Aircrop

Release notes

Aircrop 0.14.0 (beta)

October 2026 · macOS 15 or later · Apple silicon · Download

The first public beta. If you shoot bursts at airshows, Aircrop turns each burst into a steady sequence: every frame re-centered on the aircraft, ready to export as crops, a GIF and an MP4, or to save back to Photos.

New in this version

  • Updates. Aircrop › Check for Updates… looks for a newer version on this site and installs it. The second time you open Aircrop it asks whether to check automatically; it checks only if you say yes.
  • Subject boxes leave smoke out. Apple’s Vision framework now refines every subject box. On a 59-frame Blue Angels burst trailing smoke, 20 frames used to box the smoke along with the jet (or the smoke alone); now all 59 box the jet. On clear-sky bursts the boxes get a little tighter: stubs of contrail and wing vapor are left out, never the airframe.

Known limits

  • RAW files aren’t read. Shoot RAW + HEIF or JPEG, or export from your RAW editor first.
  • An aircraft flying in front of land or thick cloud can be missed. Click it in the frames where it was missed, or draw a tracking box around it.
  • If the aircraft is gone for more than two frames (behind a tree, out of the frame), the frames after the gap may pick something else. Check them, and click the aircraft once to fix the rest.
  • A white aircraft trailing white smoke hasn’t been tried yet and may be boxed together with its smoke. If Vision can’t run on a frame, that frame keeps the older, smoke-prone box.
  • Lock Background needs land, water or a structure in the frame to hold still. On a clear-sky burst it follows the plane.

Before the beta

Twelve private versions came before this one. What they added, briefly:

  • 0.12: Aircrop carries everything it needs inside the app, with nothing else to install. It got smaller and now opens in about a second the first time (it took 6–15 s). Smart fill runs on Core ML. Clearer messages for limited Photos access and a full disk, with a free-space check before long jobs.
  • 0.11: The options panel stays put while a render runs.
  • 0.10: Stepping through rendered frames is instant (12–25 ms, from 282 ms). Save to Photos names any photo that has left your library and saves the rest.
  • 0.9: Clicking the right object in a frame fixes the frames that object appears in; every other frame keeps its own pick. Type a Straighten angle, or Level with one click.
  • 0.8: Projects (.aircrop files), one window per project, and a tracking box you draw for formations. Animations play at the burst’s real speed. Frames with no aircraft in them are kept, positioned along its path.
  • 0.7: A cleaner options panel with aspect ratio presets (Square, 16:9, 4:3, 3:2). Straighten turns the photo under the crop box, like Photos. Max Fit.
  • 0.6: A crop box you drag, resize and turn like the one in Photos, with Original and Freeform aspect ratios.
  • 0.5: Bursts over land and water: the aircraft is told apart from a shoreline, a bridge tower or a gull. Lock Background. Share › Aircrop from Photos. Saved badges on frames already exported.
  • 0.4: Import from the Photos app, and Save to Photos as edits you can revert.
  • 0.3: The Mac app.
  • 0.1–0.2: The engine: vignetting and dust removal, finding the aircraft, sky fill and Smart fill.