Halide Mark II - Pro Camera 4+

This update fixes an issue unlocking Halide for folks who purchased it. We sincerely apologize for the issue.

------

Halide 2.15 is here: something we’ve worked on for a very long time.

Introducing: Process Zero, the Image Lab, and the ultimate level of control over camera processing on iPhone.

PROCESSING

When you take a photo on your iPhone, your photo is processed. The newer your iPhone is, the more processing typically happens: sometimes AI even comes in to make significant changes to your shot. People are made brighter, noise is reduced, details enhanced and ‘flaws’ removed.

You might love this, or you might not. That can even change for photo to photo. That made us think: why shouldn’t you be able to choose your processing the way you choose a lens?

Where Halide previously allowed you to reduce processing, Halide 2.15 gives you total control: we now let you choose your image processing from the go. When you first set up Halide, or when you tap the format picker in the app, we now offer a choice:

Apple’s standard image processing, reduced image processing, or something new: Process Zero.

PROCESS ZERO

Process Zero is our own process. We take raw sensor data, and do minimal processing to make a beautiful, natural and film-like shot. It’s very quick (up to 20 times faster than ProRAW) it is saved along with a 12 megapixel native RAW file. You can choose it at any time by tapping the “RAW” / “HEIC” format picker icon in the Halide interface, or you can read more and select a process in the Capture settings.

After taking a few shots, using it is simple: on your iPhone, any app you open your photos in will use the Process Zero image, and any editor that supports RAW will open the RAW data for further editing. Easy!

After many releases focusing on the latest and greatest iPhones, we are proud to say that we’ve worked hard to customize and optimize Process Zero for all iPhones we support. Those that do not have ProRAW on their iPhones will benefit from better processing on their RAW shots right away, as well as the Image Lab.

Note: Process Zero is not made for low light photography, as it will get noisy and can get color cast. It has no HDR or AI to tweak its detail or dynamic range. Use this if you want to shoot entirely without Apple’s processing — a bit like an older digital camera, for natural looking shots, or as a starting point for editing.

IMAGE LAB

When we shot with Process Zero, we found we often didn’t want to edit the results much, but we did want to tweak exposure at times. Since all Process Zero shots contain the original RAW data, we decided to add our first editing feature: the Image Lab.

In the reveiwer, tap the small +/- icon to open the Image Lab. Adjusting exposure here will re-process the raw data with Process Zero, letting you often recover lost detail in shadows or highlights. Saving it will keep your RAW intact and save a new Process Zero shot.

Easy, quick adjustments, ideal when you want to skip the editing or get a first pass on your shots.

MORE

There’s tweaks and fixes all over, and some new secret additions to those that enjoy customizing Halide. This is our first large release since we released Kino just weeks ago, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to work hard on bringing you yet another big update for Halide users.

Most importantly: we’d love to see your shots with Process Zero! Tag us on social media with your captures — we’d love to see them.