{"id":21330,"date":"2026-07-07T09:45:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T08:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovatenews.site\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/apple-overhauls-raw-photo-processing-with-ios-27-showcases-impressive-results\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T09:45:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T08:45:34","slug":"apple-overhauls-raw-photo-processing-with-ios-27-showcases-impressive-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovatenews.site\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/apple-overhauls-raw-photo-processing-with-ios-27-showcases-impressive-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple overhauls RAW photo processing with iOS 27, showcases impressive results"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The topic Apple overhauls RAW photo processing with iOS 27, showcases impressive results<\/strong> is currently the subject of lively discussion \u2014 readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.<\/p>\n

This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies\u2019 decisions and competitors\u2019 reactions can quickly change the picture.<\/p>\n

With iOS 27 and its companion systems, Apple is introducing a new version of its system-level RAW image processing engine. It uses machine learning to greatly improve detail and reduce noise, including when reprocessing older RAW photos. Here are the details.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with RAW, it is basically an image format that preserves the data captured directly by a camera\u2019s sensor, giving photographers greater flexibility when editing elements such as exposure, color, and white balance.<\/p>\n

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Apple has its own system-level pipeline for processing RAW files from third-party cameras, exposed to apps through Core Image. It currently includes support and camera-specific calibrations for nearly 800 camera models, with the full and regularly updated compatibility list available here.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Apple has updated its RAW processing algorithm eight times, improving how it handles sensor data, demosaicing, denoising, and adjustments such as white balance, exposure, color, and tone.<\/p>\n

With iOS 27, macOS 27, iPadOS 27 and beyond, Apple is introducing RAW 9, which the company says is \u201cits biggest update yet.\u201d Here\u2019s David Hayward, Core Image Engineer at Apple, on the WWDC26 session Enhance RAW image processing with Core Image:<\/p>\n

[RAW 9] dramatically improves the rendering of RAW files. It is built atop a tiled CoreML model, that combines demosaic with denoise for best quality. And the model is run on device using the Apple Neural Engine cores, for optimal performance.<\/p>\n

In the session, Hayward shows several examples of RAW 9 in action, comparing the results with RAW 8 and, occasionally, the original, unprocessed sensor data:<\/p>\n

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This is a zoomed-in crop of a low noise image using RAW 8. This Sony Alpha 7 II image of a vintage dial indicator actually looks quite good. However, when you explore that same image under RAW 9, the image is sharper, clearer, and the fine text is easier to read.<\/p>\n

The differences are even more dramatic, when you view high noise images. First, observe the actual RAW data that is contained in this very noisy ISO 51,200 image. In this example from a Canon 5D Mark III, the image is a 10x Crop of a box of crayons. There is so much luma and chroma noise in the RAW data, that it\u2019s impossible to discern the unique color of each crayon. Using our previous algorithms, this is the result! RAW 8 did an acceptable job of recovering the actual colors in the scene. But if you examine the results under RAW 9, the output is significantly better. The colors are accurate and well defined. Even the shiny specular highlights on the crayons are visible.<\/p>\n

This last example is a crop of a photo of embroidery yarn, shot with a Fujifilm X-T5 at ISO 12,800. This camera has a non-traditional sensor pattern, which is challenging to demosaic. In the RAW 8 results, there are some color artifacts and loss of detail in the yarn. But if you observe the same image under RAW 9, the results are discernibly better. The small text is more legible, and the texture in the yarn much clearer.<\/p>\n

For developers, the session goes into detail on how to enable RAW 9, optimize performance for editing and exporting, and much more.<\/p>\n

To learn more about RAW 9 and the other Core Image improvements coming with iOS 27, watch the full session here.<\/p>\n