Shutterbugs, rejoice: Apple's iOS 10 will shoot raw photos - CNET

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Photography enthusiasts love "raw" photo formats that let them wring as much flexibility and image quality out of their cameras. And now they're going to get that ability on iPhones and iPads.

That's because Apple's next-gen iOS 10 software adds a new programming interface that will let camera apps retrieve unprocessed raw photo data from the camera hardware, according to Apple developer documentation. Google's Android has supported raw photos since the release of the Lollipop version in 2014.

There's a good reason Apple didn't include raw photo support in its top-10 list of new iOS 10 features unveiled at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) Monday. Raw photography is complex and too much of a hassle for most people to bother with. But with photography now so central to mobile phones, and with photo enthusiasts being such an active and visible type of customer, raw photo support is a major improvement. Raw photos should help Apple's iPhones keep their place atop the list of most popular cameras on Flickr, the photo-sharing site.

Today, iPhone and iPad photographers can only get photos stored as JPEG files. Those take up less storage space and are convenient for viewing and sharing, but they also have limits. Photographers have no choice but to trust the camera's choices for sharpening, noise reduction and white balance, and with a maximum of 256 brightness levels for each pixel, there's often not enough data for editing operations such as brightening shadows or easing bright highlights.