Camera Basics

What's different, the two cameras and the controls.

What makes it different: Why it beats an ordinary camera app underground.

SpeleoMap's camera is built for caves, not selfies. Things it does that an ordinary camera app doesn't:

Depth inside the photo. A LiDAR photo carries its depth map, the lens details and which way was down, so you can measure it later: distances, heights, angles, areas.
Video you can measure. LiDAR video saves a depth frame 10, 15 or 30 times a second, each with the camera's position, so you can pause anywhere and measure.
Tied to the survey. Every photo and clip knows its station and where you stood. Film from a station and an end station drops where you stop.
Never loses the line. While a line is open, the camera shares the survey's tracking, so the line keeps its place and follows you if you walk.
Measures as you aim. A live range ring reads the distance to whatever it sits on, out to 5 m. Rangefinder saves readings to a note; Splay adds wall shots to the station; a Bluetooth laser meter goes farther.
True Color. A daylight-balanced flash for minerals and cave life, so colors look the way they would in the sun.
Thermal and ThermDAR. With a FLIR camera, thermal photos and video that keep every pixel's temperature; add LiDAR and every pixel gets a distance too.
Made for gloves and mud. Volume up is the shutter, volume down is the torch, and a dirty-lens warning tells you to wipe the lens.
Steady and safe. Action mode for crawling and climbing, a low-light frame rate for dark passage, and recording that stops itself before storage runs out, with the clip still saved.
Private by default. Copies in your Photos library carry the project and station, never your location.

Two cameras: Why some buttons disappear while a line is recording.

Which camera opens depends on whether a survey line is open.

The full camera (no line open): every lens, Photo, Video and Range, macro, flash, True Color, timer, long exposure, 24 and 48 MP, Action mode, LiDAR and Thermal.
The line camera (a Cave Line recording or paused): it keeps the survey's tracking running, so the line never loses its place. You get LiDAR photo, LiDAR video, Range, Splay (from a station) and Thermal. Lens buttons, macro, flash, True Color, timer, long exposure, 24/48 MP and Action mode come back when no line is open.

On an iPhone without LiDAR, the line camera takes plain photos and plain video (no depth, no sound), and Range and Splay need a paired laser meter.

Controls: What every hardware button and gesture does here.

Volume up: the shutter. Takes a photo, starts and stops a video, takes a range reading or a splay.
Volume down: the torch on and off, so you can find it by feel. The Camera Control button does the same. On the front camera, volume down takes the photo.
Tap the picture to focus and set exposure there (a yellow square shows where).
Pinch to zoom, up to 10x the main lens, or tap a lens button above the shutter (on the 17 Pro: .5, 1, 2, 4 and 8).
Flip (right of the shutter): the front camera and back. Hidden while recording.
Last photo (the round picture top right): opens your latest photo or video; swipe through the rest, then go back to the camera.
The row below the shutter reads LiDAR (LiDAR iPhones), Range, the Photo | Video switch, the air readout (with an environment sensor set up) and Thermal (FLIR set up). LiDAR stays on when you switch between Photo and Video. Range shows only with LiDAR and Thermal off; tap it again to go back. In the line camera, Range stays in the switch.

Icons turn with the phone; the layout stays upright. The mode switch hides while recording.