GPS Camera 55. Viewfinder controls: gestures, focus lock, black screen, video light, and lenses.

The viewfinder can be set up for the way you shoot: from a windscreen mount, during an inspection, or one-handed. Every option on this page is off by default — a camera you never touch behaves as before: a tap focuses for a moment, a vertical swipe adjusts exposure, a pinch zooms. The one thing always on screen is the AF button, the way in to focus lock and the focus options.

Open the camera screen, tap Settings, then Viewfinder controls.

Gestures

Assign what a tap does on the viewfinder itself.

• Single tap: Focus (default) sets a temporary focus point that ends when the scene changes. Shutter takes a photo, or starts and stops video recording — handy with gloves or a phone in a mount. With a double tap assigned, a single tap waits briefly for the second tap.
• Double tap: Nothing, Black screen, Lock focus, or Shutter. The first tap of a double tap still focuses; that is harmless and keeps single taps instant.
• Long press (half a second): Nothing, Lock focus, Black screen, or Shutter.

Every gesture shows a short confirmation on the viewfinder — for example Recording · Tap · to stop when the shutter is on a tap.

Focus lock

Continuous autofocus is right for most shots. Behind a windscreen it can hunt between the glass and the road, and on a repeated inspection shot it may settle differently each time. A focus lock freezes the lens where it is; exposure keeps adjusting, so a tunnel or the sun does not ruin the shot.

Three ways to lock:

• The gesture you assigned above (Lock focus on a double tap or a long press). The same gesture unlocks.
• The AF button on the left edge of the viewfinder (see below).
• Focus lock at start in these settings, which locks every time the camera opens.

Focus lock at start has two options:

• Restore last lock reopens the camera with the focus distance you last locked, on the same lens.
• Dashcam focus keeps autofocus running but only on distant subjects: a windscreen, a raindrop or the dashboard never becomes the subject, and the road stays sharp as the scene changes — a truck pulling in ahead is tracked, which a hard lock would leave soft. This is the setting for driving. It is not a lock: the lens strip and lens switching work as usual, and a tap on the picture is ignored so a touch on the glass cannot pull focus.

On a multi-lens iPhone a lock is made on one physical lens: the app switches from the automatic camera to that lens, locks it, and returns to the automatic camera when you unlock. The framing stays the same on the way in and out. While locked, the lens stops on the strip are refused until you unlock.

A remembered focus is a lock at a distance of your own — the shelf you inspect daily, or the road ahead when you want a hard lock rather than dashcam focus. Focus on it, hold the AF button and choose Remember this focus for the lock; from then on the menu offers Lock at remembered focus for that lens (the AF button shows a scope glyph while locked there) and Forget the remembered focus. Remembered positions are per lens.

The AF button

The AF button sits on the left edge of the viewfinder whenever the lens can lock focus — every lens except the fixed-focus front camera. It carries the state below the letters: an open lock, a closed lock on yellow when locked, or a car when dashcam focus is on.

• Tap locks or unlocks focus, or — with Tap shows the state · Hold for options — only shows the current state, so a stray touch while driving changes nothing.
• Hold always opens the focus options: the current state, Lock focus / Unlock focus, Dashcam focus, Remember this focus for the lock, Lock at remembered focus, Focus lock at start, Lock gesture, and a shortcut to Viewfinder controls.

The Behavior row under AF button chooses between the two tap behaviors. The Microphone button row does the same for the microphone button in video mode: Tap mutes or unmutes · Hold for options (default), or Tap shows the state · Hold for options. Holding the microphone button always opens the microphone options, with Mute and Unmute inside.

Black screen

Assign Black screen to a double tap or a long press and the viewfinder goes dark while recording and capture continue — for a long recording from a mount at night, or when the phone must not light up. Double-tap the screen to bring the viewfinder back. Hardware shutter buttons keep working, the phone does not auto-lock, and the video light is turned off while the screen is black.

• Show hint on black screen shows a faint car symbol and a short reminder that a double tap brings the camera back.
• Dim the display also turns the display brightness down and restores it afterwards — useful on LCD iPhones, where black is not fully dark. The brightness is restored even if the app is force-quit.

The black screen ends by itself when a recording stops for any reason other than your tap.

Video light

In video mode the flash button becomes a video light switch — a continuous light, on or off, shown with a flashlight icon, separate from the photo flash. Brightness sets its level (25 % to 100 %). The light comes back after a lens change or an interruption, and turns off under the black screen. iOS turns the light off when the phone gets too warm; the app tells you and switches it back on when it is available again.

Lenses and zoom

A small zoom chip sits on the left edge of the viewfinder. It reads the zoom and, underneath, the focal length of the lens doing the work — the lenses of your iPhone, for example 24 MM for the main lens and 13 MM for the ultra-wide on an iPhone 17 Pro. When iOS serves a zoom from a lens other than the one you would expect (close up it often uses the ultra-wide, the only lens that focuses that near), that line turns yellow. The chip is always there — it is the way to the lenses.

The camera button at the top of the screen opens the camera sheet: Back camera / Front camera, the Timer (Off · 1 s · 3 s · 5 s · 10 s) and Lenses and zoom. Its glyph shows the lens in use and carries the timer as a small badge; a long press flips front/back at once. With a timer set, the shutter button and the shutter gestures count down — a ring empties around the shutter with the seconds inside, one tap per second — and a tap on the shutter during the countdown cancels it. Starting a video recording counts down too; stopping is always immediate. The Apple Watch, a Bluetooth remote and the volume buttons never wait: a remote release is already shake-free.

Tap the chip, or tap the camera button at the top and choose Lenses and zoom, to open the lens strip:

• A vertical zoom dial. Drag it for fine zoom; the lens stops are pills on the dial — one per lens of your iPhone, with the focal length (for example 0.5x, 1x, 2x and 5x on an iPhone 17 Pro) — tap one to jump. Press and drag the chip itself to zoom without opening the strip.
• Under the ✕, the lens selector: AUTO followed by one focal length per lens of your iPhone — for example AUTO · 120 · 24 · 13 on an iPhone 17 Pro, or AUTO and two focal lengths on a two-lens iPhone. A single-camera iPhone has no selector — the dial zooms within its one lens.
  • AUTO is the automatic camera: the whole zoom range, and iOS chooses the lens.
  • A focal length is that single lens: the dial zooms within it, the picture never changes lens on its own, and a stop always means the same lens and the same framing — the choice for measurements and repeat shots.

The pinch gesture zooms the same way. On AUTO the dial’s top is the range iOS recommends for the current mode (for example 25x for photos and 15x for video on a 5x-telephoto iPhone), like the built-in Camera app. A single lens can go further — see Selected lens zoom below.

AUTO lens decides how the automatic camera behaves on an iPhone with several cameras (it has no effect on a single-camera iPhone):

• Follows the zoom (default): iOS picks the best lens for the scene when you zoom across a stop and keeps it while you hold still.
• Switches by itself: iOS may also change lens while you hold still, like the built-in Camera app — close up or in low light. At 1x this can flip between the wide and the ultra-wide lens.

Close up, iOS may serve any zoom from the ultra-wide, the only lens that focuses that near — the chip then shows the ultra-wide’s focal length in yellow. Pick a single lens on the strip to keep one lens and one framing.

Selected lens zoom applies when a single lens is picked on the strip:

• Goes to the sensor’s maximum (default): the lens zooms as far as its sensor allows — 15x and more on the ultra-wide. Beyond the zoom iOS recommends the dial’s marks are dimmed and a dashed line marks the boundary, and the phone taps once as you cross it, so you always know where the sharp range ends.
• Stops at the recommended zoom: the lens zooms only as far as iOS recommends for it. On the ultra-wide that is only a little past its own view, because iOS expects the next lens to take over — the choice for the photographer who never wants a soft frame.

AUTO always stops at the recommended zoom, whatever this setting says.

Remember lens and zoom reopens the camera with the lens and zoom you used last — AUTO or one of the lenses, and the zoom. Otherwise the camera opens on AUTO at 1x. Remembering the lens is part of the PRO pack; the lenses and the zoom themselves are free for everyone.

Backup and restore

All of these settings travel with the app’s settings backup — see Backup/share the app settings .