Halide Mark III pro camera for iPhone arrives with three key photography upgrades

Halide’s big 3.0 upgrade has been on our radar since late 2024. Today, the pro camera app has arrived in the form of Halide Mark III. It brings three key photography upgrades to the experience.

Halide’s 3.0 upgrade focuses on taking better photos

As forecasted in December 2024, Halide Mark III promises to improve the iPhone’s photography game in a variety of ways.

First, Halide Mark III starts with a focus on taking better photos from the moment you hit the shutter button. This is thanks to a new feature called Halide Looks:

Here’s how the look picker appears in the new update:

The five Halide Looks included in Mark III are:

• Valencia: “A great look for landscapes and cityscapes, with interesting effects on portraiture and skin tones. It features thick contrast, deep saturation, and solid color separation.”
• Rembrandt: “Our portrait look, where thick contrast in the mid-tones emphasizes bone structure and lighting. Abundant color in the low end converges to white as exposure increases, for perfect uniformity in skin-tones to emphasize contour of the face. Compared to the default iPhone processing, we find the differences striking.”
• Nova: “Best suited for landscapes and cityscapes rather than portraiture, it features exceptional color, with tight contrast and smooth peachy highlights.”
• Zephyr: “A subtle and restrained look, it features subtle filmic contrast, paired with rich skin tones and foliage. It has the character of a traditional print, but its neutral tone scale and tuned contrast make it a great choice for a wide variety of scenes and visual intents.”
• Chrome Noir: “Our in-house, panchromatic black and white look featuring medium contrast.”

These are examples of each look provided by Halide:

Halide Mark III also includes a new photo editor and a camera redesign

Next up, Halide 3.0 brings a new photo editor experience to the app with the new Photo Lab:

The new Photo Lab feature will even let you “edit RAW files created by Canon, Sony, Nikon, Leica, Fujifilm and Hasselblad cameras” as a beta feature.

This is the first time Halide has shifted from solely focusing on iPhone photography to also being a photo editor for standalone cameras.

The new photo editor may be especially useful on iPad, where Halide Mark III is also available.

Lastly, there’s the pro camera user interface design in Halide Mark III:

For Halide shooters who prefer the previous design, the Mark II camera layout is sticking around as an option as well.

Halide Mark III, out today, is a free upgrade for customers who purchased Halide Mark II. The new version is also available for Halide subscribers starting today.

Halide Mark III can be purchased outright for $59.99, or subscribers can access the new app for $19.99/year.