i Phone 18 Pro cameras could finally be worthy of the 'Pro' name — i OS 27 leak reveals focus peaking, waveform, and manual focus upgrades | Tech Radar

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i Phone 18 Pro cameras could finally be worthy of the 'Pro' name — i OS 27 leak reveals focus peaking, waveform, and manual focus upgrades

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The i Phone 17 Pro Max (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Evidence of five possible i Phone camera features has been found in i OS 27 code

These include waveforms, histograms, manual focusing, and more

It's not clear whether these features will come to existing models or be exclusive to the i Phone 18 series

While i Phones give you a limited amount of manual camera control, such as the ability to adjust the exposure, they don’t really have anything approaching a ‘pro’ camera mode, at least within the official camera app. But that might change with the i Phone 18 Pro series.

Mac Rumors forum member pdfu has found evidence in i OS 27 of five camera upgrades that could make i Phones far more appealing to anyone who likes to go beyond just pointing and shooting.

These include the ability to display a waveform or histogram to show you which parts of an image are too dark or too bright, and a focus peaking feature, which could highlight the edge of anything that’s in sharp focus, so you can see which parts aren’t. A separate overlay might also warn you when part of an image is overexposed.

Interestingly, there’s also evidence in i OS 27 of an i Phone being able to adjust lens corrections depending on your aperture setting — strong evidence for the rumored variable aperture feature we’ve heard might be included on at least one i Phone 18 Pro and i Phone 18 Pro Max lens.

Plus, pdfu has also found a control that would let you manually focus the camera, rather than relying on autofocus, and there’s a change allowing for repeated self-timer shots — meaning that after one timed photo is taken, the timer can automatically start again and take another.

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The camera app on an i Phone 17 Pro (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

If Apple does add all these features, then it could finally have something approaching a ‘pro’ or fully manual camera mode, which is sure to appeal to some shutterbugs. I’d expect these more advanced features would be hidden away from the standard camera overlay, though, so they shouldn’t get in the way for casual snappers.

Still, there’s no guarantee that all or even any of them will arrive with i OS 27. While evidence of these tools has been found in the underlying code, none of them can currently be activated, and it’s possible Apple will choose to delay or cancel them.

It’s also unclear whether they’ll come to existing i Phones or just the i Phone 18 series. In particular, the aperture changes would probably primarily be aimed at phones with a variable aperture — meaning no current model — and the manual focus mode is reportedly currently locked to phones that ship with i OS 27 or later, which again rules out current models.

All should become clearer very soon, though, as Apple is set to announce the i Phone 18 Pro series along with the i Phone Ultra tomorrow (September 9), and we expect the finished version of i OS 27 to roll out shortly after that.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at Tech Radar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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• Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards