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by Nino LeitnerYesterdayTwo of the industry’s most established director’s viewfinder apps are adding real-time sun tracking within days of each other: Chemical Wedding is integrating its Helios Live-View technology into the Artemis Director’s Viewfinder, while Cadrage 6.0 introduces a native sun path overlay, available now and free for all users. Together, the updates confirm a clear trend: sun-position previsualization is becoming a standard viewfinder feature rather than a separate app.
Anyone who has scouted a location knows the ritual: frame the shot in a viewfinder app, then switch to a separate sun tracker to figure out where the light will actually be when the camera rolls. Within a single news cycle, both Chemical Wedding and Cadrage have decided that this second step belongs inside the viewfinder itself. The two announcements differ in approach and timing, so let’s look at each in turn before considering what the convergence means for scouting workflows.
Helios Live-View comes to ArtemisThe Emmy Award-winning Artemis Director’s Viewfinder has served the film industry since 2008 and remains one of the standard tools for previewing camera and lens combinations during prep. Helios Live-View, introduced in 2014, lets filmmakers preview the sun’s position in real time over a live camera feed. Chemical Wedding is now merging the two: Artemis users will get the same live-feed functionality directly inside the viewfinder, so previsualizing a shot and planning location lighting happen on a single screen during scouting. According to the company, this marks the first time the core technologies of the two platforms have been combined.
Artemis is fusing Helios Live-View, their sun tracking app, into Artemis Director’s Viewfinder in the coming weeks. Image credit: Chemical Wedding“Bringing Live-View into Artemis Director’s Viewfinder means directors and cinematographers no longer have to choose between two separate workflows,” said Nic Sadler of Chemical Wedding. “They get the precision Artemis is known for, combined with the real-time feedback that Helios users have relied on for a decade.”
The updated version of Artemis featuring Helios Live-View is scheduled for July 2026. Helios continues as a standalone app and is set to receive a substantial update of its own in late 2026. The integration also fits Chemical Wedding’s recent ecosystem push, following the release of Artemis Studio for Mac, the desktop companion that syncs shot plans, images, and sun position data with the iOS app.
Cadrage 6.0 brings sun tracking to everyone, for freeCadrage, the Vienna-based director’s viewfinder app used by more than 100,000 filmmakers, has taken a different route: rather than merging with a companion product, the team built sun tracking directly into version 6.0 of the app. The update displays the sun’s path for any date directly in the viewfinder, showing where the sun will rise, travel, and set at your location. Activation is simple; users tap the menu button in the lower left of the viewfinder and select “Sun”. I tried it briefly and it works as expected.
Sun tracking in Cadrage works as expected, simply by activating “Sun” in the menu. Image credit: CineDTwo details stand out here. First, the feature is already live: version 6.0 is available now on the App Store. Second, it is free for all Cadrage users, with no add-on purchase or subscription tied to it. That is worth noting in a period when the company has just moved its separate pre-production suite, Cadrage Studio, to subscription pricing; the core viewfinder app clearly remains a one-time purchase that keeps gaining functionality.
Why every viewfinder suddenly tracks the sunIf this all sounds familiar, it should. Just weeks ago, the newcomer LIGHTFRAMER PRO launched with real-time sun tracking built into its iPhone viewfinder from day one, positioning the combination as its main selling point. With Artemis and Cadrage now following within the same month, the message is unmistakable: what was a differentiator in June is on its way to becoming table stakes by August.
The logic is easy to follow from a working cinematographer’s perspective. Sun position is one of the few scouting variables that cannot be judged by eye on the day of the scout, and translating data from a separate sun app into a framed shot has always involved guesswork. Overlaying the sun’s path directly on the viewfinder image answers the questions that matter in one glance: will the sun sit behind the subject, creep into frame, or hit the background at call time. It is also a reminder of how quickly the pre-production app space is consolidating features, with viewfinder makers expanding into full planning suites and single-purpose tools being absorbed into larger workflows.
There are still open questions. We have not yet tested how the Helios feed performs inside Artemis, and accuracy across the different implementations is something we would want to verify in the field before calling any of them the definitive solution.
Cadrage 6.0 with sun tracking is available now on the App Store as a free update for existing users; details are on the Cadrage website. The updated Artemis Director’s Viewfinder with Helios Live-View arrives in July 2026, with more information on the Chemical Wedding website.
Do you plan your light with a separate sun app, or does tracking belong inside the viewfinder? Which implementation are you most curious to try? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!