Today’s Halide update focuses on speed. We now snap photos 2–4× faster, added shortcuts, and taken the guesswork out of files and formats to make you more efficient. For iPhone X users, we’ve also made some minor ergonomics improvements, now that we’ve had the device in our hands for a month.
Lock Screen and 3D Shortcuts
By popular demand, we’ve added a lock screen widget to launch Halide with one tap.
We’ve also added 3D shortcuts to launch the app in either Manual or Auto mode. Even snappier snapping!
Faster Capture
Halide now captures your shot between two to four times faster. You read that right: up to four times faster. Everything feels a lot more responsive, as we’ve cut down the time between hitting the capture button and the new photo appearing. Now you immediately know when you’ve captured the perfect shot.
RAW Without Compromise
When you open a RAW image in an app that can’t read RAW, the image looks blurry. We can’t fix those apps, but we’re improving the situation. Apps that aren’t compatible will now fall-back to a processed image we save alongside your RAW.
A few editing apps won’t find the RAW photo when saving a RAW+Processed image. If your favorite editor has this bug, you can turn off the RAW+Processed option within ‘Advanced Settings’, and it should work. We suggest contacting the developer of RAW apps that don’t support this yet, and let them know there’s a problem.
RAW Album
After a day full of shooting, we know it’s annoying to sort through your camera roll to find the favorite photos you want to edit. To speed things up, RAW photos are now added to a ‘RAW’ album in your Photos library.
Advanced Formats and TIFF Capture
By popular demand, we’ve added a few advanced format options within Settings. If you’re worried about compatibility with HEIC, switch from “Most Efficient” to “Most Compatible” and Halide will use JPEG.
In situations where Halide can’t shoot RAW, we offer MAX mode, which saves a HEIC or JPEG in the highest quality setting. This mode now also has an option to store a TIFF file! It’s lossless, but uses 3x the storage.
Accessibility
Halide is the first manual camera app to support VoiceOver, Apple’s assistive technology for the visually impaired. If you or anyone you know relies on VoiceOver, we’d appreciate your feedback, and we’d love to hear how you’re using the app. Please email us at support@halide.cam.
One more thing: A new icon!
You might have noticed our sharp new icon. This was some of Sebastiaan’s handiwork and part of our continued attempt to refine and polish every aspect of Halide. There’ll be another blog post about the design process behind the new icon; in the meantime, let us know what you think!
Feedback? Questions?
If you enjoy Halide, please consider leaving us a review! We never prompt for reviews in the app, so every little bit helps. If you have any issues or questions, just email us and we’ll get right on it. Thanks for your support!
