Tools

37 professional photography toolsAll in one app

Optaxis includes 37 photography tools: Scheimpflug / tilt-shift, depth of field and equivalent focal length, exposure and ND filters, astro planning, film development and darkroom, light pollution and aurora forecasts, and more. Coming to iOS, Android and HarmonyOS (native) at the same time, expected between late December 2026 and early January 2027.

Logging & extras

Diary

Log every shoot across three tabs — Today, Planned and History — linked to the location, gear and settings you used…

Astro

Five astrophotography modes: pinpoint stars (500 / NPF rules against trailing), star trails, Milky Way (core altitude, seasonal window…

AR overlay: projects the paths of the sun, moon, Milky Way, planets and constellations straight onto the live view…

Print size calculator plus paper recommendations and a wall-mount preview — work out how big your pixels will print…

Compare

Gear comparison: line up digital backs, bodies and lenses side by side and compare their specs.

Contests

Photo contests from home and abroad in one place, grouped by closing date, with reminders, bookmarks and a link straight to the entry page.

Roll Album

Roll album: keep the film photos you shoot organised by the roll — open a new roll (stock, format, size, frame count, start and end dates…

During the shoot · Framing & metering

Compose

Meter while you frame: spot, centre-weighted and average metering — tap the picture to read the EV and a suggested shutter speed — plus Zone…

Tilt/Swing

A Scheimpflug calculator: enter the focal length to get the tilt / swing angle and the resulting plane of focus — for getting near and far s…

Focal

Equivalent focal length conversion, depth-of-field calculation and a macro mode — work out equivalent angle of view and DOF across formats.

Exposure

An exposure calculator: ND filter stops × shutter speed conversion, long exposures, linked to reciprocity failure compensation.

Live Shift

Live shift simulation: preview pure rise / fall and lateral shift perspective correction (no tilt)…

Timer

Long exposure and interval countdown timer, for bulb exposures and time-lapse sequences.

Zone Exposure

A unified exposure workflow: reciprocity, bellows factor, filters and manual compensation on one screen…

Compass

A bearing compass (azimuth) for working out which way you are facing and where the sun and moon rise and set.

Color Meter

Measure ambient colour temperature (K) and green–magenta tint live with the camera.…

Film View

Film viewfinder: see live how this scene would look on film. It opens straight into the live view; swipe the advance dial along the bottom t…

Recce

Recce (formerly Video Scout; director’s viewfinder — works for stills scouting too): pick a camera body and recording format…

Before the shoot · Planning

Weather

Weather and light: live conditions, sunrise and sunset, golden and blue hour, cloud cover and precipitation.

Aurora

Aurora forecast: live geomagnetic Kp index, visibility probability for your location, and trip planning around aurora windows.

Plan

A shoot planning checklist with the date, location, time window and gear kit pre-filled before you head out.…

Scout

A location scouting bench: overlay the azimuth and altitude grids for sun, moon and Milky Way on the map to pick your spot.

Burn Sky

Burning sky forecast: a multi-day probability index for whether the morning or evening sky will actually light up.

Tide

Tide data: high and low water times, so you can read the shooting window as the sea goes out or comes in.

Specialty

Probability forecasts for the landscape conditions that make a trip worth it: sea of clouds, rime ice and alpenglow on snow peaks.

Almanac

A calendar of keeper-shot windows: six forecast engines (weather, astro and other dimensions) scored per day…

Poses

Pose library: poses curated by us, filtered by subject × setting × light.…

Lightning

Lightning scouting and forecast (M1): answers "can I shoot lightning from this spot tonight?".…

Light Pollution

Light pollution map: worldwide light pollution from VIIRS night-time satellite data (~500 m, z2–8)…

Moon

Moon photography on one page: phase, age, illuminated fraction, Earth–Moon distance, apparent size, magnitude…

After the shoot · Developing & darkroom

Dev

Film developing log: track times, temperatures and recipes for E6, C41 and black & white.

Personal EI calibration: record the exposure index each film actually gives you, and calibrate your metering to it.

Darkroom

Darkroom enlarging timer plus burn & dodge tracking and a Zone System reference.

Reciprocity

Reciprocity failure compensation calculator: adjust long exposures per film stock, with 28 film curves built in.

Negative

Negative inversion: copy negatives with your camera or import them from your photos (DNG and other RAW included)…

Film Catalog

Film catalogue: browse stocks by name, ISO, type, format, latitude and character notes, see sample looks…

Alt Process

A workbook for alternative and historic printing processes (platinum-palladium, cyanotype, salt, Van Dyke, albumen…

Every tool is in the same app. Coming to iOS, Android and HarmonyOS (native) at the same time, expected between late December 2026 and early January 2027; once live, search for “光轴” (Optaxis) in your app store to download.