Phone cameras do not do well in low-light situations.
Good phone cameras can take amazing shots that look like they came from an expensive camera.
But only during daytime.
At night, or inside a darker room, they are close to useless. They certainly can’t match a real camera with its much larger sensor.
Luckily, there are tons of night vision apps to help you.
These apps are not true night vision (obviously, since that is insanely expensive). But they will help you see better in the dark and take better photos.
All the apps listed below can definitely improve your low-light photos. All are free or low cost, but they offer different features. Keep reading to figure out which one is best for you.
Table of Contents
8 Night Vision Apps That Work
NightVision Light
This free app is available on Android and iOS phones. It forces your smartphone use a red flashlight, which is easier to use at night, because it’s gentle on the eyes – much gentler than white light.
The red light that can be made brighter if you want help to see what’s in front of you. This app is completely free and easy to use, so you don’t have to waste time trying to learn how it works.
Night Eyes
This free iOS night vision app allows you to take photos in real time when it’s dark without battling to see clearly or having to use the flash on your camera. You can use different color modes: red, black and white, sepia, and green.
You’ll be able to take photos in zoom and portrait/landscape mode. As a bonus, it’s easy to use this app, even if you’re a beginner. By illuminating the image in real time, you’ll be able to enjoy quality images.
It has an exposure time of up to one second, so you can take photos even when it is almost completely dark. Of course, this also means you need to put the phone down, or on a tripod. You can’t hand hold it with a long shutter speed and still get clear images.
Note that while the app is free, you can pay approximately $3 to remove ads.
ELRO Color Night Vision IP Cam
This free app works with the ELRO CC60RIP Color Night Vision IP camera. It’s pretty cool because it enables you to control your IP camera with your iPad or iPhone.
The app sends you notifications whenever the IP camera’s sensor picks up movement, so it’s perfect for monitoring your home (or the nanny who’s looking after your kids) when you’re not at home.
It also gives you real-time audio and video monitoring, so it’s the full package. It’s available on both Android and iOS phones.
Virtual Night Vision
This is one of the best night vision apps you can find, because it’s pretty powerful. It enables you to see things even when it’s completely dark outside.
It can increase the levels of light by up to 15 times and it has some fun effects you’ll enjoy trying, such as thermal imaging and green mode, which makes it feel like you’re looking through night vision goggles.
If you love exploring things at night, you’ll like that this night vision app offers 8x zoom to get you closer to far away objects. Virtual Night Vision is available on iOS and you can get it from the Apple store. It costs $0.99.
illumes
This Android-compatible app allows you to take both pictures and videos in the dark. You can also have fun with it, with tons of extra features.
Many of the features are ones kids will especially love, like being able to take selfies and add cartoon effects to them.
Back to the night vision feature. It keeps the flash on the entire time to illuminate the photo, rather than firing it only when the photo is shot. This prevents many of the issues a flash usually presents, like red eyes or unnatural colors.
This app also lets you use red, natural, green, or warm color tones on your pictures. To make it even more versatile, you can use this app as a regular camera if you like. It costs $0.70.
Night Camera Lite
This free app is available on iOS and it’s a great choice if you like dabbling in night photography. It will help you get clearer pictures in the dark, with long exposure settings and high ISO enhancement.
It has a 6x zoom and a self-timer, to ensure your photos don’t suffer from camera shake. It also enables you to set the focus and the exposure simultaneously, with a single tap.
Color Night Vision Camera VR
This free Android app will help you to view and photograph images at night. It gives you many features you can adjust to get the pictures you want, such as brightness, exposure, and more.
What’s so great about Color Night Vision Camera VR is that it’s versatile. You can use it with rear and front cameras so you can take selfies as well as landscape pictures.
You can also make use of digital effects and edit your pics so that they always look their best. While it does require a bit of light in order to work, this app amplifies the light in your environment so that you can see things clearer when visibility is poor.
Night Mode Camera
This Android app certainly ticks all the right boxes if you want your phone to double as a pair of binoculars. The binoculars function on this app provides you with 45x zoom so you can see small objects that are far away.
You will also be able to take pictures of them that are clear – and if not, you will be able to make use of automated tools to get the perfect amount of light. Just make sure that your smartphone has an 8 mp or higher camera. Night Mode Camera is free.
Do Cell Phone Cameras Have Night Vision?
You might be wondering if the camera on your phone would be able to make use of night vision.
The sad truth is that most phones don’t come with night-vision cameras. The night vision that you’ll be able to see via your phone camera dependson how the images enter the camera lens.
However, some phones come with infrared night vision cameras installed in them. An example is the OUKITEL WP7 Unlocked Rugged Smartphone.
It can also be paired with a flashlight module that will help you illuminate darkness, like when you’re traveling on really dark roads or hiking in the mountains after the sun has set.
Tips To Improve Night-Time Photography With Your Smartphone
Besides having one of the best night vision apps downloaded to your phone, there are some other things you can do to help you get amazing shots even when it’s dark outside.
Even if you’re not really interested in that, there will probably coma a day when you suddenly want a good photo of something and you’ll wish you had read the tips below.
For example, you might see an owl on your property and want to take a photo of it in the dark, so that I can share it.
Read the following tips now, so that you are aware of them when the opportunity comes to get a great photo. You don’t want to miss the photo, because you wasted too much time reading up on how to take it.
- Aim your phone in the right direction. To avoid washing out, or blacking out, the subject, you want to position your phone in such a way that it’s directed away from any light source. This prevents too much light from flooding the camera lens and either overexposing the entire photo, or underexposing the subject in an attempt to adjust for all the light.
- Try different things with your flash. Your camera’s flash can sometimes create more problems than solutions when you want to take pictures at night and this is mainly because it’s so harsh. But here’s a tip: place some paper over the flash to soften its glare.
- Make use of an editing app. No photo will ever be perfect, so make sure you have an app with which you can edit all your night-time snaps later. Apps like Snapseed or Adobe Lightroom can help. For example, they can decrease the amount of noise in your pictures and prevent them from being too grainy.
Night Vision Apps That Work: Related Questions
What’s the difference between infrared cameras and thermal imaging cameras?
Infrared cameras use short wavelength infrared light so that they can illuminate objects at night. Thermal imaging makes use of mid or long wavelength infrared energy and detects differences in heat. Learn more about this here.
Why do night vision goggles and some night vision apps make use of green images?
Green is easier to look at. That is why night vision goggles make use of it instead of black and white, which can be draining on the eyes after a long period of use.
Night Vision Apps: Conclusion
If you want to be able to see the world around you clearer when it’s dark, you’ll want to invest in a good night vision app.
In this article, we’ve looked at some of the best night vision apps that you can get, both for Android and Apple devices. Obviously, they do not offer true night vision, but they are as good as you can get without paying thousands of dollars for top night vision goggles.
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