Popular iPhone camera app Halide just launched Mark III, a major update that's been years in the making. The headline feature? Process Zero II now supports HDR and ProRAW - a seemingly contradictory move for a mode designed to strip away computational photography. Available today as a Public Preview, the update also includes a new black-and-white film simulation called Chroma Noir and marks a subtle shift in how we think about "natural" smartphone photography.
Halide, the beloved iPhone camera app for photography enthusiasts, just dropped its most significant update in years. Mark III arrives today as a Public Preview, and it's bringing some unexpected features to the table - starting with HDR support in Process Zero, the app's deliberately minimalist shooting mode.
The move seems counterintuitive at first. Process Zero launched last year as Halide's answer to over-processed smartphone photos, stripping away computational photography's heavy hand. Now it's embracing HDR and ProRAW, two technologies closely tied to Apple's processing pipeline.
But Halide's team is quick to clarify what they mean by HDR. "This is my semi-regular cue to remind you that HDR is not a dirty word," writes The Verge's Allison Johnson in her coverage. The distinction matters - we've come to associate HDR with that over-processed, flattened look where shadows get artificially brightened and highlights lose all punch. That's what happens when high dynamic range scenes get compressed for standard displays.
True HDR displays on modern iPhones tell a different story. They can show a wider range of tones, letting bright highlights actually glow while shadows stay dark. The new Process Zero II taps into this capability, allowing photographers to capture more tonal information without the aggressive processing that typically comes with it.
The ProRAW integration follows similar logic. By shooting ProRAW in Process Zero, users get images that have passed through part of processing pipeline but retain flexibility for post-capture adjustments. It's a middle ground between completely raw sensor data and Apple's fully processed output.
