Hydra 1.5 Camera App Update Brings New Zoom and HDR Modes

Hail Hydra

This app is great for some things, but can’t be the only camera app you use.

Essentially, Hydra does one thing very well (usually)—combining information from many images to create a single image with less noise, better light balance, and higher resolution. Hydra adapts this one ability into several modes, including low light and digital zoom.

What it tries to do, it usually does very well in my limited experience. Low light images usually have noticeably less noise and digital zoom images are noticeably better than using the stock app, or most camera apps I’ve tried.

But Hydra doesn’t seem to take advantage of the second camera on X and Plus iPhones with dual cameras.

And pictures it takes with the front facing camera are not consistently better than the stock app. Sometimes the exposure is better but the colors are a bit off.

Lastly, please someone correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think Hydra can shoot RAW. In fact, there are relatively few options you can adjust considering everything Hydra does.

For iPhone photography enthusiasts, I think this app is worth having on your phone but won’t replace Hallide or whatever your current favorite app might be.

For people who aren’t into the nitty gritty of photography but enjoy taking pictures and want them to come out well, I think you’ll like this app pretty well.

Hail Hydra

That appearance in Infinity War was great

Don't waste your money on this. It has never ever ever worked

I think it works pretty well...

Halide FTW

Halide is incredible.

But you can't zoom with Halide (other than switching between 1x and 2x cameras on X and Plus iPhones). I use digital zoom to compose a shot. Without it, I have to crop after capturing the image.

Don't waste your money on this. It has never ever ever worked

I like the high quality mode but man is the HDR bad. It always comes out looking like over processed garbage. But, again, does a good job of low light shots and higher resolution shots.