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Posts Tagged ‘Apple’s’

Halide developers break down the technology powering Apple’s new ProRAW image format

16 Dec

Apple’s new ProRAW format is now available to iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max users running iOS 14.3. The new format promises the power of Apple’s image processing capabilities with the flexibility of a Raw image. But what exactly is a ProRAW image, how useful is the format and what sort of results can we expect from it?

Ben Sandofsky, one of the developers behind the iOS camera app Halide, has answered all of those questions and more in a thorough overview of the ProRAW technology, with illustrations and example photos from Halide designer, Sebastiaan de With.

Sandofsky’s overview is effectively broken down into three parts. That first part explains how a digital camera ‘develops’ an image using the data from the sensor. The second part explains the pros and cons of traditional Raw files. And the third part is where we learn what’s unique about Apple’s ProRAW technology and why it ‘changes the game’ despite ‘its few remaining drawbacks.’

We suggest taking Sandofky’s advice and grabbing a coffee if you plan on reading the entire post, but we’ll summarize a few of the standout details here on DPReview as well in the case you’re in a rush or are out of coffee.

Since most DPReview readers are familiar with how a camera processes data from the sensor, as well as the pros and cons of Raw files, we’re going to skip right to Sandofky’s rundown of the new ProRAW technology from Apple.

Sandofsky gets straight to the point, answering a question we’ve seen a few people ask in the comments of previous articles on Apple’s new ProRAW technology — ‘Technically, there’s no such thing as a ProRAW file.’ ProRAW image files, as he explains, are simply regular DNG files that use little known features in the DNG file format specifications, as well as a few new features Apple worked with Adobe to implement in the new 1.6 specification.

Specifically, Adobe and Apple worked together to add a new set of tags for the open Raw format that enable much of what Apple is doing with its ProRAW-branded DNG files. In fact, the new DNG 1.6 specification went live the day Apple released the iOS 14.3 public beta, showing just how closely the two worked together on the new specification.

As Sandofsky points out, Apple opting to use the DNG format means, despite their attempt at rebranding the technology as its own Raw format, nothing about the resulting files is proprietary. The photos should, in theory, be able to work with any other device or program that chooses to make the most of the new DNG 1.6 standard.

Sandofsky goes on to state that ProRAW images store pixel values after the demosaic step. These demosaiced color values still contain all of the original colors and dynamic range of the scene, he says, they just cut out the step of choosing what demosaic algorithm will be used on that data—something usually done in post-processing based on the editing software you’re using.

Sandofsky argues that, aside from saving time and taking another step out of the equation, it’s ‘quite possible that iOS can do a better job demosaicing your images than any third-party RAW editor’ considering Apple’s strength of its vertical integration of hardware and softrware. That is, Apple ‘know[s] exactly the sensor you’re using, and how it behaves with different ISO settings.’ Sandofsky even points out that with Apple’s image recognition technology, iOS could apply a specific demosaic algorithm depending on the scene to achieve an optimal result.

One example he uses is a set of starscape images from photographer Austin Mann, who has also shared a detailed breakdown of the new ProRAW technology on his website alongside a beautiful collection of images.

A ProRAW file before and after editing.

Another benefit of this approach is Apple could, in theory, start to develop its own sensors, eschewing the current bayer sensors they use. By doing so, they could tailor-make the best sensor possible for their smartphones and as long as the resulting image is saved as a ProRAW file, ‘it would work from day one in every pro photography process and app like Lightroom without having to wait for Adobe to write a new demosaic algorithm’ for the new sensor.

Next, Sandofsky explains how Apple is baking in the ‘local tone mapping and other computational photography goodies’ right inside the DNG using the new tags found in the DNG 1.6 standard. By using the new tags, Apple is able to apply its Smart HDR and Deep Fusion technology to the ProRAW images. While Halide is opting to not use all of this technology — Sandofsky explains why in detail within his post — it’s still there to leverage in the image editor of your choice or use with another third-party camera app should the developers choose to. ProRAW images also store semantic maps — the depth data used in Portrait mode — which gives developers yet another piece of information to work with.

A comparison image showing the semantic maps of an image next to the original photo.

Sandofsky goes on to explain the file size flexibility of ProRAW files. A standard ProRAW file, captured with the default 12-bit data, is roughly 25MB. But it’s possible for developers to drop that to 10-bit, which roughly halves the file size while still getting ‘most of the ProRAW benefits.’ If that’s not small enough, it’s also possible for developers to use lossy compression on ProRAW files, which drops the files down to as little as 1MB, but as Sandofsky notes, this results in a ProRAW file that isn’t much more versatile than a standard 8-bit JPEG.

A list of Raw and ProRAW shooting options the Halide team has implemented into its camera app.

Another neat trick is that it’s possible to store a fully-processed JPEG version of an image directly inside the DNG file. Apple doesn’t do this by default in its iOS Camera app, third party developers can choose to do this, which would ensure apps that don’t support DNG files, such as Instagram, can still use the processed JPEG image. Halide says it’s added this option in its app, but do note it will add an extra 4MB or so to the file size, due to the extra baggage.

In conclusion, Sandofsky notes that ProRAW ‘is a leap forward for everyone, but it will be especially impactful for beginning photographers.’ With Apple supporting Raw editing directly in its iOS Photos app, even casual photographers will be able to have the flexibility of editing a ‘Raw’ file format — even if they’re not using more advanced editing apps such as Affinity Photo, Adobe Lightroom, Capture One, etc.

Sandofsky wraps up his post talking about how the Halide team is further pushing the boundaries of ProRAW with its app, but we’ll let you read that over on the full post, linked below. You can download the Halide camera app in the iOS App Store.

Understanding ProRAW


Image credits: All images and illustrations by Halide, used with permission.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Google Photos now syncs ‘liked’ images with Apple’s iOS Camera Roll

11 Dec

Apple and Google haven’t always gotten along, but there are times when the two work together to make life easier for end-users, regardless of what mobile operating system they’re using. One of the latest examples of this is a new feature baked into Google Photos that makes it possible to sync ‘liked’ and ‘favorited’ images between Google Photos and the iOS Camera Roll app.

Screenshots of the new settings in the Google Photos iOS app. Click to enlarge.

As visible in the below demonstration from Android Police, who first reported on the feature, a simple setting within the Google Photos app will make it so images ‘liked’ in the iOS Camera Roll app will become ‘starred’ in your Google Photos account.

We tested the new feature and can confirm we had a similar experience to Android Police; syncing happens slightly faster when ‘starring’ an image in Google Photos than it does when ‘liking’ an image in the iOS Camera Roll. This is likely because when ‘liking’ an image in the iOS Camera Roll, Google Photos is running as a background task, whereas when using Google Photos, the synchronization process can be triggered immediately.

The feature should be live for all Google Photos users and has worked seamlessly across both an iPhone XS and iPad Pro (11-inch) in our testing. If you don’t have it already, you can download the Google Photos app for free in the iOS App Store.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Adobe apps not officially supported on Apple’s M1 chips using Rosetta 2, but native versions are coming

14 Nov

Earlier this week, Apple announced the first trio of Mac computers built using Apple’s own silicon. The new MacBook Air, 13″ MacBook Pro and Mac mini devices all use Apple’s new M1 chip. During the event, Apple announced that Adobe, among many other developers, is working on releasing new versions of its software that are compatible with the M1 chip.

As it turns out, these new M1-compatible versions will be critical for Adobe Lightroom users on the new Apple silicon Macs. On a dedicated page about Lightroom Classic compatibility with the upcoming macOS 11 operating system, Adobe warns that ‘Adobe apps run under Rosetta 2 emulation on Apple devices with Apple Silicon M1 processors is not officially supported.’ The company continues, ‘Native support is planned.’

Click to enlarge

Early adopters of the M1-powered Apple computers will have to do without official support for now. It is worth noting that at this point, Adobe hasn’t discovered any issues with running Lightroom Classic 10 under Rosetta 2 emulation, but as it is not officially supported, the user does assume non-zero risk. The MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini computers powered by the M1 chip are all available for order now ahead of a November 17 release.

In Apple’s presentation, embedded below, Senior Vice President, Craig Federighi, said Adobe is bringing Lightroom CC to its M1 computers in December and following it up with Photoshop in early 2021 (around the 18:10 timestamp).

While Photoshop and Lightroom are the primary apps for photographers in the Adobe ecosystem, the company has many other heavily-used apps, such as Premiere, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and much more. As of writing, Adobe has not offered a timeline for other Adobe apps built for the M1 chip.

In case you missed Apple’s event on Tuesday, you can watch a replay of the stream below:

The Apple M1 chip promises massive performance gains over prior Intel chips. In the case of the M1-powered MacBook Air, Apple promises up to 3.5 times faster CPU performance and up to 5 times faster graphics. The MacBook Air also ditches a fan, offering a ‘silent design.’ The 13″ MacBook Pro maintains an active cooling system, offers up to 2.8 times faster CPU performance and up to 5 times faster GPU performance. With the M1 chip, the new Mac mini also sees massive gains. Its CPU is up to 3 times faster and the GPU is 6 times faster. The new computers start at $ 999 USD, $ 1,300 and $ 699 respectively. For the full details on the new machines, check out coverage from earlier this week.

Adobe has been hard at work developing native versions of its applications, including Photoshop shown here during the Apple presentation on November 10. In the presentation, seen further above, Adobe states that it has observed massive performance gains on Apple silicon.

The move to Apple silicon is a major one for Apple. The promised performance gains are hugely impressive on paper, and the foundation being built appears to be a strong one. Of course, software must be designed to take full advantage of the new silicon. Adobe certainly has the talent and resources to do so.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Apple’s new ProRAW image format will capture 12-bit Raw DNG files

14 Nov

Apple has released the iOS 14.3 developer beta which, amongst other improvements, includes the new ProRAW photo feature Apple showed off at its virtual iPhone event last month.

Until now, not much was known about the ProRAW workflow and what type of file the latest iPhone 12 Pro devices would output. We now know, thanks to the iOS 14.3 developer beta, that a ProRaw file will be a 12-bit Raw image captured as a linear digital negative (Linear DNG) file. The file will offer up to 14 stops of dynamic range, according to a report from PetaPixel, and offers the usual post-production adjustments we’ve come to expect from Raw files: white balance adjustment, better exposure refinement and more.

Turning on ProRAW in iOS on the new iPhone 12 Pro devices is done by toggling it on in the Settings app. As with HDR and Live Photos, images captured as a ProRAW file will have a ‘RAW’ badge displayed alongside it to distinguish it from other images. It’s worth noting though that the image shown in the Photos app is simply a JPEG conversion of the Raw photo, akin to how Raw photos you view on your camera’s displays is actually a JPEG preview. You will only see the Raw image when it’s imported into a compatible post-production app for editing.

Speaking of editing, the DNG file should be compatible with any app that accepts DNG files, but it might take some time for all apps to integrate specific profiles for getting the most from the ProRAW format. The DNG files stored to the iOS Camera Roll can either be edited directly on your mobile device and exported as a JPEG from there or be saved and exported to your computer for editing in apps like Lightroom, Affinity Photo, Capture One and others.

Co-founder and designer for pro camera app Halide, Sebastiaan de With, points out that ProRAW works on the wide, telephoto and ultrawide camera modules and is also compatible with Night Mode shots (no luck with Portrait mode shots or Live Photos). He’s also discovered ProRAW images come in at roughly 24–28MB, which is quite large considering that’s the size of most DSLR and mirrorless Raw files.

No API is available at this time for ProRAW capture, so even if it does become available in the future, it might take some time to see ProRAW capture enabled in third-party apps.

Apple’s new ProRAW format is limited to its new iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max devices, so unless you’re planning on upgrading to the new flagship iOS devices, you won’t be seeing this new capture mode. For those of you who already have a compatible iPhone, there’s no information on when iOS 14.3 will be publicly available, so you’ll still need a little more patience.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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iPhone 12 Pro Max review round-up: a meta review of Apple’s largest iPhone 12 model

10 Nov

The embargo has lifted on iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max reviews ahead of their availability this coming Friday. So, just as we did with the iPhone 12 reviews, we’re rounding up and summarizing a number of reviews from across the web as we were unable to get ahold of review units.

For the most part we’ll be focusing on the iPhone 12 Pro Max in this meta-review collection, but some videos and text reviews cover both the iPhone 12 Mini and 12 Pro Max, so you’ll get a little mix of both.

MKBHD

In this video review, Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD, shares his thoughts on the new iPhone 12 Pro Max. As you may remember from his iPhone 12 Pro review, he had expected the iPhone 12 Pro Max would perform even better thanks to the camera improvements inside, but much to his surprise, he noticed hardly any difference in image quality, even between the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

The Verge

To accompany its comprehensive video review, The Verge has also shared its longform text review titled ’The best smartphone camera you can get.’ In it, The Verge Editor-in-Chief, Nilay Patel, focuses almost entirely on the camera capabilities, praising improvements of the larger sensor, saying the iPhone 12 Pro Max ‘took better, more detailed, and less noisy photos than the Pixel 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.’

Engadget

In addition to its video review embedded above, Engadget also posted a text review of the iPhone 12 Pro Max titled ‘Better, not just bigger.’ In it, Engadget Senior Editor Chris Velazco praises the larger screen, best-in-class performance and the improved camera system. However, similar to Brownlee’s assessment, Velazco says the better cameras in the iPhone 12 Pro Max ‘aren’t exactly game-changers.’

CNET

Similar to Engadget and The Verge, CNET also published both a video review and text review of the new iPhone 12 Pro Max titled ‘Big phone energy.’ Echoing the sentiments of the other reviews, CNET Senior Associate Editor Patrick Holland says ‘when [comparing the 12 Pro Max’s photos] to photos from the regular 12 Pro, the differences don’t jump out at you right away.’ However, he notes ‘that’s less of a strike against the 12 Pro Max, and more of an indication of how good the cameras are on the iPhone 12 Pro.’

Andy To

For a more real-world example, commercial videographer and YouTuber Andy To used the new iPhone 12 Pro Max to capture his trip back home to Oakland in a cinematic fashion using only video recorded with the device. The five-minute video lacks any narration, simply showcasing what’s possible with the camera array. The whole video was shot on HDR video mode without any external lenses. All footage was shot at 4K/60p or 4K/24p and the footage was edited in Final Cut Pro X.

We’ll post more video and text reviews of the new iPhone 12 Pro Max as they go live. If you know of any we’ve missed, link them in the comments below.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro features faster CPU options, latest Intel Iris Graphics configurations and updated keyboard

04 May

Apple has announced its new 13-inch MacBook Pro, bringing modest performances improvements and one physical improvement that should make keyboard warriors around the world much happier.

We’ll get to the specs in a minute, but first the most important update—the keyboard. Apple has eschewed its troubled ‘butterfly’ keyboard for its Magic Keyboard with this new 13-inch MacBook Pro. For nearly five years, Apple’s ‘butterfly mechanism’ keyboard has caused issues for MacBook owners, with individual keys sometimes becoming entirely non-functioning, causing all sorts of issues while typing. This transition means the ‘butterfly’ keyboard is no longer present in any of Apple’s laptops.

The physical ‘esc’ key is a welcomed change also.

In addition to the changes underneath the keys, Apple has also added a physical ‘Escape’ (esc) key to the left of the Touch Bar. On previous models, the ‘esc’ key was digital, located within the Touch Bar, a design decision that could wreak havoc if the Touch Bar glitched out or broke.

The updated 13-inch model is powered by Intel quad-core chips, with optional upgrades to configure the MacBook Pro with Intel’s 10th-gen CPUs that offer up to 2.3GHz per core and TurboBoost speeds up to 4.1GHz. Apple has also added the option to configure the 13-inch MacBook Pro with up to 32GB of 3733MHz LPDDR4X RAM and has doubled the base model storage to 256GB (with optional upgrades to increase it to 4TB).

If you upgrade to the $ 1,799 model, you’ll also get the latest Intel Iris Plus Graphics, which Apple claims will offer an 80% performance increase over the previous-generation dual-core MacBook Pros. In addition to improving overall graphic performance, models with Intel’s Iris Plus graphics will be able to power Apple’s Pro Display XDR at its full 6K resolution.

As for the laptop’s own display, the 13-inch screen supports P3 wide color gamut, offers a maximum 500 nits brightness and includes Apple’s ‘True Tone’ technology that automatically adjusts the screen’s white balance based on the ambient environment.

The base model starts at $ 1,299 and includes a 1.4GHz quad-core 9th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. However, if you’re planning on using this for editing photos or video though, we’d suggest you jump up to the $ 1,799 base model, which offers Intel’s 10-gen CPUs with the newer Intel Iris Plus graphics and 16GB of RAM. Further upgrades can be configured for additional costs, as usual.

You can find out more information about the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro models and browse through the different configurations on Apple’s website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Apple’s latest beta suggests ProRes RAW support for Adobe apps is coming to Windows

31 Mar

Apple has released a version 1.0 beta of ProRes Raw for Windows that adds support for Apple’s video codec in several Adobe apps on Microsoft’s operating system.

In the support text accompanying the download, Apple says the beta release ‘enables playback of ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ video files in compatible applications on Windows systems.’ This includes Adobe After Effects, Adobe Media Encoder, Adobe Premiere and Adobe Premiere Rush.

Assuming this support makes it out of beta and expands to other applications, this could help to make ProRes Raw a more useful standard for video work. The download, which comes in at 737KB, is available to download on Apple’s support page.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Apple’s 2020 iPhone photography contest seeks best Night mode shots

09 Jan
Shot on iPhone 11 Pro Max in Night mode by Eric Zhang.

Apple has announced another iPhone photography contest, this one soliciting photos shot using the company’s Night mode feature found on the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. This new contest follows the first ‘Shot on iPhone’ competition announced by the company in January 2019. The new contest is open to submissions through January 29.

The 2020 iPhone Night mode photography contest opened to submissions on Wednesday, January 8; the five winning images will be announced by Apple on March 4.

Interested iPhone 11 owners can submit their favorite shots on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtags #NightmodeChallenge and #ShotoniPhone, as well as on China’s Weibo service using the tags #NightmodeChallenge# and #ShotoniPhone#.

Shot on iPhone 11 Pro in Night mode by Austin Mann.

Apple is also giving competitors the option of emailing a high-resolution version of their images to its shotoniphone@apple.com; in this case, photographers must use the following file naming convention: ‘firstname_lastname_nightmode_iPhonemodel.’

Social media submissions should include a note about which iPhone model was used to capture the image in the caption. Apple says contestants can use third-party and Photos app editing tools to edit the images. Submissions must be submitted by 11:59 PM PST on January 29 to be eligible. As well, contestants must be at least 18 years old.

The company has offered multiple tips on using the Night mode feature, including paying attention to the capture time displayed in the Night mode icon and using a tripod to keep the shots steady. Winning images will be showcased in a gallery on the Apple website, Apple Newsroom and Apple Instagram account; they may also appear in Apple’s digital campaigns, among other promotions.

The full list of judges and other details can be found in Apple’s announcement.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Shiftcam add-on lens cases are now available for Apple’s iPhone 11 models

08 Jan

Most current high-end smartphones come with ultra-wide and/or dedicated tele lenses, offering wider focal length ranges than older devices. However, add-on lenses are still a popular way to expand the creative potential of smartphone cameras even further.

ShiftCam has been supplying its add-on lens cases since the iPhone 7 generation. Now the company has announced the latest versions for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

The Shiftcam model for the iPhone 11 model adds a 180-degree fisheye lens, 10x macro, and a circular polarizer to your arsenal. The iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max models get four lenses in addition to a circular polarizer:

  • 180-degree fisheye
  • 4x telephoto
  • 10x macro
  • 20x macro
  • Circular Polarizer

Like for previous Shiftcam cases, operation is easy. You move the required lens into place on a slider and select the corresponding lens of the built-in camera in the Apple camera app. This also means all your add-lenses are always with you and on the phone, so you don’t have to carry spare lenses in a bag like for more conventional add-on systems.

On the downside, your phone is bulkier than usual and you cannot use any other cases.

The new Shiftcam cases are available now. The iPhone 11 version is $ 64.99, while the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max cases will each set you back $ 74.99. More information is available on the Shiftcam website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Apple’s new ‘Fire and Ice’ video shows off the iPhone 11 Pro’s camera capabilities

08 Jan

Apple has published seven videos in its ‘Experiments’ series, including four episodes and four behind-the-scenes videos. Each video is intended to show what’s possible with ‘an iPhone, simple materials, and boundless creativity,’ according to the company. The latest video involves effects created by fire and ice; past examples include water and colorful objects.

The methods used to create Apple’s newest Experiments videos are fairly simple and reproducible at home, including the use of dry ice, what appears to be isopropyl alcohol in a glass jug, a wire mesh covered in lint and caught on fire, a red hot piece of metal placed on dark paper and more. The majority of the shots were captured by hand.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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