Findy Download
Feature · Subscription

Camera inspection tools

Three ways to use the iPhone camera while inspecting an object at close range: an infrared viewing mode, a lens-glint finder, and an automatic lens scan. They make certain reflections and light sources easier to notice.

Access

The camera tools are part of Findy Pro, the optional subscription. The Bluetooth scanner, magnetic checks and guided inspection information are free.

What the three tools do

Infrared viewing mode

A camera view tuned to make faint light sources easier to notice in a dark room — the kind some night-vision cameras emit while illuminating a space.

Lens-glint finder

A manual mode: you light the object and look for the small, distinctly bright point that a lens returns when you view it close to the light's axis.

Automatic lens scan

The same principle, with the app watching the camera feed for candidate bright points as you move slowly across an object, so you are not judging every frame yourself.

How lens reflection works

Camera lenses reflect directed light back towards its source. When you shine a light at an object and view it from close to the light's axis, a lens can appear as a small, distinctly bright point that shifts and flares as you move. This is a physical property of the optics.

A light beside the phone reflects off a lens and returns along nearly the same path, visible only when viewed close to the light's axis.
A lens returns light along nearly the same path, flaring when your eye is near the light.

How infrared viewing works

Many cameras with night vision illuminate a room using infrared LEDs. That light is invisible to the eye, but some infrared wavelengths reach a phone camera's sensor and appear on screen as a faint white or purple glow. Findy's viewing mode is intended to make such sources easier to notice in a dark room.

Infrared LEDs on a camera emit light; some reaches the phone sensor but an infrared-cut filter blocks much of it, so visibility varies by phone.
An infrared-cut filter inside the camera blocks much of the infrared light.

Using the camera tools well

  1. Darken the room as much as you can. Both modes depend on contrast against the ambient light.
  2. Work object by object rather than sweeping the room. Start with items facing the bed, sofa or bathroom door.
  3. Hold the phone close to your light source so you are looking along the beam, not across it.
  4. Move slowly. A glint appears and disappears within a few centimetres of movement.
  5. When something flares, change your angle and repeat. A genuine lens reflection reappears predictably from the same axis.
  6. Finish by looking at the object itself, in normal light, with your own eyes.

How Findy labels what it sees

Reflective point detected

A bright point the scan considers worth checking. Inspect the object from another angle to see what it is.

Related

The guided inspection checklist tells you which objects to point the camera at. How Findy works covers all five methods together.

Last reviewed 2026-07-23 · Reviewed by the Findy team at Flaps Apps.