iLightningCam AI

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.