Camera app in iOS 27 reportedly includes four major pro photography features

Code reportedly found in the Camera app in the latest iOS 27 beta appears to point to the introduction of some major pro photography and videography features. While the stock camera app has grown in power over time, the reported discoveries seem surprising for an app primarily geared to point-and-shoot usage … Apple has historically tried to walk a tightrope between making its own Camera app extremely easy to use for snapshots while also giving some degree of creative control to those who like to use it as a more serious camera. Despite the gradual evolution of the app, however, most keen photographers and videographers tend to use third-party apps instead. The reported introduction of some powerful features normally associated with professional cameras may well change this, if the discoveries do indeed turn out to be accurate. Developer pdfu says they discovered code supporting four main features not currently enabled in any of the betas. Exposure scopes Judging exposure visually can be extremely unreliable, especially when viewing the iPhone screen in bright sunlight. Most dedicated cameras support a histogram feature intended to provide an accurate depiction of the exposure, while video editing software tends to use a waveform as another way of viewing the same information. Pdfu says they have found code for both features within the beta. 1. Exposure scopesThe Camera app adds a complete implementation of waveform and histogram views. These can help users judge exposure in different formats.There is no consumer within the Camera app, but you can see a demo of all graphs against stock photos below. pic.twitter.com/0UBdKJtbMc— pdfu (@itspdfu) September 7, 2026 Focus peaking How much of a photo will be in focus between immediate foreground and far background depends on a number of factors, but for some shots only part of the scene will be in focus. Again, judging what is and isn’t in focus visually can be unreliable, so professional video cameras in particular use an approach known as focus peaking. With this, you can enable an overlay where the parts of the photo in focus will be highlighted, typically in a red colour – though the example shown on the left uses yellow. 2. Focus peaking and highlight-clipping overlaysFocus peaking emphasizes edges with strong local contrast. Highlight-clipping can warn users about highlights that are becoming too bright.Once enabled in iOS 27, they can be rendered individually or together in the preview. pic.twitter.com/PLjalPkKJB— pdfu (@itspdfu) September 7, 2026 Highlight clipping The biggest danger with getting the exposure wrong is overexposing. In general, if you underexpose the shadow areas, these can be recovered in post-processing – you’d have to get it very wrong for dark areas to turn completely black (an RGB value of zero). Overexposure is a much bigger issue as it’s very easy to blow the highlights completely – that is, the bright areas exceed an RGB value of 255 and cannot be recovered. Many dedicated cameras use what’s known as zebra indicators, red stripes indicating areas that are completely blown. In some cases, you can manually set the value for these so you are warned when you are approaching blown highlights (eg. 90%) rather than when you actually hit them. This feature too is shown above, on the right. Manual focus The camera app does currently allow you to lock the focus on a particular element in the scene, but you can only do this in conjunction with locking the exposure on the same point via the AE/AF lock (auto-exposure/auto-focus). The report says that Apple has tested true manual focus in the camera app via a slider. Pdfu says this may be limited to one or more of the upcoming new iPhones. Other features In addition to the Pro features, there will reportedly be an option to take a series of self-timed photos. It’s common for people to want to take several when shooting photos of a group, so this feature could enable you to simply put the iPhone on a tripod or position it somewhere, and then take a series of photos to then choose the one everyone is happy with. Finally, there’s an indication of a new image processing approach to adapt to the variable aperture we’re expecting to see in the iPhone 18 Pro. 9to5Mac’s Take None of the features described are enabled in any of the iOS 27 betas, and I’d be surprised by Apple putting them into the stock camera app instead of limiting them to Final Cut Camera, but the report does appear credible. What are your reactions to this report? Please share your thoughts in the comments. Certified refurbished Apple products 15% off at apple.com Official Apple Store on Amazon Discounted AirPods Pro 3 Wireless CarPlay adapter 10-year AirTag battery case Logitech MX Master 4 for Mac FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.