Apple is finally giving us RAW photo support in iOS 10
Jun 14, 2016
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Along with all the usual announcements about magical things and Siri, Apple have announced some of the new features coming to the camera and its software in iOS 10.
As expected, facial recognition support is coming, which allows the camera to categorise the images you shoot automatically. But the big news is that iOS is finally getting RAW support.
It got little mention in the main event, and isn’t anywhere on Apple’s top-10 list of new features, but hidden inside a screenshot posted to Reddit yesterday evening, RAW photo editing is highlighted as being available for developers.
Lack of RAW support has been a major contention for many iPad Pro users who wish to edit out on the road. With support coming in iOS 10 this could bring in a new wave of customers that have been on the fence about which tablet best suits their editing needs.
But whether your needs are for editing images shot with a “real camera”, or you simply want to retain RAW capabilities when shooting with the iPhone’s own camera, this is going to be a very welcome and long awaited addition.
It’s unclear whether the feature will be built into Apple’s own camera app, but if not, then there are plenty of other alternatives out there that will likely support it.
One of the camera apps I use, which initially claimed it had RAW support (it’s actually a TIF file), was 645 Pro Mk III. While it’s an excellent camera app regardless, it may now be able to live up to its original claims. Camera+ is another app I would also expect to be rather quick in adding RAW support.
The news also couldn’t come at a better time for Serif, either, who just yesterday posted a sneak peek of Affinity Photo running on the iPad Pro.
What are you looking forward to in iOS10? Will RAW support swing your decision to pick up an iPad Pro? Will you start shooting RAW photos with your iPhone? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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35 responses to “Apple is finally giving us RAW photo support in iOS 10”
Yes, yes, yes! I have 645 Pro and 3 other photo apps trying to get as close to raw as I can. I can’t wait for the real thing.
So excited for raw.
I hope it’s true
No offence but getting excited about shooting Raw with a sensor the size of a pin head is just just typical of Crapple fans.
I’m a die hard Android fan and will say having RAW support on the camera you ALWAYS have with you is a big deal. I will occasionally use RAW on my Nexus 6P and get quite good results.
But editing raw from my Canon & Sony excite me.
And your point is ?
but danny i am an epic iphone photogrpaher even tho i should have got the sony z7 with 23 mp camera i stayed like a loyal sheep with a iphone 6 lol
haaahaaa
was a cheaper deal too mate..but im used to the software and i dont like change o.O
Um, without raw support I can’t edit in raw?
Why would you want to edit a raw from the lousy camera on these iphones
Danny Max I tried the Huawei p9 camera which had raw support as well and trust me, it’s an incredible difference in sharpness, colors and editing range!
Bavo Nys My point is its still going to be shit because its still just coming from a sensor thats tiny so yes its better than JGP but its still like asking if you want dog shit on your chips or cat piss in your soup ? shit is shit no matter what way you look at it. if I want to shot RAW I use my D810 not a silly phone thats trying to be a camera.
I had a bloke once danny ask me what mobile phone app i used to do my long exposure tunnel shots..to say i let him have it is an understatement
I would have enjoyed seeing that mate :)
i went right of on one..how cana mobile fucking phone app create a crisp sharp 2 minute exposure ,yes fb compressions shit but a mobile fone …Reallllly!
I agree , if you want to take pictures buy a camera , if you want to talk to someone buy a phone it really is that simple :)
ive got all the pics ive taken on my mobile as basic memories of shit i couldnt have got due to not having camera on me 24/7 but to get all excited cos they are adding raw..bit silly.ill give it a punt it may cure the shit colours and such like you get with iphones but its not going to be of any decent standard compared to a dslr
yeah I know mate, its a handy thing to have a little camera on a phone but its not ever going to replace my camera and no one should see it as anything more than a toy
Yep ,some of the cameras on some fones are probably as good as a fairly decent point and shoot but you cant replace the dslr,not like my flickrs ever going to have mobile fone shots on it ?
they have their place but I just dont see the point of Raw in a phone camera but more to the point I just think its sad that people are using silly little features like this to justify the price of an Iphone which if you ask me is way over priced.
I’m pretty sure the point is that it enables a workflow where you could shoot RAW on your dSLR or mirrorless, wirelessly transfer it to your iPad/iPhone, do some quick adjustments in an app that supports RAW editing and post the finished image from your phone or tablet – without needing to work with JPEGs or a Laptop. I don’t think anyone is excited about shooting CR2 files on an iPhone. This is a feature I’ve actually wanted for a while within iOS and so I appreciate it being available.
Am I missing something? If you’re a photographer of any kind you’ll have editing programs that will do that anyway and if you’re just a happy snapper you don’t need RAW.
Wow, Emojis are now 3x bigger! What an awesome feature…
Best thing about iOS 10, right there. ;)
IOS 10…playing catchup as usual. Almost NOTHING innovative. Maps…Waze does all that and much more. Siri…whoop. Oh boy…facial recognition…so 2014. Music app..don’t care. So ho hum.
Now if they only gave us expandable storage, we could actually Store and process raw photos on our devices.
Wow, only a year or so behind windows now. Catching up a bit lol.
Well, Windows still does not have USB 2.0 integration. At least I can plug my audio devices like a DAC to my Mac and have it work instantly, with no software load needed. Windows still can’t handle that.
“Apple is finally giving us RAW photo support in iOS 10”
“finally”? Is this a feature we’ve been requesting? How about cell reception improvements, consistent connectivity, and dropped call mitigation. I’d pay extra for those features. :)
Agree I can’t even use my data my reception is so bad. It is not my carrier either I had an android before my 6s and had waaay better reception.
I think only two people get it who have commented. It’s not about editing RAW images taken with the iPhone/iPad. It’s about images you’ve uploaded to these devices from your camera.
This is fantastic. I see so many opportunities for use with the iPad Pros. Just in time to include in my photography-technology series I’m writing on my blog this month. I’ll even include a link to your website for news-credit :-D
Great score catching this. I’ve been on many other blogs and nothing has been mentioned about this!
Exactly. I have been loading my camera cards to my iPads for years now. I just can’t see or process my photos that are saved as raw. I take everything as a JPEG and a Raw file, so I can see what I have. They only show up again when I sync with my Mac. With a 128GB iPad, there is plenty of space. There was plenty on a 64GB to be honest. I had over 12,000 photos stored that I needed to delete when I ran out of room on my 64GB, but it has never even happened with the 128GB (totally worth the extra expense though). But, when the photo apps by Macphun and Lucid start offering Raw processing, it will be great on my iPad Pro. I have started using a lot more data now as well, since I switched to high res FLAC files for music. I also have to say great catch! I’ve not seen this anywhere else today. You really have to pay attention to what they let slip out at WWDC, because not everything gets dancing girls and a big intro.
This is just the tip of the iceberg…