The popular Halide Camera app was updated to version 2.15 today, featuring improved user control over photo processing and a new “Process Zero” mode that produces natural, film-like photos with no AI and no computational photography. That’s great if you want more detail and more control over lighting and exposure.
The Process Zero feature is not a replacement for anything. When you take a photo in Halide, you can choose between Apple’s standard image processing, reduced image processing, or Process Zero.
The app has also been updated with “Image Lab,” its first editing feature. Image Lab lets you adjust exposure and then reprocess your raw data with Process Zero, which often restores lost detail in shadows or highlights.
For more details, see the full changelog below…
What’s new in this version:
Introducing Process Zero, the Image Lab and ultimate control over camera processing on iPhone.
PROCESSING
When you take a photo with your iPhone, it is edited. The newer your iPhone, the more editing it usually does: sometimes AI even steps in to significantly change your photo. People are brightened, noise is reduced, details are enhanced, and “blemishes” are removed.
You may like it, or you may not. It may even change from photo to photo. That got us thinking: why shouldn’t you be able to choose your processing the way you choose a lens?
While Halide previously allowed you to pare down the processing, Halide 2.15 gives you full control: you can now choose your image processing on the go. When you first set up Halide or when you tap the format selector in the app, we now give you 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 data from the sensor and perform minimal processing to create a beautiful, natural, film-like shot. It’s very fast (up to 20x faster than ProRAW) and is saved along with a native 12MP RAW file. You can select it at any time by tapping the “RAW” / “HEIC” format selection icon in the Halide interface. You can also read more and choose a process in the capture settings.
Once you’ve taken a few shots, it’s easy to use: 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. Simple!
After many releases focusing on the latest and greatest iPhones, we’re proud to say we’ve worked hard to adapt and optimize Process Zero for all the iPhones we support. Those who don’t have ProRAW on their iPhones will immediately benefit from better processing of their RAW shots, as well as from Image Lab.
Note: Process Zero is not suitable for shooting in low light as it can introduce noise and color casts. It does not have HDR or AI to optimize detail or dynamic range. Use it when you want to shoot without any Apple processing at all—a bit like an older digital camera, for natural-looking shots, or as a starting point for editing.
IMAGE LAB
When we were shooting with Process Zero, we found that we often didn’t want to edit the results much, but sometimes we wanted to tweak the exposure. Since all Process Zero shots contain the original RAW data, we decided to add our first editing feature: the Image Lab.
In Reviewer, tap the little +/- icon to open Image Lab. When you adjust exposure here, the raw data is reprocessed using Process Zero, which often allows you to recover lost detail in shadows or highlights. When you save it, your RAW stays intact and you save a new Process Zero shot.
Simple, quick adjustments, ideal if you want to skip editing or check your shots first.
MORE
There are tweaks and fixes throughout, as well as some new secret additions for those who enjoy customizing Halide.
You can download Halide Mark II from the App Store.
Read more
