Mons, Belgium - March 22nd, 2022. Creaceed releases Hydra 2, the first major upgrade to their camera app for iPhone and iPad. Hydra 2 brings three key photographic innovations: the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance picture quality, a new camera experience with auto & manual shooting, and a high-fidelity photo editor.

Seven years after the release of Hydra back in January 2015, the best-selling photo app that pioneered computational photography on iPhone & iPad, Creaceed releases a major upgrade to their flagship. Hydra 2’s new AI-powered RAW fusion offers to overcome the physical limits of small sensors, with capabilities such as over 20-stop extreme HDR to capture both highlights and shadows, detail-enhancing demosaicing and denoising in low light, macro shooting, crisp 6/8x digital zooming, and a whopping 110-megapixel resolution from the device's built-in 12-megapixel sensors. Moreover, Hydra now features a new manual operation for photo enthusiasts, a faster shooting for reduced artifacts, and the addition of a normal mode for everyday photos that hosts iPhone's integrated camera capabilities. It also comes with a number of presets for customizing the user's style as well as a completely new high-fidelity degradation-free photo editor.

More broadly, Hydra 2's AI-powered capabilities set the ground for future photographic evolution on iPhone, iPad and possibly other brands & device categories to offer a portable picture processing toolset that universally enables the latest photographic innovations.

New features in 2.0

• Refined, designed-with-care camera experience for iPhone & iPad.
• Computational photography with on-device artificial intelligence (AI).
• Modes: new normal camera mode, extreme HDR (> 20-stop range), superior detail-enhancement and denoising for low-light & macro, up-to-6/8x zooming, and 110-megapixel resolution.
• Viewfinder: approachable ergonomics, tactile input & sensory feedback. “Zebra” previewing.
• Manual operation: focus, ISO, shutter speed, white balance. Priority modes.
• Capture options: Apple Watch remote, timer, flash & selfie, geotagging, grid overlay.
• Photo style presets: tonal intent, color rendition, and more
• Photo editor for 32-bit non-degrading edits with tone mapping, detail boosting, precise colorimetry, and Apple ProRAW editing.
• Side-by-side comparison with RAW input.
• Output options with varied file formats, including pro options for later reprocessing (JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, TIFF-32, OpenEXR, Radiance, DNG, Apple ProRAW, and next-gen JPEG XL) & color spaces (sRGB, Display P3, ROMM ProPhoto).
• Saving to Files (iCloud & 3rd-party apps) + shared folders.
• Photo gallery.
• Optimized for latest iOS, Metal, Core ML, and Apple Neural Engine (ANE).
• Privacy first: on-device processing, filter for social sharing.

Pricing & Availability

Hydra 2 requires an iPhone/iPad running iOS 14.3 or later, iPhone 6s (or later), iPhone XR/XS or later for accelerated neural processing with Apple Neural Engine. It can be freely downloaded on the App Store, and is localized in 10 languages.

Unrestricted AI shooting modes and watermark removal require either a Pro Pack one-time purchase (€/$11.99) or a Pro Plan subscription (€/$0.99 per month or €/$5.99 per year). The Pro Plan subscription offers a fully functional 7-day free trial. Upgrade pricing for Hydra 1 users is proposed for Pro Pack onboarding (€/$5.99, a 50% discount).

The free app offers unrestricted shooting in normal mode (auto & manual operation), including RAW & Apple ProRAW (compatible devices only). Other modes can be tested as well but will get a watermark in the saved pictures.