Manual Focus Camera for iPhone

When autofocus gets it wrong

Autofocus is built to find the nearest, highest-contrast thing in the frame. Most of the time that is what you want. The rest of the time it is the window, the fence, the branch, or the raindrop — and the thing you actually came to photograph is a soft blur behind it.

Through glass. Shoot from inside a car with rain on the window, or from an airplane seat, with focus on the landscape outside instead of the smears on the pane.
Distant and moving. Hold focus on aircraft and ships far enough away that autofocus gives up and hunts.
Past obstructions. Focus through leaves, branches, cables and wire fencing onto the subject behind them.
Landing shots. Track an aircraft on approach without the camera re-deciding halfway through.

Set the focus once. It holds until you change it.

Side by side at night through a car windscreen: traffic reduced to blurred light blobs when the camera focuses on the glass, and the same traffic sharp enough to read the number plate with focus set manually — Night traffic through a windscreen. Left: the camera focused on the glass. Right: focus set by hand — close enough to read the plate.

Side by side: the same Boeing 787 on approach, blurred beyond recognition when the camera's autofocus loses it, and sharp with focus set manually — Two frames from the same approach, filmed on a phone. Left: autofocus gave up. Right: focus set by hand. The same thing happens to stills.

See it fail, then see it work

Aircraft on approach, filmed on a phone. The camera hunts and gives up; the same landing with focus set manually stays sharp all the way down. This clip is video, but the failure is identical the moment you point a phone at something far away, behind glass, or behind a fence — whether you are recording or taking a photograph.

Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.

Shooting video rather than stills? Manual Focus VideoCam is the same focus control for recording, free on the App Store, with saved focus distances you can pull between mid-take.

What's in it

Manual focus

A focus control you set directly, from close range out to infinity. No hunting, no re-deciding.

Focus peaking

The live preview highlights what is actually in focus, so you can confirm the subject is sharp before you press the shutter.

Apple ProRAW

Capture high-resolution RAW files with the full latitude you need for editing later.

Filters

Black and white and colour filters, previewed live before the shot.

Nothing leaves your phone

No account, no sign-up, no analytics, no ads. The App Store privacy label for Manual Focus Camera reads Data Not Collected — the developer collects nothing from this app. Your photos stay in your photo library.

Read the privacy policy

The app

Manual Focus Camera main screen with the focus slider on the right of the live preview — Focus control on the live preview

Black and white filter previewed live before capture — Black and white, previewed live

Minimised controls leaving the full frame visible — Controls out of the way

Settings screen for filters and capture options — Settings

Shot with Manual Focus Camera

Sample photograph taken with Manual Focus Camera

Details

Requires	iOS 17.0 or later — iPhone and iPad
Size	9 MB
Price	One-time purchase. No subscription, no in-app purchases.
Privacy	Data Not Collected
Developer	SuperAktiv AS, Norway

Also from SuperAktiv: Manual Focus VideoCam — the same manual focus control for video, with recallable focus presets.

Take the focus back

Works on any iPhone running iOS 17 or later.

Get it on the App Store

Questions or a feature request? Get in touch — we read everything.