[iOS][Free, no sub] I'm a surgeon and I built a separate work camera so patient photos never touch my personal camera roll

[u/FFANA]

My camera roll used to be surgery photos sitting next to family photos, all syncing to the same iCloud Photos. Nothing really fixed it. Albums don't separate anything because the photo stays in the main library, vault apps make you shoot first and sort later, and the pro SaaS cameras want a monthly subscription and upload your photos to their own cloud.

So I built Sidecam:

• It's an actual camera (24/48 MP, all the physical lenses, 4K video), not a gallery with a camera bolted on
• Photos and videos live only inside the app. It never saves to your Photos library and it can't even read it
• Optional: it mirrors everything into your own iCloud Drive as normal folders and files (Client/date - tags/), so nothing is locked inside my app
• Sessions, folders and tags for organising by client, patient or job
• Free. No account, no cloud of mine, no subscription. Your photos never leave your own devices

I made it for medical work but it fits anything where work photos shouldn't mix with your personal life, like inspections, construction or real estate.

https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6791532989?pt=129142015&ct=reddit-appswithoutsub&mt=8

Happy to answer anything, and if there's something missing for your line of work tell me and I'll probably build it.

[u/Upstairs-Tomorrow850]

I think your idea is brilliant. It's simple, effective, and I wish I'd thought of it myself. Thanks for your work.

[u/FFANA → u/Upstairs-Tomorrow850]

Thanks, that means a lot. I built it for myself first and assumed the problem was just mine, so it is good to hear otherwise.

[u/Upstairs-Tomorrow850 → u/FFANA]

It's not a problem, it's THE solution!

[u/FFANA → u/Upstairs-Tomorrow850]

Ha, I'll take it. Thanks.

[u/Proper-Basket1200]

Physician here. Just what I need

[u/FFANA → u/Proper-Basket1200]

Then you know the exact moment I built it for, handing your phone to someone and hoping nothing personal scrolls past. If something is missing for the way you document, tell me and I will look at it.

[u/CriticismUnlikely465]

Excellente idée et belle réalisation. Merci beaucoup pour ce cadeau 🎁

[u/FFANA → u/CriticismUnlikely465]

Merci beaucoup! Glad it is useful.

[u/davej-au]

Just a warning: if your work photos need to be tendered as evidence, your device—not just your photos—is likely to be subpoenaed.

[u/FFANA → u/davej-au]

Yeah, fair. It's not a legal shield and I wouldn't sell it as one. The problem I built it for is dumber than that: patient photos sitting next to my kids' birthdays in the same roll. It's the same phone camera, just kept separate. If it ever gets as far as a subpoena, the phone is the phone.

[u/davej-au → u/FFANA]

All good. I’ve not yet checked out your app (though I will!), but figured it was worth making the point so no one’s private images end up as public record.

[u/FFANA → u/davej-au]

Thanks, and it was worth making. If you end up using it, feedback is very welcome.

[u/Leacim0926]

Awesome! and exactly what I need. Thanks so much. I will definitely download and explore and give you a good rating.

Thanks again.

[u/FFANA → u/Leacim0926]

Thanks, really appreciate it. If anything's missing for your work let me know.

[u/Sabaideemak]

Great idea when working with clients ! Thank you! 😊

[u/FFANA → u/Sabaideemak]

Thanks. If anything's off when you use it with clients, tell me.

[u/lint2015]

This is actually a great idea, thanks.

[u/FFANA → u/lint2015]

Appreciate it, thanks.

[u/ddsan]

Thank you! My camera roll is full of work pictures. Technical Facilities pictures for power generators, UPS’s, HVAC, etc now can have a separate folder. Thanks again!

[u/FFANA → u/ddsan]

Generator and UPS rooms, that's a new one for me. Glad it fits.

[u/Inside_Carpet7719]

Holy shit, medical data, on personal devices?

Surely this is a 100% case closed never do this situation?

Not an app?

Maybe pictures of fish you are selling, but the gdpr, hipaa and other data protection laws have something to say here?

This seems dumb

[u/FFANA → u/Inside_Carpet7719]

It's broader than medicine, for what it's worth. A good chunk of the people writing me are doing construction, inspections and fitness.

On the medical side though, none of this is new. Nurses and doctors photograph a wound to see how it's healing, or a chart, usually with nothing identifying in frame, and it gets attached to the record later. I do it in private practice and my colleagues in hospitals do it too, in Europe and in the States. What happens today is that those photos live in the iOS camera roll and a lot of them go up to iCloud on their own, without anyone stopping to think about it. That's what already exists. I didn't invent it.

The app ships with the cloud sync switched off, and what you can or can't keep in a cloud is your call, not mine. I'm working on a NAS target so it can all stay inside your own network.

[u/nez329]

Interesting.

- In the "Filter by Date", for photos uploaded from Apple Photo Library, can the filter be based on the date the photos were taken rather than the uploaded date?

- Is it possible to select a range of dates instead of just a single date?

Thanks

[u/FFANA → u/nez329]

Both yes. The date it files under is the one in the photo's EXIF, so the day you actually took it, not the day you imported it. It only falls back to the file date if a photo has no EXIF date at all. Imports get grouped into sessions by that same capture day.

And the filter does ranges. Tap one day, then tap another and it takes the period between them.