Aperi

Your phone is the viewfinder.

Your Sony camera's live view on your phone, plus a coach that tells you why the shot isn't working.

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iPhone · TestFlight · free while in beta · Android next

What it does

Tether the camera and the phone becomes a big, bright viewfinder you can actually work from, whether it is mounted on the hot shoe, clamped to a tripod, or held in your hand.

  • Live view, full size

    The camera's feed on your phone, with grids, a live histogram and clipping warnings.

  • Tap to focus

    Touch the picture and the camera focuses there. No hunting for the joystick.

  • Exposure by touch

    Shutter, aperture, ISO and compensation. Step them or open a dial.

  • Browse the card

    Every frame on the camera, full screen, pinch to zoom, download as JPEG even from RAW.

About the coach

This is the part people ask about, so here it is plainly.

Aperi never touches your photograph. It doesn't generate images, retouch them, or edit anything. It reads the frame you're composing and the settings you're using, and tells you what it sees, the way an instructor looking over your shoulder would. The shot stays entirely yours.

  • It knows your settings

    Not guessing from pixels. It reads shutter, aperture, ISO and focus mode straight from the camera.

  • It knows your bag

    Tell it which lenses you brought and it can suggest switching to one you actually have with you.

  • It speaks

    Ask out loud, hear the answer, keep your eye where it belongs.

Setting up

Rig it once and the phone becomes the back of the camera for the rest of the shoot.

Line drawing of a camera on a tripod with a phone clamped on the centre column just below it
01Put the camera on a tripod or a strap, and clamp the phone where you can see it.
Line drawing of a camera and a phone side by side, joined by a USB-C cable
02Join them with a USB-C cable, or over Wi-Fi if you would rather not have one.
Line drawing of the phone showing a waterfall in live view with a focus bracket over it
03Frame it on the phone, tap where you want focus, and shoot without touching the camera.

How it works

Three taps, on the phone, while the camera stays on the tripod.

The app showing a waterfall in live view with a grid and histogram
01Your camera's view, on the phone. Grid, live histogram, exposure across the bottom.
The app offering to send the frame to the coach, with options to add a note or speak
02Tap the sparkle. Send the frame as it is, type a question, or just say it out loud.
The coach's reply, with the camera settings recorded beside the question
03The answer, read aloud if you want it. Your settings are stamped on the question, so old threads still make sense.

A real exchange, captured on an iPhone. This walkthrough uses the built-in demo camera, which is why the settings on the question are the demo's rather than the photograph's original ones, and also why you can install the app and try all of this before your camera arrives.

Two real sessions

Both of these happened. The coaching quoted is what the app actually replied to the first frame in each pair, written before the second photograph existed and checkable against the EXIF.

Shifen Waterfall: moving water

Shifen Waterfall with the water frozen into messy strands
Before 1/50s · f/8 · ISO 100 · 18mm
Shifen Waterfall with the water rendered as smooth silk by a long exposure
After 1/2s · f/22 · ISO 100 · 18mm
The coach

The main issue is your shutter speed of 1/50. It is in a no-mans-land for moving water, making the falls look messy rather than intentional.

To get that classic, silky water, switch to Manual mode, keep ISO 100, and close down to f/16 to force a longer shutter speed, aiming for 1/2 or slower. You will need a tripod.

You either freeze water completely at 1/1000 or paint with it at 1 second. Let us slow it down.

The advice named 1/2 of a second; the next frame was shot at exactly that. Both on the same 18mm prime and ISO 100, so three stops of aperture bought the slower shutter. The framing changed too: APS-C crop mode was switched on and the tripod moved a step closer, so the water is not the only difference you are looking at.

Night street, Taiwan: where the colour lives

Neon-lit street at night, the signs bright to the point of blowing out
Before A · 1/125s · f/1.8 · ISO 800
The same street exposed a stop darker, the neon signs holding their colour
After M · 1/60s · f/2.8 · ISO 400
The coach

Your brightest highlights, like those blue and white neon signs, are completely blown out.

In night street photography, colour lives in the highlights. Because you are in A mode at exposure compensation 0, the camera is trying to make the dark asphalt neutral, which overexposes the signs.

Dial your exposure compensation down to -1.3 EV. This will protect those rich neon colours and clean up your shadows.

Let the darkness frame your light.

The advice asked for about a stop and a third less exposure; the frames measure 0.99 EV darker. The camera also moved to Manual, which stopped auto-ISO wandering between 800 and 3200 from one frame to the next, and stopping down to f/2.8 put more of the street in focus. It is meant to be darker. That is where the neon gets its colour back.

Connecting

  • USB-C most reliable

    Set the camera to PC Remote and plug in. It connects on its own.

  • Wi-Fi

    Phone and camera on the same network.

  • Wi-Fi Direct

    The camera makes its own network. Works anywhere.

Which cameras

The honest list, because nothing is more annoying than installing an app that turns out not to see your camera.

CameraStatus
Sony A7 V (ILCE-7M5) Working Tested on real hardware before every release. USB-C and Wi-Fi.
Sony A7 IV · A7R V · A7C II · A1 II · A9 III · A6700 · ZV-E1 In testing These share the Sony protocol the A7 V uses, so they ought to work — but "ought to" is not "does", and we have not had one in hand. Beta testers with these bodies are how this line turns into the one above.
Nikon Z series Next up Another developer building a remote app reports Nikon's PTP working for them. That is secondhand and about a different app, so treat it as a reason we are looking, not a promise that we have.
Canon EOS R series Testing in progress Canon uses its own PTP extensions rather than Sony's, so this is real work, not a switch to flip. No date.

The coach works the moment you open the app — no API key, no account. A few free messages a day are on us. If you would rather use your own key from Google, Anthropic or OpenAI, you can: it stays on your phone, your photos go straight to the provider you chose, and it is free and unlimited. Everything else — live view, focus, exposure, the card browser — never needed either.

Join the iPhone beta →

TestFlight · free while in beta · Android is being stood up next. Testers with a Sony body other than the A7 V are especially welcome — that is how the list above gets shorter.