Version 2.14.425 January 2024This update includes stability improvements and bug fixes. OK boss, I just copy pasted the generic release notes in the box on the website we're good to go. Oops, did I type that in here? Wrong window.
Hello, Halide family! We noticed a bug that affected RAW capture for the 2× lens on some iPhones. If you previously saw some behavior there that prevented you from taking RAW shots, try again now. If you have any other issues, don't hesitate to reach out to [email protected]. In the meantime, we're also hard at work on... a new app that complements Halide exceptionally well. Follow the journey on our social media channels if you're interested!
To recap our last big update...
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Hello Halide users! Halide 2.14 is here, and it’s an appropriate Winter update. For those of you that know macOS history, you can see Halide 2.14 as a ‘Snow Leopard’ update — while there’s no big feature changes that are visible, the actual app is significantly faster, more reliable, and better.
DEFERRED PROCESSING
In addition to our Zero Shutter Lag feature that reduces delay of capturing a shot to near-zero, we now save those photos faster than ever. In the past, if you took certain types of photos that take seconds to process (we’re looking at you 48 megapixel photos), then if you kept hitting the capture button, your iPhone would get overwhelmed and stop letting you take more photos. Not fun.
With deferred processing, your iPhone now waits to finish processing your photos until you’ve given it a few seconds to rest and take a breath. This helps prevent you from missing that one perfect shot!
REVIEW REVAMP
Sometimes our image reviewer would load slowly right after taking a photo. This is frustrating when you want to check on your shot — a thing most of us do on a regular basis. Thanks to some serious engineering work by Ben, the reviewer can now show images nearly instantly — and even shows a pre-processed image before the processing has completed. It even has a snazzy processing indicator so you can see your image is being ‘worked on’ by the system before it is ready.
A fun note: this review revamp is so fast that we had to add an artificial delay to test the new processing indicator. It’s really very quick. It is our best photo reviewer yet, and we think you are going to love it.
FIXES AND ENHANCEMENTS
Oops, this is starting to look like far too substantial a release note. Does anyone even read these? (if you do, leave us a review on the App Store! it really helps out.) Time for the generic boilerplate:
Thanks for using Halide! We update our app regularly to make it better for you. This update includes:
- Performance improvements for smoother and faster experience.
- Bug fixes to ensure a more reliable app.
- Minor enhancements to improve usability.
We hope your 2024 is off to a great start. We know we have an exciting year planned for Halide!.
Version 2.14.221 December 2023Hi folks — this is a special minor holiday update. For those of you that are short on time: we now support more reliable capture with the volume button on iOS 17.2 and above. That's it. This update also includes fixes in case you saw us ask if you wanted to enroll in lessons a bit too quickly. We hope you have some fantastic holidays and a very happy end of the year!
***
Still with us? Got some time? OK: for the last years (we are talking 10+ years) it was actually not possible to take a photo with the volume buttons. "Wait, App Store Release Note, that's not true" you will say, "I even took a photo with the volume button in Halide this morning!"
Yes, this is true. Halide has been able to do this since v1.1 which we released in August 22, 2017! The way this worked, however, was by 'listening' to your volume and if it changed. If the volume increased or decreased, Halide would take a photo. We couldn't check if you pressed the button. This led to funny situation: the volume doesn't change if you press 'volume up' at 100% volume, or 'volume down' at 0%. Very perceive users might have noticed that Halide can slightly change your volume when you open it at 100% — that would be why.
As of iOS 17.2, Apple has (finally?) introduced an API for volume button capture, and our long journey has come to a close. Now, iPhones on older versions of iOS will still use this old volume changing behavior, but on iOS 17.2 we will be able to more reliably, and simply, take photos when you press a volume button. Thanks for coming to our TED Talk and happy holidays!
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Hello Halide users! Halide 2.14 is here, and it’s an appropriate Winter update. For those of you that know macOS history, you can see Halide 2.14 as a ‘Snow Leopard’ update — while there’s no big feature changes that are visible, the actual app is significantly faster, more reliable, and better.
DEFERRED PROCESSING
In addition to our Zero Shutter Lag feature that reduces delay of capturing a shot to near-zero, we now save those photos faster than ever. In the past, if you took certain types of photos that take seconds to process (we’re looking at you 48 megapixel photos), then if you kept hitting the capture button, your iPhone would get overwhelmed and stop letting you take more photos. Not fun.
With deferred processing, your iPhone now waits to finish processing your photos until you’ve given it a few seconds to rest and take a breath. This helps prevent you from missing that one perfect shot!
REVIEW REVAMP
Sometimes our image reviewer would load slowly right after taking a photo. This is frustrating when you want to check on your shot — a thing most of us do on a regular basis. Thanks to some serious engineering work by Ben, the reviewer can now show images nearly instantly — and even shows a pre-processed image before the processing has completed. It even has a snazzy processing indicator so you can see your image is being ‘worked on’ by the system before it is ready.
A fun note: this review revamp is so fast that we had to add an artificial delay to test the new processing indicator. It’s really very quick. It is our best photo reviewer yet, and we think you are going to love it.
FIXES AND ENHANCEMENTS
Oops, this is starting to look like far too substantial a release note. Does anyone even read these? (if you do, leave us a review on the App Store! it really helps out.) Time for the generic boilerplate:
Thanks for using Halide! We update our app regularly to make it better for you. This update includes:
- Performance improvements for smoother and faster experience.
- Bug fixes to ensure a more reliable app.
- Minor enhancements to improve usability.
Thank you all! We hope you have a great holiday season, and we’re excited to show you all we have in stock for you in 2024..
Version 2.13.501 November 2023We're constantly working to make the app better based on your feedback and bug reports!
This update:
- Fixes a rare issue where locking and unlocking your iPhone causes the layout to appear wonky.
- Fixes a home screen widget sometimes not loading with the correct zoom factor.
- Improves some camera plumbing, which helps our support person diagnose problems.
Remember, if you're running into problems, you can always reach our tiny team via in-app support or just an email to [email protected]. We're here to help, and we're working really hard on making the app great. If you love Halide, please leave us a review in the App Store! It really helps.
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Back to the big update:
Lights. Camera. Action Button.
Halide 2.13 is here, and it’s an especially powerful update for all our iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users. Not only do we pack in support to get the best shots from your new cameras — we enable you to do something that no camera on an iPhone has ever been able to do.
Let’s dig in.
ACTION BUTTON AND IN-APP TRIGGERS
Action button on iPhone lets you quickly call up an app from anywhere or even perform a set of actions with a Shortcut. But Halide takes this even further: with the new Action Button menu in Halide, you can configure your Action button to trigger Halide features. Outside of Halide, pressing the Action button will open Halide, but in Halide, it can:
- Toggle manual or autofocus
- Cycle through your lenses
- Switch between auto and manual exposure modes
- Switch between 12 and 48MP capture modes
- Toggle RAW capture
- and even capture a photo! (though, with a delay - we suggest using the volume button instead)
We also offer a quick setup and help with configuring the Action button to just open Halide with no triggers, or a custom Halide Shortcut that opens a menu with various options like Silent mode, Flashlight, Rotation Lock, Camera Video, Camera Photo and Halide*.
This lets you set up and use the new button in ways you’ve never even imagined. We’re really excited to see what you think and how you’re going to be using it!
*please note that using other actions or shortcuts than ‘Open Halide with In-App Triggers’ will disable In-App Triggers.
ZERO SHUTTER LAG
When you tap capture, it will immediately capture what was in the viewfinder. Note: it cannot support the following modes:
- Flash Photos
- Manual-Exposure
- Dual-Camera Depth Photos (i.e. “Constituent Photo Delivery”)
- Bracket captures (e.g. SmartRAW)
RESPONSIVE CAPTURE
When you smash that capture button, we may temporarily reduce quality to prioritize speed and ensure you don't lose any shots. You can disable this in settings.
HDR RENDERING
We now render HDR in the photo reviewer
WE'D LOVE YOUR FEEDBACK!
If you love Halide, consider leaving a review. They go a long way! If you have any issues or other feedback, please let us know at [email protected]..
Version 2.11.318 April 2023This small update fixes an issue with lens switching on older devices..
Version 2.11.128 February 2023This small update includes a few bug fixes from our last major release. If you ran into issues setting manual exposure times, this update is for you! If not, you can still enjoy our updated localizations and other small fixes.
This update builds on our last huge release...
HALIDE 2.11: NEURAL TELEPHOTO
This update goes out to the regular, non Pro iPhone users who need a little extra detail in their shots. Why should the iPhone Pro have all the zoom-fun? We're excited to launch a feature we call "Neural Telephoto."
Neural Telephoto gives non-Pro iPhones that lack a physical telephoto lens a new power. Think of it as a virtual telephoto lens. Normally, when you zoom in on an image using software, you get blurry results, and diagonal lines look a bit jagged. With Neural Telephoto, we enhance details in zoomed shots by applying the same machine-learning system that powers our acclaimed macro mode — giving you a new, virtual 2× lens for free!
Obviously software can't beat a real telephoto lens on an iPhone Pro, but Neural Telephoto preserves details better than most software. We’re excited to finally bring a feature to our non-Pro iPhone users, too. We think you all deserve it.
A note for the Pros: Neural Telephoto shots will be zoomed and enhanced using machine learning in HEIC and JPEG, but will capture an unedited, unzoomed full RAW file for you to adjust if you so desire. By default, Halide will shoot in RAW + JPEG mode, which will give you an un-altered RAW file along with a zoomed and enhanced JPEG file. We think it’s the best of both worlds; no surprises or less-than-RAW output.
This update also brings small design enhancements and improvements throughout for all our users.
Whew, that’s it! Let us know what you think and share your Neural Telephoto shots with us! Find us on Instagram at @halidecamera, on Twtiter as @halideapp and new: you can also follow us on Mastodon at [email protected] And don't forget to tag your photos #ShotWithHalide for a chance to be featured!
If you have any issues or suggestions, please let us know at [email protected]..
Version 2.10.114 December 2022As 2022 comes to a close, we have a petite update that fixes a number of tiny bugs an annoyances. How small? An odd animation, text label alignment, and more descriptive help messages. Rest assured, we have bigger features in the works, but we're releasing them once we're back from the holidays.
As always, if you have any feedback or bug reports, just let us know at [email protected]. To stay up to date on the latest news, be sure to follow us at [email protected] or HalideApp on Instagram. And don't forget to tag your photos #ShotWithHalide for a chance to be featured!
This update builds on our previous 2.10.0 release. In case you missed it...
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READY FOR OUR CLOSE-UP
Today we’re excited to bring you Halide 2.10 - bringing an intelligent-binned 2× zoom to our iPhone 14 Pro users, along with updates to Depth mode (focus peaking!), speedups and fixes all around.
Halide 2.10 follows closely on Halide 2.9, which brought your favorite camera app to new heights with 48 megapixel capture support, 12MP binned capture, 48 megapixel HEIC capture and more!
WHAT’S NEW:
48/12MP PRORAW
Capture ProRAW 48 or 12 megapixels on iPhone 14 Pro, including with manual settings!
This update lets you shoot with the maximum quality or lower processed ProRAW right in Halide. Take photos with full manual control, including 10 or 12-bit for smaller filesizes. Note: native RAW is not available in 48MP, only 12MP. 48/12MP QUICK TOGGLE
Quickly toggle between 48 and 12 MP capture with a long-press on the format picker!
You don’t always want the long capture time, huge file sizes and noise of a 48MP file. Halide lets you quickly jump from 48 to 12 MP captures on iPhone 14 Pro, putting you in control with a tap. 48MP HEIC/JPG CAPTURE
Take advantage of the huge new detailed 48 megapixel sensor by taking 48MP processed images, straight to HEIC or JPG depending on your settings. These files come in as little as 1/25th the size of a 48MP ProRAW file and capture 2.5× faster, while retaining incredible detail.
MF IN DEPTH
That’s right: we are bringing manual focus to Depth Capture. Manual focus is now enabled on the new iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro front-facing cameras, for exact manual focus. We have extended Depth mode to now allow for manual focus in addition to depth on all iPhones that support it! Whoa. It's a crazy effect, and we hope you have fun with it.
ALSO NEW:
• Further improvements to Image Rescue - ahead of future iOS updates, you might still need Image Rescue if iOS fails to save images to your Photos library. This bug will soon be fixed.
• Updates to our awesome new Lock Screen widgets, letting you use Halide from your Lock Screen
This is our first release on this major new iPhone camera, so please continue to send us any bugs, issues or other feedback you have when you install this update on something new and shiny. Thank you!
We want to make one thing super clear: we will always support and thank you for being with us from the start. Halide, including all its Mark II features and the features we released in upgrades 2,5 years since are unlocked and enabled for you forever. While newer features like the Lock Screen widgets will require upgrading, we’ll make sure that you continue to get essential compatibility updates and keep the app you love.
If you have issues, or feedback, please write us — we want to hear from you. Thank you!.
Version 2.9.322 September 2022HALIDE FOR IPHONE 14 PRO AND IPHONE 14
Please welcome Halide 2.9! This update brings the most powerful camera app to new heights with support for 48 megapixel ProRaws, 48 megapixel HEICs/JPEGs, and more. With faster capture and smaller file sizes, Halide is the perfect companion for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro.
WHAT’S NEW: 48/12MP PRORAW
You can now capture ProRAW in 48 or 12 megapixels on iPhone 14 Pro, including with manual settings. Like all of our ProRAW support, you can choose between maximum quality or lower file sizes, and you can decide just how much processing you want on the image. Note: due to limitations within iOS, native RAW is currently not available at 48MP, but you can still capture 12MP binned native RAWs.
48MP HEIC/JPG CAPTURE
Take advantage of the huge new detailed 48 megapixel sensor by taking 48MP processed images, straight to HEIC or JPG depending on your settings. Not only do these files come in as little as 1/10th the size of a 48MP ProRAW file, they also capture 2.4x faster— all while retaining incredible detail.
48/12MP QUICK TOGGLE
48 MP photos have their tradeoffs. While you get higher resolution, they require more storage space and have more noise. Luckily, we make it quick easy to toggle between 48 MP and 12 MP: just long press the file format button and you’ll see your options!
MF IN DEPTH
That’s right: we are bringing manual focus to Depth Capture. Manual focus is now enabled on the new iPhone 14 and 14 Pro front-facing cameras, so we've extended Depth mode to allow for manual focus *in addition* to depth! Whoa. It's a wild effect, and we hope you have fun with it.
ALSO NEW:
- Further improvements to Image Rescue - ahead of future iOS updates, you might still need Image Rescue if iOS fails to save images to your Photos library. This bug will soon be fixed.
- Updates to our awesome new Lock Screen widgets, letting you use Halide from your Lock Screen
This is our first release on this major new iPhone camera, so please continue to send us any bugs, issues or other feedback you have when you install this update on something new and shiny. Thanks!
PREVIOUSLY:
We're happy to announce you can now access Halide from your lock screen! iOS 16 introduces Lock Screen Widgets, which lets us finally add the most-requested feature in the history of Halide.
Halide 2.8 introduces 7 Lock Screen widgets:
- open Halide
- Jump right into your ultra-wide, wide, or telephoto lens
- Auto or Manual Exposure
- Macro mode
WHAT'S NEXT?
This is a big update, but we’re not done. This kicks off our Halide Fall: we have been working this whole year on the incredible features we’re about to release — including a look at our next app. Be sure to follow @halidecamera on Twitter and @halideapp on Instagram to stay up to date on all our big announcements!
PS: If you ran into an issue with Halide being unable to save your photos, we have good news. We have worked with Apple on a solution, and are excited to announce a likely fix is coming a forthcoming update to iOS. In the meantime, Halide will save unsaved photos in its Image Rescue. Check the photo gallery in Halide if your photos are missing in your Photos library.
PPS. Is Halide asking you to upgrade to access some new features? You’ve probably been with us since Halide 1, which was first released way back in 2017. As we near the 2-year anniversary of Halide Mark II, free updates are ending for users that bought ye olde Halide 1.
We want to make one thing super clear: we will always support and thank you for being with us from the start. Halide is unlocked and enabled for you forever, including most features in Mark II. While NEW-new features like the Lock Screen widgets require upgrading, we’ll make sure that you continue to get essential compatibility updates and retain access to the app you love.
If you have issues, or feedback, please write us — we want to hear from you. Thank you!.
Version 2.7.1008 June 2022APPLE DESIGN AWARD 2022 - WINNER!
We’re incredibly proud, humbled and overwhelmed to announce we have won the Apple Design Award 2022 in Visuals & Graphics!
We're incredibly honored to receive an Apple Design Award, and want to take a moment to thank you. Yes, you! We couldn't have reached this milestone without the support of all of you who use Halide, who send us their photos and your feedback, who tell their friends and family and colleagues about our small app that we love to build so much.
We are so tremendously grateful and happy to bring you this news, and with that, celebrate Halide’s 5th birthday! Thank you for an amazing five years, and we're looking forward to many more!
Oh. The update? This update fixes an issue where Halide might unexpectedly close after tapping the review link in Settings.
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A Recap of our Last Big Update
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THE NEW IMAGE RESCUE
Last year, we began hearing scattered reports users unable to save photos. We dug deep into the issue last year, and found that this was a bug within iOS, and not Halide. While there was nothing that we could do fix it, we did report the issue to Apple, who have *mostly* fixed the problem.
Still, we don't like the idea of any of our users losing photos, whether or not it's our bug. So we've updated our "Image Rescue" feature to deal with the problem. When iOS refuses to save photos, Halide will store a copy within the app, so you can just keep snapping. Of course we’ll show you a notification that something is up, but you're welcome to ignore the problem until later.
When you’re ready to get your photos out of Halide, just open our photo reviewer. You'll notice a big banner at the top explaining that we saved your photos. Tap on it, and we'll show you the photos we saved. From there, you can either try to save them again (because sometimes this iOS bug fixes itself) or you can tap the action button in the upper right to share them off your phone some other way, such as AirDropping them to your Mac.
While we were knee deep in rewriting our reviewer code, we used this opportunity to renovate our photo reviewer…
THE NEW GRID VIEW
Today we deliver a long requested feature: batch actions on photos. Just tap the "Select" button in the upper right, and then tap the photos you want to act on to select them. You can tap the Trash icon to delete them, or the Action button for... other actions. Like sending them to another app.
In the grid view, you’ll also notice that we show a heart over the photos you've favorited. This seems like a small thing, but it's super useful. After a shoot, you can just favorite the best photos, and use the batch selection feature to quickly delete the rest.
That’s not all— you can now long press on a single photo in the grid view to bring up a preview and context menu. You can quickly favorite, delete, or share a photo, or even open it in one of our supported editors.
Finally, we know it's a annoying when you're in the full-screen reviewer and want to go back to the grid view. You have to reach your thumb aaaaall the way to the upper left to tap that grid button. Good news! We've added a gesture! Just swipe *up* from your photo to jump into the grid view. Don't worry, you can still swipe *down* to return to the camera. Trust us, you use this new gesture for a while, you'll love it.
If you have any feedback for our next big release, please let us know at [email protected]. And don't forget to tag your photos #ShotWithHalide for a chance to be featured on our Twitter and Instagram. As we said at the beginning, we have a very exciting year ahead, and we hope these changes lay an exciting framework for what's to come!
—Team Halide.
Version 2.7.824 May 2022We're hard at work on our next major Halide update. In the meantime we've got this small update that improves design details in our focus dial, toolbar, and settings. If you see anything else we could improve, let us know at [email protected]!
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A Recap of our Last Big Update
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THE NEW IMAGE RESCUE
Last year, we began hearing scattered reports users unable to save photos. We dug deep into the issue last year, and found that this was a bug within iOS, and not Halide. While there was nothing that we could do fix it, we did report the issue to Apple, who have *mostly* fixed the problem.
Still, we don't like the idea of any of our users losing photos, whether or not it's our bug. So we've updated our "Image Rescue" feature to deal with the problem. When iOS refuses to save photos, Halide will store a copy within the app, so you can just keep snapping. Of course we’ll show you a notification that something is up, but you're welcome to ignore the problem until later.
When you’re ready to get your photos out of Halide, just open our photo reviewer. You'll notice a big banner at the top explaining that we saved your photos. Tap on it, and we'll show you the photos we saved. From there, you can either try to save them again (because sometimes this iOS bug fixes itself) or you can tap the action button in the upper right to share them off your phone some other way, such as AirDropping them to your Mac.
While we were knee deep in rewriting our reviewer code, we used this opportunity to renovate our photo reviewer…
THE NEW GRID VIEW
Today we deliver a long requested feature: batch actions on photos. Just tap the "Select" button in the upper right, and then tap the photos you want to act on to select them. You can tap the Trash icon to delete them, or the Action button for... other actions. Like sending them to another app.
In the grid view, you’ll also notice that we show a heart over the photos you've favorited. This seems like a small thing, but it's super useful. After a shoot, you can just favorite the best photos, and use the batch selection feature to quickly delete the rest.
That’s not all— you can now long press on a single photo in the grid view to bring up a preview and context menu. You can quickly favorite, delete, or share a photo, or even open it in one of our supported editors.
Finally, we know it's a annoying when you're in the full-screen reviewer and want to go back to the grid view. You have to reach your thumb aaaaall the way to the upper left to tap that grid button. Good news! We've added a gesture! Just swipe *up* from your photo to jump into the grid view. Don't worry, you can still swipe *down* to return to the camera. Trust us, you use this new gesture for a while, you'll love it.
If you have any feedback for our next big release, please let us know at [email protected]. And don't forget to tag your photos #ShotWithHalide for a chance to be featured on our Twitter and Instagram. As we said at the beginning, we have a very exciting year ahead, and we hope these changes lay an exciting framework for what's to come!
—Team Halide.
Version 2.7.516 March 2022This update prepares Halide for future iPhones, and fixes a few bugs. It also includes all the goodness from our last big update…
THE NEW IMAGE RESCUE
Last year, we began hearing scattered reports users unable to save photos. We dug deep into the issue last year, and found that this was a bug within iOS, and not Halide. While there was nothing that we could do fix it, we did report the issue to Apple, who have *mostly* fixed the problem.
Still, we don't like the idea of any of our users losing photos, whether or not it's our bug. So we've updated our "Image Rescue" feature to deal with the problem. When iOS refuses to save photos, Halide will store a copy within the app, so you can just keep snapping. Of course we’ll show you a notification that something is up, but you're welcome to ignore the problem until later.
When you’re ready to get your photos out of Halide, just open our photo reviewer. You'll notice a big banner at the top explaining that we saved your photos. Tap on it, and we'll show you the photos we saved. From there, you can either try to save them again (because sometimes this iOS bug fixes itself) or you can tap the action button in the upper right to share them off your phone some other way, such as AirDropping them to your Mac.
While we were knee deep in rewriting our reviewer code, we used this opportunity to renovate our photo reviewer…
THE NEW GRID VIEW
Today we deliver a long requested feature: batch actions on photos. Just tap the "Select" button in the upper right, and then tap the photos you want to act on to select them. You can tap the Trash icon to delete them, or the Action button for... other actions. Like sending them to another app.
In the grid view, you’ll also notice that we show a heart over the photos you've favorited. This seems like a small thing, but it's super useful. After a shoot, you can just favorite the best photos, and use the batch selection feature to quickly delete the rest.
That’s not all— you can now long press on a single photo in the grid view to bring up a preview and context menu. You can quickly favorite, delete, or share a photo, or even open it in one of our supported editors.
Finally, we know it's a annoying when you're in the full-screen reviewer and want to go back to the grid view. You have to reach your thumb aaaaall the way to the upper left to tap that grid button. Good news! We've added a gesture! Just swipe *up* from your photo to jump into the grid view. Don't worry, you can still swipe *down* to return to the camera. Trust us, you use this new gesture for a while, you'll love it.
If you have any feedback for our next big release, please let us know at [email protected]. And don't forget to tag your photos #ShotWithHalide for a chance to be featured on our Twitter and Instagram. As we said at the beginning, we have a very exciting year ahead, and we hope these changes lay an exciting framework for what's to come!
—Team Halide.
Version 2.6.320 December 2021This update includes a few updated translations and other small bug fixes. It builds on top of our exciting update that brings you a collection of widgets to quickly launch Halide in specific modes, such as with a telephoto lens or our acclaimed Macro Mode. We have exciting things planned for next year, but in the meantime, we hope you relax, enjoy time with family, and celebrate the holidays in whatever way you do. See you bright and early in 2022!.
Version 2.5.326 October 2021This is a small update to our big Macro Mode update! If you previously had any issues with Macro Mode on iPhone XR and iPhone 8 or other iPhones, this release should improve things. Thanks to all of you that reported the issue; your details helped us track this down! If you have any other bug reports or feedback, please let us know at [email protected].
HALIDE 2.5: A BIG DAY FOR SMALL THINGS
Did you know? The latest iPhone 13 Pro takes amazing Macro shots. That got us pretty excited. But we also wanted *everyone* to be excited about taking great Macro photos.
So we created Macro Mode.
Halide now offers the best tool for close-up photos on any iPhone, and the perfect companion for the iPhone 13 Pro’s new near-focusing camera: Macro Mode!
Macro Mode is helped by our new technology called Neural Macro. Halide’s Macro Mode does a few clever things to help you get the best Macro shot: first, it checks which one of your cameras can focus the closest. Then, it gives you ultra-precise focus control to get your teeny-tiny subject perfectly sharp. Finally, once taken, Neural Macro gets to work: a powerful AI-based detail enhancement process gets even more detail out of your processed image.
To turn on Macro Mode, first tap the AF button to get into manual focus, and then tap the flower button. When activated, Halide switches to the lens on your phone with the closest focus distance. It also increases the size of the focus dial, allowing granular adustments down to the millimeter.
Shooting with the iPhone 13 Pro’s macro lens, you’ll often find yourself cropping images due to its ultra-wide field of field. There’s just one problem: if you just blow up these cropped photos in an editor you can end up with fuzzy or pixelated results. We knew we could do better.
OK, so the magic part: Neural Macro. On iPhones with a Neural Engine (iPhone 8 and later), we use a neural network to intelligently upscale images. You get sharp, clean contours at 2x and even 3x the scale! To turn this on, just tap the “2x” button while in Macro Mode.
If you later change your mind about the crop, have no fear. Halide saves the full, uncropped version of your photo in your library. And of course, we’d never touch your RAW files: RAW files are saved unprocessed and uncropped.
Macro Mode is available to all Halide users, regardless of iPhone, and we can’t wait to see your shots! Please share them with us on social media by tagging your shots #ShotWithHalide so we can share them!
Now for some birthday news: Halide Mark II is now almost a year old — making Halide almost four and a half years! That also means that if you got Halide Mark II for free last year, this is the last month you will be receiving new features. We’ve worked hard for the last four and a half years to bring you new features for free. If you’d like to keep receiving these major new features, check out the renewal options inside Settings. If you prefer to keep using Halide Mark II — with Macro Mode — the app will, of course, keep working with all its current features.
Thank you for all your support and feedback. Without your continued support, we couldn’t do what we love most: to work on this camera app and see the amazing photos our users take all over the world.
If you have any feedback or bug reports, let us know at [email protected]. If you like what we’re doing, please consider leaving a review, as they go a long way. And don’t forget to tag your photos #shotwithhalide for a chance to be featured on our Twitter and Instagram!
— Team Halide.
Version 2.2.709 August 2021The Halide team is hard at work on big updates for this fall, but in the mean time we have an-update-to-our-update that fixes a few small things, and lays the groundwork for things to come. In case you missed it…
We updated the capture UI changes to help whether you're capturing a RAW or HEIC/JPEG. We've updated file-format icon in the QuickBar to make it clearer what you're capturing! We've also refreshed our Capture Settings screen to make the choices clearer.
Next, we've fixed our most common crashes. While Halide was already rock solid, we can always do better. These crashes were particularly tricky because they'd only pop up randomly. But if you've ever had a particularly unlucky day and found Halide crashes when you switch cameras, this should fix things.
A few other odds and ends:
* Our Apple Watch app better supports "Always On" screens, improving its reliability.
* On the iPad, we've fixed wonkiness around our alternate icons
* We've reduced our app download by a few megabytes.
Under our privacy disclosures, you'll notice a disclosure about purchase history data collection. What does that mean? When you pay for Halide, it sends us the proof so we can unlock some new features we're working on. To be clear: this data is not personally identifiable, and it is not used for any sort of analytics.
We hope you're having a great summer, and we can't wait to show you what we're working on!
-- Team Halide.
Version 2.2.515 June 2021Hello, hallo, 今日は! This update has even more localized phrases for all of you using Halide around the world. Happy photographing!.
Version 2.1.1005 April 2021This small update fixes an issue where EXIF data would not be written to some photos, causing them to display incorrectly..
Version 2.1.624 February 2021Thank you for supporting Halide. This update bundles a bunch of tiny improvements.
If you've been seeing a blank membership screen, this was caused by an unusual combination of in-app purchases; when our member screen gets confused, we display a blank screen rather than crash the app. This is now fixed, so get in there and try on some new icons!
We have two improvements around color. To begin with, we now render ProRAW files in beautiful wide-color on iOS 14.4. Take in those greener-greens and luscious reds. This wouldn't be possible without the help of graphics engineers at Apple, so thanks!
We've also fixed an opposite problem: while using Focus Peaking and Zebras, certain colors were a little too saturated. We found a bug in our color transformations, so now things will look more true-to-life.
We fixed a bug where Instant RAW settings weren't respected while exporting a ProRAW file as a JPEG. Now what you see in our gallery view is exactly what you'll get when you export that JPEG.
Finally, we've localized more text and fixed a typo here and there.
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to [email protected]. Don't forget to tag your photos #ShotWithHalide for a chance to be featured on our Twitter and Instagram accounts!
-- Sebastiaan, Rebecca and Ben.
Version 2.1.118 December 2020HALIDE 2.1.1: THE PRORAW UPDATE (UPDATE)
In this small patch to our big update, we've fixed a bug where RAW context menu sometimes doesn't work. ProRAW you say? That's right, ProRAW is now available in Halide!
If you’re on iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, we’re excited to not only bring you this game-changing feature, but the added control and smart features you’ve come to expect from Halide.
We didn’t just add ProRAW and call it a day. This update makes Halide the most flexible ProRAW camera around.
There’s more capture settings now. Halide 2.1 lets ProRAW-capable iPhones shoot ProRAW+, ProRAW, RAW+, and RAW. All of these shooting options have their own benefits, so you might want to switch between them more frequently. To enable this, we’ve added a context menu to the toolbar. Just long-press on the “RAW” button to choose your bit-depth and preferred RAW. You can also access them alongside the rest of of Capture Settings, of course.
What’s that about bit depth?
Well… ProRAW files are big. ProRAWs average around 25mb, but they can go all the way up to 40mb. Halide allows you to choose a lower bit-depth and skip the processed version, reducing file size by over 50%. Again, we make it easier to fiddle with these settings: just long-press on the ‘RAW’ (or ‘PRO’) icon in your Quick Bar.
Inside the photo gallery, our metadata panel now exposes deep information about ProRAWs. With our exclusive DNG tools, we can dig into low-level details about the file to reveal its bit depth, and whether it’s a Linear RAW (the technical term for ProRAW).
As a reminder, ProRAW is only available on iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, running iOS 14.3. Unfortunately, this is a hardware limitation, as these devices have twice the other memory as models. If you’re running a 12 Pro device and don’t see ProRAW options, please make sure you’ve updated to iOS 14.3.
For all other iPhones that do not get ProRAW, don’t fret: Halide offers its Smart RAW logic for the best possbile RAW exposures and Instant RAW to get a great image out of them right away. Give it a go!
Thank you all for supporting Halide. If you have any bug reports or suggestions, don’t hestitate to reach out via our support email, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. If you dig this update, consider rating us or leaving a review. They go a long way.
Finally, don’t forget to tag your #ShotWithHalide. We plan to feature the best ProRAW shots on our Instagram and Twitter accounts.
— Sebastiaan, Ben and Rebecca.
Version 2.1.014 December 2020HALIDE 2.1: THE PRORAW UPDATE
ProRAW is now available in Halide! If you’re on iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, we’re excited to not only bring you this game-changing feature, but the added control and smart features you’ve come to expect from Halide.
We didn’t just add ProRAW and call it a day. This update makes Halide the most flexible ProRAW camera around.
There’s more capture settings now. Halide 2.1 lets ProRAW-capable iPhones shoot ProRAW+, ProRAW, RAW+, and RAW. All of these shooting options have their own benefits, so you might want to switch between them more frequently. To enable this, we’ve added a context menu to the toolbar. Just long-press on the “RAW” button to choose your bit-depth and preferred RAW. You can also access them alongside the rest of of Capture Settings, of course.
What’s that about bit depth?
Well… ProRAW files are big. ProRAWs average around 25mb, but they can go all the way up to 40mb. Halide allows you to choose a lower bit-depth and skip the processed version, reducing file size by over 50%. Again, we make it easier to fiddle with these settings: just long-press on the ‘RAW’ (or ‘PRO’) icon in your Quick Bar.
Inside the photo gallery, our metadata panel now exposes deep information about ProRAWs. With out exclusive DNG tools, we can dig into low-level details about the file to reveal its bit depth, and whether it’s a Linear RAW (the technical term for ProRAW).
As a reminder, ProRAW is only available on iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, running iOS 14.3. Unfortunately, this is a hardware limitation, as these devices have twice the other memory as models. If you’re running a 12 Pro device and don’t see ProRAW options, please make sure you’ve updated to iOS 14.3.
For all other iPhones that do not get ProRAW, don’t fret: Halide offers its Smart RAW logic for the best possbile RAW exposures and Instant RAW to get a great image out of them right away. Give it a go!
Thank you all for supporting Halide. If you have any bug reports or suggestions, don’t hestitate to reach out via our support email, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. If you dig this update, consider rating us or leaving a review. They go a long way.
Finally, don’t forget to tag your #ShotWithHalide. We plan to feature the best ProRAW shots on our Instagram and Twitter accounts.
— Sebastiaan, Ben and Rebecca.
Version 2.0.530 November 2020Thanks for using Halide! Last week we released an update with official support for the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max. We've collected your feedback (and bug reports), and decided to put out this small update.
You may notice we've improved responsiveness when adjusting manual exposure. Let's just say we're preparing Halide for some exciting new iPhone camera features.
We've also heard from a lot of folks who received Halide Mark II as a free upgrade, but would still like a "Pay Once" option to ensure they receive Mark II updates far into the future. If you go to Settings, and "Member Center," we now have a button to pay once.
This update includes all the features of our last update, which we'll recap:
THE IPHONE 12 MINI AND IPHONE 12 PRO MAX UPDATE
It’s been an exciting few weeks for iPhone users. First, we released Halide Mark II, a total redesign of our app with over 50+ new features, for free for all our existing users. Then Apple released the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. And now, Apple and Lux bring you some extra treats: the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max, which go great with this new update: Halide 2.0.4.
Halide 2.0.4 brings compatibility for the new tiny iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max, allowing the best camera app on the App Store to let you unlock the power of the massive new camera sensor, in-body sensor-shift stabilization and 65mm telephoto lens on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and the stunning f/1.6 Wide camera on the iPhone 12 mini.
Here's a few of the things we've done: We've updated the Technical Readout to support the latest iPhones. We've added new frame lines, tweaked controls, layout and design, and optimized the app. On iPhone 12 Pro Max, we now capture the most detailed, low-noise RAW files that have ever been shot on any iPhone. And we're just getting started!
This update also brings a number of performance improvements and layout fixes for all of our users, from the iPhone SE to the iPhone 11. Sharing RAW files works better. Things somehow look and feel even better!
As a reminder, Halide Mark II is a free update for all existing Halide 1 users. If you loved the update, please consider getting a Membership to support us in the Settings. As a reward, you will unlock some special icons.
We're listening to feedback and bug reports, so if you have any requests, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll get right on it. You can also reach out to @halidecamera on Twitter. We're a small, three person team, but we'll try to get back to you as soon as possible.
Finally if you enjoy Halide Mark II, please consider leaving a rating. It goes a long way.
- Ben, Sebastiaan, and Rebecca.
Version 2.0.417 November 2020THE IPHONE 12 MINI AND IPHONE 12 PRO MAX UPDATE
It’s been an exciting few weeks for iPhone users. First, we released Halide Mark II, a total redesign of our app with over 50+ new features, for free for all our existing users. Then Apple released the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. And now, Apple and Lux bring you some extra treats: the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max, which go great with this new update: Halide 2.0.4.
Halide 2.0.4 brings compatibility for the new tiny iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max, allowing the best camera app on the App Store to let you unlock the power of the massive new camera sensor, in-body sensor-shift stabilization and 65mm telephoto lens on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and the stunning f/1.6 Wide camera on the iPhone 12 mini.
Here's a few of the things we've done: We've updated the Technical Readout to support the latest iPhones. We've added new frame lines, tweaked controls, layout and design, and optimized the app. On iPhone 12 Pro Max, we now capture the most detailed, low-noise RAW files that have ever been shot on any iPhone. And we're just getting started!
This update also brings a number of performance improvements and layout fixes for all of our users, from the iPhone SE to the iPhone 11. Sharing RAW files works better. Things somehow look and feel even better!
As a reminder, Halide Mark II is a free update for all existing Halide 1 users. If you loved the update, please consider getting a Membership to support us in the Settings. As a reward, you will unlock some special icons.
We're listening to feedback and bug reports, so if you have any requests, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll get right on it. You can also reach out to @halidecamera on Twitter. We're a small, three person team, but we'll try to get back to you as soon as possible.
Finally if you enjoy Halide Mark II, please consider leaving a rating. It goes a long way.
- Ben, Sebastiaan, and Rebecca.
Version 2.0.306 November 2020Thank you so much for your support of Mark II. Over the last two weeks we've been collecting feedback (and fixing bugs) and today we're launching our first batch of improvements.
As a reminder, Halide Mark II is a free update for all existing Halide 1 users. Some folks were confused because they tapped the "Restore Purchases" button and it seemed like nothing was happening. It works, but sometimes it can be slow due to a bad network connection, or the App Store just acting weird. We now show a progress indicator after you tap that "Restore" button so you know that it's chugging away.
We've updated the Technical Readout to properly label all the iPhone 12 models, and show appropriate icons.
We've fixed layout issues around our membership screens that could pop up on home-button iPhones, and especially around longer languages. Sorry Germany! We will have work ahead, but you'll find this update way better.
We fixed our most common crashes. If you're on an iPhone SE (2nd Generation), we fixed a potential crash when taking a depth-photo on the front facing camera. We also fixed a crash that could occur if you immediately return to the home screen while the app is still loading.
There's also tons of small improvements that are too numerous to get into. Like we fixed that mispelling of "Flourescent."
We're listening to feedback and bug reports, so if you have any requests, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll get right on it. You can also reach out to @halidecamera on Twitter. We're a small, three person team, but we'll try to get back to you as soon as possible.
Finally if you enjoy Halide Mark II, please consider leaving a rating. It goes a long way.
-- Ben, Sebastiaan, and Rebecca.
Version 2.0.226 October 2020After 18 months of work, today we're excited to launch Halide Mark II — Not just Halide's biggest update yet, but a whole new app.
If you already bought Halide 1, we have great news: you're getting Mark II for free!
We have a lot to talk about and limited space in release notes, so for the full details check out our announcement at blog.halide.cam
A LEAP FORWARD IN DESIGN
Halide has been completely redesigned. We've taken years of lessons and advancements from Halide to inform its new design. Our new interface is simplified, yet more powerful — thanks to new gestures and thoughtful details throughout. It is even more polished than before. Of course, everything is still in easy reach with one hand — even on phones with a home button: iPhone SE users rejoice!
COVERAGE AND INSTANT RAW
Everyone wants to shoot RAW. It's powerful — but where do you start?
When you take a photo with the built-in camera app, it makes a ton of decisions on your behalf. That's great for most, but your involvement in development is part of the artistic process, similar to how photographers would choose a specific film stock and processing to achieve a specific look.
Aspiring photographers learning to process RAW face three big challenges. 1) Unprocessed images start out looking worse than you expect, 2) the iPhone cannot perform advanced computational photography, such as Smart HDR and Deep Fusion, while capturing RAW, and 3) Many popular photo filter apps don't support RAW.
All these problems leave aspiring photographers thinking: "Do I want to take a photo that's ready to share, or jump through all these hoops for maximum power when editing?"
Until today.
Introducing two new features: Halide Mark II is the first camera to capture both RAW and computational photos in one burst, in a feature we call COVERAGE. Now you can take amazing photos that leverage all the advanced photography of the latest iPhones, while having a RAW in your back pocket in case you think you can do better.
We're making it easier to edit a RAW with a feature we call INSTANT RAW. Think of as midway between a completely unedited RAW, and a totally processed JPEG. It's really meant for editing, but sometimes you'll be amazed by the results. It's one tap in our brand new reviewer.
PRO TOOLS XDR
Mark II bursts with new tools to help with focus and exposure. First we revamped our existing Luminance and Color histograms. You can now keep them tiny and out of the way if you want your full attention on your photo, or enlarge them to obsess over fine details.
But our groundbreaking change is the addition of a third type of visualization, the Waveform. Up to now, this powerful tool was only used in high-end motion picture work, and we're the first app to bring it to photography. In short, this tool horizontally scans over your image to expose which color channels are clipped.
You may be familiar with Zebra Stripes, stripes appear when parts of your images are clipped. However, we've advanced the concept of Zebras to include details on which individual channels are clipped. We call them Color Zebras.
These are the most advanced tools for an iPhone camera yet: All of these features use something we call Extended Dynamic Range (XDR). We are the the first camera app to provide full, 14-bit RAW data powered exposure tools in realtime.
INTRODUCING: MEMBERSHIP
As a Halide owner, you own all of its core features. It is not going away. However, we are offering a separate, *completely optional* membership so we can offer services with ongoing cost, and premium, ongoing content. Subscribe today for an exclusive new icon.
THANK YOU
Halide is made by a small team of three. It wouldn't be possible to ship a massive project like this without support from folks like you, a person who cares enough to read to the bottom of crazy long release notes. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your support! If you love it, leave us a review!
— Ben, Sebastiaan, & Rebecca.
Version 1.17.321 September 2020Surprise, Manual Photogs! If you're upgrading to iOS 14, this update should fix an issue where the status bar won't go away after reviewing your photos. It also fixes an issue related to setting photo access permission to "Limited."
We apologize if you run into an issue running Halide for the first time after upgrading; you may be shown the user manual on launch, and then prompted for photo library permissions. The surprise release of iOS 14 caught us a bit off guard, and that bug fix didn't make the cut. We promise to do a better job planning around these surprises in the future.
Just a heads up, there's nothing new in this release, but we do have exciting things around the corner. Make sure you're following @halidecamera on Twitter for some exciting announcements in the next few weeks! #HalideMKII.