This is an independent app maintained by one person. I aim to reply within 2 business days; issues that need reproducing may take longer. English or Chinese is fine.
When reporting a problem, including these saves a round trip:
The app version (shown under "More") and your iOS version;
Your device model (which iPhone or iPad);
Which mode, which lens, and which format you were using — essential for RAW and stacking issues;
What you did, what you expected, and what actually happened; for stacking, how many frames and which workflow.
1. Does it cost anything? What's free?
Shooting, browsing, editing, exporting, and sharing are always free. Only the computed results need Pro.
Always free
Pro (3 free each / reaching the file)
ProRAW, Bayer RAW, and HEIF capture with full manual control
Long exposure: standard, star sky, star trails
Video recording, Apple Log, and single-range trimming
Focus stacking
Plain time-lapse
Noise-reduction and clean-up stacks in time-lapse
Tone and LUT editing, recipes and presets
Library stacks: average, maximum, star sky
Export, sharing, copyright and credits
Lens filters and the color palette (reaching the file; the viewfinder always shows them)
Each of the seven Pro workflows includes 3 free full-quality results that never expire. Astrophotography needs a clear night and a trip out of town, and a trial counted in days rarely covers one — so this is counted in uses instead. Lens filters and the palette have no count: unlocked or not, they render live in the viewfinder; they simply don't reach the saved file.
Three ways to buy: a 30-day pass (one-time, no auto-renewal; buying another before the first expires extends it), a yearly subscription (auto-renewing), and lifetime (one-time, no renewal). Prices are as shown on the App Store. The purchase screen is under More › 圆神 Pro, and also appears when free uses run out.
2. How do the free uses work across reinstalls and devices?
The seven workflows each have their own count — running out of star stacks leaves focus stacking with all 3.
A use is only recorded once a result is actually saved. Cancelling, a failed merge, or just opening the panel doesn't count.
Star stacking in the camera and star stacking in the library are two entry points with two separate counts: they are chosen in two different places, and sharing one count would mean three tries in the library mysteriously exhausts the camera too.
Counts live in the device keychain and usually survive an ordinary reinstall. They follow the device, not the Apple Account, so a new device starts again at 3.
Purchases are the opposite: they follow your Apple Account. On a new device, sign in and tap Restore Purchases (see section 4).
3. I've been using it since before it had paid features
Any Apple Account that downloaded the app before paid features launched gets every Pro feature free for life, including ones added later. There is nothing to do: open the app after updating and it reads your account's first-download date from Apple's transaction records and unlocks automatically.
If you're sure you qualify but nothing unlocked, first check that the App Store is signed in to the Apple Account you originally downloaded with, then tap Restore Purchases under More › 圆神 Pro. If it still doesn't, write to me with roughly when you first downloaded it.
4. Restoring purchases and cancelling a subscription
Restore Purchases is at the bottom of More › 圆神 Pro. The App Store must be signed in to the account that made the purchase.
Manage or cancel the yearly subscription in Settings › Apple Account › Subscriptions, or through your avatar in the App Store. After cancelling you keep access until the period ends.
The 30-day pass does not auto-renew, so there is nothing to cancel. Buying another before it expires extends from the existing expiry rather than wasting the remainder.
Lifetime is a one-time purchase with no renewal.
"Waiting for approval" means the purchase needs a parent's approval (Apple's Ask to Buy); it unlocks automatically once approved.
By default in the app's own folder, visible in the media view. This keeps RAW files and their recipes together and avoids filling up your system library.
To save straight into the Photos app, choose the photo library as the save location. Photos and videos saved there are also placed in an album named 圆神相机.
You can also pick a custom folder anywhere in Files. If that location is temporarily unavailable (an external drive unplugged, iCloud still downloading), the app just tells you — it doesn't throw an error and doesn't forget your choice.
Anything already in the app's folder can be saved to the library or exported elsewhere at any time.
6. Does editing change the original? Where do recipes live?
It doesn't. Editing writes a "recipe" rather than pixels — a small file recording what you changed, stored next to the original as a hidden file with a .crrecipe extension. The original file is untouched and its unedited look is always one tap away.
Thumbnails, playback, and exports all apply the current recipe, so what you see is what you get.
Press and hold the image to see the untouched original at any time.
On export you can bake into a copy, overwrite the original, or save to the system library. Only explicitly choosing "Overwrite original" rewrites the original.
Sharing always sends the finished image alone — no recipe file tags along.
Deleting an original deletes its recipe too, leaving no orphans behind.
7. Some formats are greyed out
A greyed-out format is one this device or this lens cannot actually produce. The app is deliberately strict here: unsupported means disabled with a reason, and it will never quietly substitute a different format — choose Bayer RAW and Bayer RAW is what you get, not ProRAW behind your back.
Common reasons: this lens doesn't emit RAW; the format isn't available at the current resolution; or the current mode (video, or certain combining workflows) restricts the choices. Try another lens, another resolution, or another mode.
8. Long exposure, star sky, or star trails?
Workflow
When to use it
Standard
Night scenes, flowing water, traffic — long exposure that smooths time out. Stacks RAW frames as they arrive
Star sky
Star fields, the Milky Way, meteors, comets. Aligns on the stars before stacking, markedly improving shadow noise; the foreground can be treated separately as HDR
Star trails
When you want the stars drawn out into arcs. Accumulates while shooting, with optional ground clean-up for moving lights
All three combine as they capture, and both the capture and the merge can be stopped at any time. Stopping early still produces a result — it isn't all-or-nothing.
Star sky and star trails need the camera held still — a tripod, or something to brace against. Handheld won't work.
For these subjects, turn viewfinder stabilization off (the landscape mode defaults to off already).
EXIF exposure time is written as the cumulative exposure, and ISO follows a recording convention that may differ from the control value on screen. That's deliberate: the interface shows what you set, while EXIF records what the frame is actually equivalent to.
9. How do I shoot a focus stack?
Once started, the app sweeps focus and captures a run of frames from near to far, then merges them into one image sharp front to back. Just hold steady and don't move the camera.
Best for macro, still life, and close-up plants — subjects where one focus point can't cover everything.
The result can be saved as HEIF, Bayer RAW, TIFF, or PNG. Choose RAW or TIFF if you plan to keep working on it.
During capture the app temporarily switches to manual to lock the settings, and restores them afterwards.
If the subject moves mid-sweep (a flower in the wind), the merge will show artefacts — just shoot it again.
10. Why did combining stop partway?
Switching apps or locking the screen interrupts it. Combining takes a few minutes; keep the app in the foreground. The panel says so too.
Cancelling discards only that merge and never touches your source photos. A result already saved cannot be undone.
Some frames being dropped is normal: frames that won't align, that differ too much in exposure, or that were unusable because the screen went dark mid-capture are excluded, and the status line reports how many frames were actually used.
When the device gets hot the system throttles and combining slows down. In hot weather, or after a long shoot, give it a rest.
11. Importing LUTs
Standard .cube files are supported, with a side length between 2 and 128. Anything outside that range is rejected.
Five are bundled with the app: Ice Blue and Negative, plus three Apple Log restore tables. The bundled ones can't be deleted; otherwise they behave exactly like imported ones.
Video editing lets you pick a separate input restore LUT: Log footage is brought back to a standard tonality first, and grading is layered on after — which is the correct order.
The LUT layer interprets Rec.709 as BT.1886 (pure 2.4 gamma), matching the industry-standard 709 tables.
12. Do my photos carry location?
Only if you grant the location permission. With it, captured photos and videos carry GPS coordinates; without it they don't, and nothing else is affected.
Note that this information travels with the file: before sending a photo to someone or posting it online, check the metadata if you'd rather not reveal where it was taken. There is currently no "strip location on export" option, so decline the permission at capture time if you don't want location at all.
Also, opening a geotagged photo in the viewer asks Apple Maps to turn its coordinates into a place name for the title — which sends those coordinates to Apple. See section 5 of the Privacy Policy.
13. Where do copyright and credits go?
Under More you can fill in an author, copyright notice, contact, and terms of use. With the write switch on (off by default), those are written into the metadata of your photos and videos — covering capture, stacking, edited exports, and recording alike.
As above, this information travels with the file. If you've entered contact details and plan to share publicly, keep that in mind.
14. How do I erase everything?
Individual photos and their recipes: select and delete in the media view; the recipe goes with it.
Filter library, presets, restore LUTs: delete them in their own panels.
Settings, caches, and every photo in the app's folder: delete the app.
The free-use ledger lives in the keychain and may survive an ordinary uninstall (deliberately — see section 2). Erasing the device clears it.
Photos already saved to the system library are managed by Photos and are not removed when you delete the app; delete them there.
Purchase records belong to your Apple Account and are managed by Apple.
We hold none of your data, so there is nothing to request deletion of from us. See the Privacy Policy.
圆神相机