I’m tired, very tired, of the over-processing that most manufacturers do to their photos. We have better and better sensors, great lenses with professional-grade apertures, and the ability to achieve naturalness and detail that’s very similar to professional cameras from a few years ago.

However, analysis after analysis I often encounter the same thing: a great sensor that prioritizes artificial sharpness, showing more brightness and oversaturated colors than are actually in the scene, marred by processing.

The developers of Halide, one of the best manual camera apps for iPhone, have introduced a much-anticipated feature. It’s something I’ve been wanting for years and does exactly what its name promises: “Zero Action.”

Even Apple didn’t respect RAW. One of my biggest complaints over the years has been Apple’s RAW quality. Whether we like it or not, ProRAW is a heavily-processed file, which doesn’t give us the naturalness that some manufacturers offer, as we saw in last year’s great photo comparison.

Processing RAW, as perverse as it may seem, makes sense. It’s a way to get a RAW with a much wider dynamic range than what we were able to recover in the original file. It’s practically ready to be converted back to JPEG and get a higher quality, less processed photo.

However, very few phones allow you to shoot 100% raw RAW – unprocessed, without image stacking, and with a result similar to that of an analog camera.

Zero Transaction. A process that uses neither AI nor computational photography to produce natural photographs with a cinematic look. That’s the description we read on Lux about the new version of Halide. This now allows you to choose between three shooting modes:

• Zero Processing (RAW)
• Apple ProRAW (RAW)
• Apple Processing (HEIC or JPEG)

ProRAW and Process Zero.

Process Zero isn’t a filter or anything like that. It’s literally the raw level information provided by the sensor. Grainy files that don’t shine as much in low-light situations, where phone processing often helps us get more brightness than we actually have (most of the time, that makes sense).

Image: Lux. Maybe it’s time to ask ourselves what photography is and what it isn’t.

This mode is a single image operation. This may seem normal but it is not. Our phones usually take multiple photos to get more dynamic range and information. Some take close to 10 photos even though you only see one.

ProRAW | ProcessZero.

All is not well. While it is necessary to criticize modern processes, it is also necessary to understand their logic. Shooting without algorithms in good light conditions is great news: real colors in photography, more sharpness, naturalness.

But we will lose dynamic range (noisier shadows, unrecoverable highlights). We are limited by the sensor’s own dynamic range. We also lose the HDR photo feature that allows our phone to see them better by increasing the brightness of the panel.

It’s also not possible to shoot at 48 megapixels, at least not yet. The results are limited to 12. This option is available in Halide and is compatible with all iPhones with iOS 17.

Image | Luxury

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