Best manual camera apps for iPhone

What if you want to manually adjust focus, white balance, or ISO on your iPhone? Shoot in RAW or just with the iPhone 7 telephoto lens? Easy, get one of these great camera apps!

Whether you just want to take more stunning shots in general, or need to focus on something more specific, like long exposure, full manual control, or advanced editing, the App Store has several amazing camera apps that'll help you do just that.

No matter what your iPhone photography needs are, there's something for everyone. Here are our current favorites!

• Halide
• Obscura Camera
• Manual
• ProShot
• Hydra
• ProCam 2
• ProCamera + HDR & Lowlight
• VSCO Cam
• Camera+
• Slow Shutter Cam

Halide

What do you get when a prominent ex-Apple designer and former Twitter engineer join forces? A kick-ass manual camera app called Halide!

This iOS Camera App Brings Out the Pro in Amateurs (LifeHacker)

Lavish, tactile, respectful, illuminating, gorgeous. (Rene Ritchie)

Halide has the potential transform how you make photos with your phone. (Uncrate)

This incredible, groundbreaking camera app allows you to adjust and change your exposure and manual focus, customize controls using Halide's professional tools to tweak focus peaking, access a detailed histogram, adaptive level grid, RAW support, and so, so much more.

The best part about Halide? How incredibly fun and effortless it is to use! Seriously, you'll think twice before opening your manual Camera app after downloading this manual camera app.

• $4.99 - Download now

Obscura Camera

Obscura's tagline is, "There's always a better camera then the one you have with you. And that's Obscura" – and they wouldn't be wrong!

The Obscura camera works by giving you complete control over options like shutter speed and contrast, and with the new iPhone, the ability to capture their breathtaking images in RAW format.

By adding layers and playing around in Obscura, users are able to get creative and professional with their iPhoneography snapshots, something your iPhone's standard camera can't really do.

• $6.99 - Download now

Manual

Get advanced camera controls in a beautiful package with the help of Manual!

Manual is super simple to use and lets you adjust shutter, ISO, white balance, focus, and exposure compensation. In a single tap you can also view aperture settings, making Manual a straight-forward and user friendly photography tool.

You can also check out histograms live and a plethora of other things, all in a beautifully designed and easy to use package.

• $1.99 - Download now

ProShot

For shooting like a professional, custom modes, and great control layouts, why not check out ProShot?!

ProShot offers advanced controls such as exposure, ISO, shutter speed, and white balance, but the coolest thing about the camera app are the control layouts. They don't get in your way and let you take advantage of the entire view finder the way it was intended.

Oh, and there are custom mode presets to save your favorite settings for later, making shooting at different times super consistent and easy as pie.

• $3.99 - Download now

Hydra

For tricky lighting and amazing HDR, Hydra has your iPhone covered.

Hyrda is a must-have in your photo arsenal because it does the best job balancing lighting and capturing amazing HDR photos. Lo-light mode greatly reduces noise by overlapping many photos and increasing the light factor, and it works.

HDR photos look fantastic and hi-res mode lets you capture photos up to 32 megapixels so you're sure you get every little detail.

• $4.99 - Download now

ProCam 2

Single shot HDR, TIFF files, and live filters, oh my! The ProCam 2 is a great option to consider when checking out other camera apps.

ProCam 2 combines great tools with a great layout. Controls include manual focus, exposure compensation, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance.

There are also a whopping 17 live lenses to choose from. Pretty much anything you want to control in ProCam 2, you can. Like ProCamera 8, ProCam 2 also supports TIFF export.

• $4.99 - Download now

ProCamera + HDR & Lowlight

The ProCamera 8 is a great tool to consider shooting your photos and videos with if you want access to TIFF files, filters, and so much more!

ProCamera 8 boasts an entire repertoire of features and manual controls and even TIFF image export. The vividHDR feature in ProCamera 8 also works stunningly well and really makes your images pop.

There are a lot of tasteful live filters to choose from, too! So don't be afraid to get creative and play around with your iPhoneography.

• $4.99 - Download now

VSCO Cam

For simple, all in one shooting and editing, VSCO Cam combines social media with on-the-spot photo touch ups for the perfect pictures.

VSCO Cam offers manual camera controls for focus, shutter speed, white balance, and exposure compensation. You can also add filters and edit your photos right inside the same app.

All editing tools are simple to use which makes it a great app for advanced and beginner iPhoneoographers, but with the launch of the new iPhone's, VSCO Cam will be able to shoot photos in a RAW format.

• Free - Download now

Camera+

Looking for a camera app that will help with advanced shooting and editing? Then why not consider Camera+ for your iPhone?

Camera+ has been a staple in the iPhone photography world for a long time. There are lots of stellar camera controls, filters, an awesome HDR mode, and tons of editing tools.

For simple and clean all in one photography apps, there is VSCO Cam. For advanced and everything in between, you want Camera+, and now with the new iPhone's RAW shooting capabilities, Camera+ lets users snap their photos in RAW mode (how exciting is that)?!

• $2.99 - Download now

Slow Shutter Cam

Long exposure photography is an art form, and Slow Shutter Cam is hoping to help you perfect your art!

If you want to capture great long exposures, just pair your iPhone with a tripod and Slow Shutter Cam. It offers full resolution on all devices, and three different capture modes to choose from: motion blur, light trail, and low light.

Whether you're capturing lights or waterfalls, Slow Shutter Cam is a must have for long exposure photography.

• $1.99 - Download now

What are your picks?!

Photography is deeply personal and we know that what fits one person's requirements and needs may not fit the next person's. So tell me in the comments what manual camera apps you prefer and why!

And as always, if you think there's one I missed that is particularly awesome, let me know that too!

Updated October 2017: We have added Halide to our list!