This is the first of many upcoming posts on some of my favorite iPhone apps (hopefully every Friday) - something I’ve wanted to do for awhile. I have found that there are some terrific tools out there on the iPhone and iPad for both filmmakers and photographers, and I want to share some of the ones that I use frequently.
SUN SEEKER (by ozPDA) is likely one of those “go to” apps that just about every photographer, DP, director, and/or location scout should have. Like many other apps it can tell you where the sun will rise and set today, tomorrow, or at anytime in the future - and it can do so in a number of ways.
Perhaps the coolest implementation of this app is what they call the 3D View (which is in effect an augmented reality mode). This function uses your iPhone 3GS, its built in GPS system, and camera to allow you to physically point the phone in any direction and see the sun’s path drawn and overlaid on top of your camera image (see picture). In other words, you can be inside a building, pick up your phone, launch it into 3D View, and instantly be able to tell at what time the sun will cross the path of the window in front of you - even though you have no physical view of the sky. It will also tell you of course exactly where the sun will be, by drawing the sun’s path hour by hour and laying it over your iPhone camera’s live video image. Not only is this useful indoors of course, or when you need to figure out where the sun will be in 5 hours and how to prepare for it - it can also be a life saver if you’re scouting at night, or on an overcast day… I find this incredibly useful, and quite accurate - not to mention amazing.
You can pretty much forget the special software, compasses, and other tools – this $2.99 app replaces them all in a millisecond and one-ups them. And if that’s not enough, it offers two other views: an overhead map view connected to Google Maps that will show you the angle of the sun from overhead - anywhere in the world, at any time of the year - and of course a details page, which shows you sunrise and sunset times, elevation angles, etc.
If you are interested in this app, go to the following link on iTunes by CLICKING HERE.
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Pingback by Busy Busy | TheLoupe 05.21.10 @ 2:59 pmHey that’s awesome. I just downloaded the App and already have some use cases for it. Thanks for sharing this with us
Comment by Philipp 05.21.10 @ 5:23 pmI just download this app and find the 3D view amazing, although the first time I clicked 3D, it takes a long time to enter the camera view and I thought the app crashed on me.
There is a very similar but more expensive app Helios ($29.99), which I also enjoyed very much. It has a very useful feature which allows dragging the sun on the view to go to any time (in 15 minutes increment) and offers the sun’s position. Plus you can email the data to others in app, so that’s pretty handy, too. Just my 2 cents.
The 3D presentation is interesting. Personally, I prefer “The Photographer’s Ephemeris” by Stephen Trainor since it provides very detailed information about the sun AND the moon. The ability to track the position of the sun and moon anywhere on any date on my iPhone is still a bit mind-numbing to me. Great apps for sure
Comment by Bruce 05.21.10 @ 6:56 pmAwesome app! Although it did almost brick my iPhone 3GS. Maybe the next gen iPhone will run it smoother. My phone crashed so hard that I had to manually reset it by holding both hard buttons. So while in the field I would probably stick to using the more expensive, but reliable Helios. But for three bucks the app is very promising, especially with potential updates to fix the crash problem.
Comment by Steven 05.21.10 @ 11:34 pmVery cool. But when you said “anywhere in the world”, I thought it would let me search to a location, but I don’t see that feature. I can only look at the data for my current location. Am I missing it?
Comment by brett maxwell 05.22.10 @ 12:55 ami had the amazing opportunity to work with you back in february. i heard you mention this app in passing while on the set in downtown LA on the first morning of the shoot. Ive used it ever since. good one
Comment by dave metty 05.22.10 @ 9:21 amThe app that’s most changed how I work is called mRelease - it turns your iPhone into a model/appearance/crew/location release generating machine. It includes all the boilerplate standard legalese, and the subject can sign the release with their finger, and emails a copy to me and the subject. No more carrying reams of paper everywhere. Love it.
Comment by Dan McComb 05.22.10 @ 1:17 pmHey guys, I’m a member of the Sun Seeker augmented reality iPhone application team. Thanks for the great feedback.
If there are other ideas on how we could improve it that would be great. Or other ideas for apps in this space?
It’s a shame the current iPad doesn’t have a camera as the augmented reality on that would be interesting.
Regards.
Comment by Mick Liubinskas 05.22.10 @ 6:23 pmMick,
Here’s an app idea I would pay heavily for: a way to turn iPad into a dslr field monitor.
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Pingback by A Really Cool Use of Augmented Reality « Vincent Laforet’s Blog 05.25.10 @ 1:39 pmWhat sun&moon apps are there. I bought a couple that suck.
Is this only sun?
Great tip. This app will make timelapses of sunrises much easier.
Comment by Richard 05.30.10 @ 5:29 amA fantastic app. I just downloaded it and it works better than I even imagined. I can’t wait to go out and use this in spots that I am considering using for portrait photography sessions. This will help when trying to figure out if a building will be in the way or if the mountains will block out the sun at a particular time of day.
Thank you for the great photography app recommendation.
Comment by Portland Portrait Photography 06.01.10 @ 6:52 am[...] IPHONE App sun seeker review on Vincent LaForet’s blog [...]
Pingback by Photo tips around the web » Las Vegas Photographer 06.10.10 @ 12:45 pmHow can I save locations? I want to use this for location scouting, can I save my locations?
Thanks.
Comment by Mike 08.05.10 @ 1:52 pmLeave a comment
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