Photon, a renowned iOS application designed for professional photographers, is unveiling an innovative feature specifically tailored for iPhone 15 Pro users. This new feature empowers them to directly store their photos on an external drive, thus liberating substantial disk space on their devices. Developed by LateNightSoft, the creators of the popular consumer app Camera+, Photon was launched in July with a focus on meeting the needs of a more professional user base. It offers an array of tools for fine-tuning various photographic parameters, such as focus, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, format, and resolution, among other capabilities.
It’s important to note that this new feature doesn’t involve the typical export process, which can be time-consuming. Instead, it provides a straightforward method for saving photos directly to external storage.
To utilize this feature, users must activate it within the app’s settings, accessible via the button located in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Afterward, they can tap the “Capture” button and enable the “Use External Storage” option. With this setup in place, users can connect their external drive and begin capturing photos.
Photon accommodates various photo formats, including JPEG, HEIF, RAW, and ProRAW. ProRAW, introduced alongside the iPhone 12 Pro, is Apple’s unique take on RAW imaging, combining traditional RAW with Apple’s computational photography advancements.
Many photo applications have capitalized on the ProRAW addition to the Pro lineup by incorporating ProRAW support. Notable apps like Obscura, Halide, Lightroom, and others have joined this trend. However, ProRAW photos are significantly larger, up to 10 to 12 times, compared to HEIF or JPEG files, especially if you opt for the 48 MP resolution. Consequently, ProRAW images can consume a considerable amount of storage space on your device, including your iCloud Photos cloud storage.
Photon offers an elegant solution by facilitating the connection of an external drive. After a photography session, users can plug in the external drive to their Mac or PC, where they have their preferred editing software installed, to access their files.
Since its debut, Photon has swiftly garnered over 10,000 monthly active users in just a few months, according to the company’s statement to TechCrunch. The app generates revenue through a subscription plan, priced at $3.99 per month or $19.99 annually. Furthermore, there is an option to purchase the Pro version for a one-time fee of $39.99. Notably, support for using an external drive is seamlessly integrated without incurring any additional charges.
