Introducing Obscura 4
A camera app built for pros and designed for everyone.
Obscura 4 has been redesigned and rebuilt to be faster, nicer, and easier to use than ever before.
Download it now: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1579306989?pt=96658924&ct=Mastodon&mt=8
There so many delightful little touches and features throughout the app, but here are a few of my favorites:
- dual reticules for focus and exposure
- exposure clipping indicators
- improved spirit level
- bokeh control
Obscura is no longer paid-up-front, and is now free to use, with a subscription for premium features, called Obscura Ultra.
Ultra is $9.99 annually.
Early Adopters can get Ultra for $7.99 for the first year.
Obscura 3 users can get Ultra for $4.99 for the first year.
And Obscura 3 users will still have access to existing features without having to pay again. Naturally.
There are some more details on my site: https://www.benricemccarthy.com/obscura-4-announcement/
and a deeper dive into my favourite features here: https://www.benricemccarthy.com/obscura-4-highlights/
Introducing Obscura 4, a premium camera app built for pros and designed for everyone. It’s been redesigned and rebuilt from the ground up to create a gorgeous, intuitive and delightful experience every time you take a photo. Obscura on the App Store Refined Design Obscura combines pro camera features
Ben McCarthy’s career as a developer coincides almost exactly with mine as a writer. As a result, I’ve had the pleasure of watching Obscura evolve from little more than an idea to one of the best camera apps on the App Store. As with so many apps, what sets Obscura apart from others is Ben’s
Also shout outs to @harshil who helped me with a million little SwiftUI problems throughout, and to @caseyliss for just being the best, and to @lexfri for doing some tremendous voice over for the videos
And to @sal9000 and Goose for putting up with me, of course
Working on Obscura has been a hell of an experience. Almost every part of the app you interact with is now SwiftUI, and I think I’ve achieved some incredible things with a UI framework that some people are still afraid to touch 😅
Perhaps the best example of this is the image control bar, I took a standard system card, and using a little magic made it float above your photos, and it animates beautifully into a full size card when viewing metadata
If you found that whole announcement as exhilarating and overwhelming as I did, here are some actionable next steps:
- download Obscura 4 (it’s free now, you have no excuse not to)
- take some photos
- play with the exposure dial
- admit that the haptics alone are worth like $30
- subscribe to Obscura Ultra
- leave a rating / review on the app store
- tell me I did a good job and deserve to rest now
- tell a friend about this cool new camera app you’ve recently become obsessed with
@BenRiceM Sounds like a great app but…
“Free to Download with an annual subscription for premium features”
Is there a list or a page describing what the premium features actually are? I looked on the app page and the site but couldn’t see anything…
Congratulations on the app!
@tomcartwrightuk yeah all the camera controls are!
Basically just the foundations of the view hierarchy are UIKit, so I can control view orientation, and the photo grid and image viewer, which are hard to replicate in SwiftUI.
@BenRiceM thank you for the app.
I think I found a small bug. The link to your „other app“ Aether from settings app does not open the Aether AppStore page. For me it links to Obscura 4 app :)
Aether is a Type Calculator that helps you quickly check type effectiveness. Aether is clean, simple, and easy to use. There are just three dials, used to set the attacking type, and one or two defending types. Aether has no tracking or analytics, no upsells or subscriptions. You just pay once to…
And on your webpage the price for „early adopter“ is wrong.
As I understood the price is 8,99€ for the Frist year.
Introducing Obscura 4, a premium camera app built for pros and designed for everyone. It’s been redesigned and rebuilt from the ground up to create a gorgeous, intuitive and delightful experience every time you take a photo. Obscura on the App Store Refined Design Obscura combines pro camera features
@bkrnk fixed, thank you!
I had wanted to offer both free trial and intro discount, but I realised last minute that the App Store only supports one or the other
@BenRiceM you are welcome. I will consider to subscribe. But atm I am struggle a bit.
Wish you a good night - (at least here in Germany it is short before midnight 🌚)
One question. I don’t understand the difference between the MODI. Could you explain the icons to me?
Wish you a good release (:
BenRiceM
Jonathan Reed
Inferis
robb
Shawn King
Phillip Caudell 
Tom Cartwright
Jeremy Burge
Kris Venden
Ramón 🇨🇴
Bastian
re_chief