isn't on your lens, Obtura will never suggest it.
- Works offline
Metering, intent and the solver all run on the device. No signal needed on the mountain, in the darkroom, or on the plane.
- Film stocks & real dials
Push and pull, reciprocity failure past a second, box speed versus rated speed — the arithmetic film shooters do in their heads.
- A journal of your shots
Every frame logged with its settings, its intent and where you stood — ready for the contact sheet when the scans come back.
Privacy
Nothing leaves your phone but the receipt.
No account. No usage analytics. No tracking, no advertising identifier. Your photographs, camera profiles, journal and the sentences you speak stay on the device. Apple takes the payment; an anonymous receipt is the only thing that ever leaves, and we never learn who you are.
Free to meter. Pro to coach.
Metering is free and unlimited, forever — and so are previsualisation, the shot journal, calibration and your camera profiles. The one thing Pro changes is coaching: three coached shots per rolling seven days without it, unlimited with it, as a monthly or annual subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. Prices are shown in the App Store.
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