LiDAR fish measurement

How the sensor helps

A LiDAR scanner sends out pulses of infrared light and times how long they take to come back. The result is a depth map: a distance for each part of the scene.

Once the app knows how far the fish is from the lens, the camera’s geometry tells it how many inches each pixel spans at that distance. Measuring nose to tail in the image then gives a real length.

Which phones have it

Apple has included a LiDAR scanner on its Pro and Pro Max iPhones since the iPhone 12 Pro, and on recent iPad Pro models. Standard iPhone models do not have one.

If your phone lacks the sensor, CatchVault falls back to an AI length estimate from the same photo and marks the catch accordingly.

Limits worth knowing

• Sensor range is short, so shoot from a normal arm’s length, not across the boat.
• Bent or curled fish read short. Straighten the body first.
• Strong glare and water on the lens can add noise to the depth map.

Questions & answers

Sources for this entry

1. CatchVault on the App Store: Developer listing with the feature summary, pricing and device requirements.
2. CatchVault official website: Company-published feature pages, species guide and state rule summaries.

Practical guidance is original editorial writing. App details come from the developer’s published descriptions, checked 7 November 2026.

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How the related websites connect

This reference is published alongside CatchVault. Its state rules, license guides, species profiles and per-water pages live on the CatchVault website.

Cite this entry

Best Fishing Apps. “LiDAR fish measurement.” Content reviewed 7 November 2026.