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Camera Unman

An iPhone camera that performs your programmed zoom moves hands-free.

  • Swift
  • SwiftUI
  • AVFoundation
  • iOS
  • XcodeGen
COMMITS
34
FIRST
Sep 2026
LAST
Oct 2026
ACTIVE MONTHS
2

Camera-unman

Program the camera. Press record. Don't touch the phone.

Camera-unman is an iPhone camera app for people who film themselves. You show the camera what to do once — zoom in here, pull focus there, brighten at the end — and it repeats those moves on its own, on time, every take. No AI and no tracking: the camera does exactly what you rehearsed.

A run: three beeps, then the camera zooms and refocuses by itself while recording

A run: the countdown, then the camera repeats the rehearsed zoom, focus, and brightness moves on its own and lands on Review. (Full-quality video)

Camera screen with a loaded rehearsal A run in progress The rehearsal graph editor

How it works

  1. Rehearse. Record a rehearsal and work the camera by hand: pinch to zoom, tap to focus, drag for brightness. The app logs every change with its time.
  2. Tune it. Open the rehearsal and fix what your hands got wrong: smooth a jerky zoom with a curve, move a focus pull half a second later, add an autofocus where you step forward.
  3. Run it. Put the phone on a tripod and press record. Three beeps, then the camera records and performs your moves by itself while you're in front of it.

Features

Rehearse by hand

  • Zoom, focus (tap or manual), and brightness are captured as you do them.
  • Works across the rear lenses and the front camera, at the resolution and frame rate you pick.
  • Manual controls (focus, ISO, shutter, exposure and white-balance locks) sit in a drawer you swipe up, so the viewfinder stays clean.

Run hands-free

  • A three-beep countdown gives you time to get into place.
  • During a run the screen shows the time, the zoom, a cursor moving along your rehearsal, and what's coming next. Only Stop responds, so a bump can't ruin the take.
  • Preview plays a rehearsal on the viewfinder without recording, to check the framing first.
  • After the take: watch it, save it to Photos, or run it again.

Edit the rehearsal

A rehearsal's screen The zoom curve editor

  • Tap the loaded rehearsal to open it, then Edit graph.
  • Zoom curves: select any stretch of the zoom and reshape it with a curve (Linear, Ease In, Ease Out, Ease In Out, or drag the handles). The zoom at each end of the stretch stays put.
  • Focus points: drag to move one in time, change how near or far it focuses, or turn it into an autofocus.
  • Drag in new points from the tray: Focus (an exact distance), Autofocus (the camera focuses on a spot you aim), and Exposure (a brightness level from that moment).
  • Hold a point to remove it. Undo and redo cover the whole editing session; Save makes it final.

Your rehearsals

  • A dropdown at the top lists every rehearsal with its waveform and length. Tap one to load it.
  • With a rehearsal loaded, Record runs it. Swipe the rehearsal away and Record makes a new one.
  • Rename, duplicate, and delete; choose what a run repeats (zoom, focus, exposure, white balance), exact or adaptive replay, and a small timing offset.

Coming later

  • Timeline mode: build zoom moves from scratch on a timeline, without rehearsing first.

Status

In development and tested on the developer's own iPhone; not on the App Store. The screenshots above are from the iOS Simulator, which shows a stand-in photo where the camera would be.

Building it yourself: see the developer guide.