Caira: The AI-Native Camera Revolutionizing Real-Time Photo Editing

Caira Is an 'AI-Native' Micro Four Thirds Camera With Google's 'Nano Banana' Generative AI Built-In

Camera Intelligence has announced Caira, an "AI-native" Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera that attaches directly to iPhone via MagSafe. Caira is the first interchangeable lens mirrorless camera to feature Google's next-gen generative AI model, "Nano Banana," enabling photographers to perform real-time advanced generative image editing. Camera Intelligence changed its name from Alice Camera last month, and announced its pivot to AI-based imaging technology. Alice Camera was announced in 2020, promising AI-based computational photography features in a camera that attaches directly to a smartphone. However, funding and development took time, and Alice Camera didn't arrive to customers until last year. By then, the imaging, smartphone, and especially AI landscape had changed dramatically, leading Alice Camera's CEO, Vishal Kumar, to pivot. "Producing engaging, high-quality content is a necessity for solo creators and small businesses -- but they are already stretched thin and juggling multiple business demands. Content creation tools are fragmented, and users producing social media content for the first time struggle with steep learning curves for both mirrorless camera operation and editing software," Kumar said last month. Camera Intelligence's new Caira camera makes some of the same promises that Alice Camera did five years ago, including its general design. Further, the fact that Caira works alongside an attached smartphone and emphasizes artificial intelligence and computational photography is familiar. However, AI has come a long way since 2020, and Google's "Nano Banana" model can accomplish things that people barely dreamed of back then. Smartphone cameras have become increasingly reliant on artificial intelligence in recent years, especially for computational photography features engineered to overcome the limitations of relatively small image sensors and lenses. However, Caira, which has a relatively large Micro Four Thirds sensor and accepts MFT interchangeable lenses, aims to take AI much farther than simply improving image quality. Caira is generative; it can transform photos using AI as soon as they are captured. "With the integration of Google's 'Nano Banana' model, Caira ushers in a new era of on-camera 'generative editing,' moving beyond simple capture to offer in-the-moment creation and editing, for spectacular real-time adjustments that were previously only possible through complex post-production software and workflows on laptops," Camera Intelligence says. Photographers can use simple natural language prompts on the accompanying Caira smartphone app to instantly change the style of their photo, perform color grading, transform a daytime photo into a nighttime one, alter a subject's clothing or hairstyle, replace the sky, and more. Whether that is something that most photographers want or not is a matter of debate, but Camera Intelligence believes that Caira enables a new type of content creation within an audience who may have little or no experience taking high-quality photos with a traditional camera. "With Caira, we are not just launching a new camera; we are introducing a new, intelligent creative partner," says Vishal Kumar, CEO of Camera Intelligence. "Creators need more than just great image quality -- they need speed, flexibility, and tools that match the pace of their imagination. By integrating Nano Banana directly into Caira, we are collapsing traditional content creation workflows; we aim to fundamentally shift how creators capture, edit, and share our world." Camera Intelligence acknowledges that generative AI raises concerning ethical implications. The company says it is building Caira with an "ethics-first approach." In this case, it means the team is working with professional photographers to "establish responsible use cases." The team is also developing safeguards regarding its generative AI and prompts. The camera will "always adhere to Google's Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy," and as such, will not allow users to change a person's skin color, ethnicity, or core facial features. Camera Intelligence says it is focused on empowering creative expression, not manipulating anyone's identity. "We've put a lot of thought into this technology before offering it to our customers. Despite the skepticism surrounding generative AI, we believe photographers shouldn't fear it," Kumar says. "Thoughtful integration of this has the potential to be truly helpful. We chose Google's Nano Banana because it's the best model we've seen for maintaining consistent character details and seamlessly blending new edits whilst preserving the original image's optical quality. Its one-shot editing capability is also exceptional, frequently delivering perfect results in a single attempt without unwanted hallucinations. It truly feels like magic," the CEO concludes. Camera Intelligence says Caira is built for creators and businesses who require high-end image quality, extensive creative freedom, and an accessible, streamlined imaging tool. It is a bold camera with many ambitious promises. Caira's reliance on generative AI will undoubtedly ruffle the feathers of some photographers, but it is far from the first imaging product to feature generative AI technology. Many photo editing applications rely on generative AI for their latest features, and most new smartphones have increasingly integrated generative AI in recent years. However, a full-blown interchangeable lens camera with built-in generative AI? That is very different. The images below show input and output examples captured using pre-production Caira hardware and software and edited using Google's "Nano Banana" generative AI. Like the Alice Camera, Caira will launch first on Kickstarter. The campaign is slated to begin on October 30, and those interested in staying up to date with he project or backing it at the end of the month can sign up for notifications on Camera Intelligence's website. Customers can also secure the lowest possible price -- $695 -- with a $50 deposit. Caira will retail for $995 when it arrives in January 2026; however, early bird backers will be able to purchase the camera for $795. Disclaimer: Make sure you do your own research into any crowdfunding project you're considering backing. While we aim to only share legitimate and trustworthy campaigns, there's always a real chance that you can lose your money when backing any crowdfunded project. PetaPixel does not participate in any crowdfunding affiliate programs. To hold projects accountable, all crowdfunding campaigns on which PetaPixel reports are financially backed with the lowest tier option in order to give the publication visibility into all backer-only communications. If a campaign owner acts in a manner inconsistent with its promises, PetaPixel will share that information publicly.

The Nano Banana camera has arrived to edit reality in real time

A new device is making Google's new Gemini 2.5 Flash Image model, better known as Nano Banana, into a camera, or at least part of a smartphone's camera. Camera Intelligence has introduced the Caira, a mirrorless camera that attaches to iPhones via MagSafe and has Nano Banana embedded directly in the device. The combination allows you to take a photo and immediately mess with it using Nano Banana, whether changing the lighting, the color, or turning wine into water, as seen above. It theoretically makes using Nano Banana, best known for making viral 3D figurines from photographs, as frictionless to use as an Instagram filter. Since it's fully integrated with iOS via MagSafe, you can review, edit, and export directly from your phone. Camera Intelligence pitches Caira as a way to mix taking a photo and doing post-processing at the same time. And speed can be a big deal, especially if producing content is part of your job. Caira supports interchangeable Micro Four Thirds lenses, making it the first mirrorless camera to offer this kind of pro-optics-to-AI pipeline. There are also add-ons like an optional battery grip to extend shoot times and a sensor package 400% larger than a typical smartphone camera, giving Caira a solid edge in optical quality before the AI even steps in. You can't buy a Caira just yet, but it goes live for pre-order on Kickstarter on October 30. There are plenty of AI image models out there, but Camera Intelligence went with Nano Banana for its reliability and for making sure photos maintain their quality after editing. That makes it particularly powerful for commercial creators who need fast, clean, client-ready output without spending hours in Lightroom. "By integrating Nano Banana directly into Caira, we are collapsing traditional content creation workflows; we aim to fundamentally shift how creators capture, edit, and share our world," Camera Intelligence CEO Vishal Kumar explained in a statement. "We chose Google's Nano Banana because it's the best model we've seen for maintaining consistent character details and seamlessly blending new edits whilst preserving the original image's optical quality. Its one-shot editing capability is also exceptional, frequently delivering perfect results in a single attempt without unwanted hallucinations. It truly feels like magic." Of course, all this power comes with responsibility. Camera Intelligence says it's committed to what it calls an "ethics-first" development strategy, and Caira will include built-in AI guardrails. Users can't alter skin tone, ethnicity, or core facial features, and edits that manipulate personal identity in inappropriate ways will be blocked at the prompt level. The system is built to comply with Google's own Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy, and the company says it's working with professional photographers and ethics researchers to establish best practices for responsible creative editing. That balance will be closely watched. Generative editing at the point of capture is a powerful capability, and while Camera Intelligence says it's limiting identity-warping functionality, it's easy to imagine edge cases emerging as users test the limits of what the AI can do with lighting, body shapes, or context shifts. Still, having Caira instead of taking a DSLR photo and editing on a MacBook is obviously appealing when you're on the go or in a rush. But as good as the AI may be as an editor and toy for silly photos, it's only a tool, not a replacement for real photographic artistry. Thinking otherwise would be bananas, nano, or any other size.