Photos & Camera

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Explore technical aspects of capturing high-quality photos and videos, including exposure control, focus modes, and RAW capture options.

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AVCaptureDevice.isFaceDrivenAutoFocusEnabled not working with continuousAutoFocus
Hi everyone, I'm developing a camera application that requires precise, predictable control over the focus system. I'm encountering unexpected behavior with face-driven autofocus in continuous autofocus mode. Issue: When using AVCaptureDevice.FocusMode.continuousAutoFocus, the system continues to prioritize faces for focus even after attempting to disable face-driven autofocus with: device.automaticallyAdjustsFaceDrivenAutoFocusEnabled = false device.isFaceDrivenAutoFocusEnabled = false Observations: The behavior is inconsistent across different scenes. In well-lit/properly exposed scenes: focus persistently locks onto faces, ignoring my configuration. . In underexposed scenes: the intended focus behavior is more consistently respected.
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372
4w
ProRAW: Demystify 48MP vs 12MP binning based on lighting?
Hi everyone, does anybody have any resources I could check out regarding the 48->12mp binning behavior on supported sensors? I know the 48mp sensor on iPhone can automatically bin pixels for better low light performance. But not sure how to reliably make this happen in practice. On iPhone 14 Pro+ with a 48MP sensor, I want the best of both worlds for ProRAW: ∙ Bright light: 48MP full resolution ∙ Low light: 12MP pixel-binned for better noise `photoOutput.maxPhotoDimensions = CMVideoDimensions(width: 8064, height: 6048) let settings = AVCapturePhotoSettings(rawPixelFormatType: proRawFormat, processedFormat: [...]) settings.photoQualityPrioritization = .quality // NOT setting settings.maxPhotoDimensions — always get 12MP` When I omit maxPhotoDimensions, iOS always returns 12MP regardless of lighting. When I set it to 48MP, I always get 48MP. Is there an API to let iOS automatically choose the optimal resolution based on conditions, or should I detect low light myself (via device.iso / exposureDuration) and set maxPhotoDimensions accordingly? Any help or direction would be much appreciated!
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341
3w
How To Integrating iOS 26 Spatial Photos Feature into Third-Party iPhone App
Dear Apple Technical Support Team, Greetings! I am an iOS app developer, currently upgrading the functions of the photo app I developed Recently, I noticed the new Spatial Photos feature added in the iOS 26 system, which brings an immersive 3D photo experience to users. We hope to integrate similar capabilities into our own app to provide users with a richer photo viewing experience. Through technical research, we found that on Apple Vision devices, the similar spatial photo display effect can be achieved through the ImagePresentationComponent.Spatial3DImage interface. However, our tests show that this interface only supports visionOS and cannot be called in the iOS system. At present, iOS 26 already natively supports the Spatial Photos feature, and we hope to know how to enable third-party photo apps to also have this capability. Here, we sincerely request your team to provide relevant technical support, mainly to understand the following questions: Are there any official APIs, SDKs, or development frameworks applicable to the iOS 26 system that can support third-party apps to implement core functions such as the generation and display of spatial photos? If there are no public adaptive interfaces available at present, are there any other compliant technical solutions or alternative paths to achieve similar effects? For third-party apps to integrate the spatial photo feature, are there any relevant development documents, technical specifications, or review requirements that need to be followed? We have completed the basic function iteration of the app and have the technical capability to quickly adapt to new functions. We hope to receive guidance and support from your team to help us bring a better product experience to iOS users. Attached are the relevant information of our app and the detailed report on interface compatibility during the test for your reference. If you need any further supplementary information, please feel free to inform us. Thank you for reviewing this email in your busy schedule, and we look forward to your reply!
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2w
AVCam Sample Code - Undesired "Jump" in Video Recording Image
On iPhone 16 Pro Max (not tested other devices) there's a noticeable jump in the framing of the preview video when you record in the iOS AVCam Sample App. The same jump in camera framing can be observed by switching to the front facing camera and then back to the rear one. It looks roughly consistent with switching between the 0.5x and 1x camera (but not quite a match for the same viewable area in the Camera app) - and it's only when it's initially loaded, once recording is started it retains the 'closer' image no matter how many times it's stopped/started thereafter. I'm relatively new to Swift and haven't done anything with the camera before, so odd 'buggy' behaviour in the sample code isn't helping me understand it! :-) Is there any way to fix this?
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3d
AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer layoutSublayers invoked on background thread
Opening this question after discussing the issue in the AVCapture lab, hopefully so we can track down this issue. We've been noticing some crashes in App Store Connect caused by layoutSublayers being called on a background thread. After debugging the issue a bit we found that all calls which modified the AVCaptureSession or preview layer were indeed done on the main thread. It would be useful to see what results in AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer.updateFormatDescription being called. I've attached the crashlog below. Crash log.ips - https://developer.apple.com/forums/content/attachment/800b0dba-3477-4c5a-b56c-f4cc393b384f
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848
Jun ’25
IPadOS 17 external camera exposure
I'm developing iPad app that will be mostly dedicated for certain external camera for visually impaired people. The linux UVC api (e.g. using guvcview) allows to enable automatic exposure for the camera. IOs api "isExposureModeSupported" unfortunately returns false for any of the exposure modes. Is it a bug? Or perhaps AVFoundation doesn't support UVC exposure yet?
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650
Jul ’25
Generating Live Photo from JPG and MOV fails
I am working on an iOS application using SwiftUI where I want to convert a JPG and a MOV file to a live photo. I am utilizing the LivePhoto Class from Github for this. The JPG and MOV files are displayed correctly in my WallpaperDetailView, but I am facing issues when trying to download the live photo to the gallery and generate the Live Photo. Here is the relevant code and the errors I am encountering: Console prints: Play button should be visible Image URL fetched and set: Optional("https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/...") Video is ready to play Video downloaded to: file:///var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/.../tmp/CFNetworkDownload_7rW5ny.tmp Failed to generate Live Photo I have verified that the app has the necessary permissions to access the Photo Library. The JPEG and MOV files are successfully downloaded and can be displayed in the app. The issue seems to occur when generating the Live Photo from the downloaded files. struct WallpaperDetailView: View { var wallpaper: Wallpaper @State private var isLoading = false @State private var isImageSaved = false @State private var imageURL: URL? @State private var livePhotoVideoURL: URL? @State private var player: AVPlayer? @State private var playerViewController: AVPlayerViewController? @State private var isVideoReady = false @State private var showBuffering = false var body: some View { ZStack { if let imageURL = imageURL { GeometryReader { geometry in KFImage(imageURL) .resizable() ... } } if let playerViewController = playerViewController { VideoPlayerViewController(playerViewController: playerViewController) .frame(maxWidth: .infinity, maxHeight: .infinity) .clipped() .edgesIgnoringSafeArea(.all) } } .onAppear { PHPhotoLibrary.requestAuthorization { status in if status == .authorized { loadImage() } else { print("User denied access to photo library") } } } private func loadImage() { isLoading = true if let imageURLString = wallpaper.imageURL, let imageURL = URL(string: imageURLString) { self.imageURL = imageURL if imageURL.scheme == "file" { self.isLoading = false print("Local image URL set: \(imageURL)") } else { fetchDownloadURL(from: imageURLString) { url in self.imageURL = url self.isLoading = false print("Image URL fetched and set: \(String(describing: url))") } } } if let livePhotoVideoURLString = wallpaper.livePhotoVideoURL, let livePhotoVideoURL = URL(string: livePhotoVideoURLString) { self.livePhotoVideoURL = livePhotoVideoURL preloadAndPlayVideo(from: livePhotoVideoURL) } else { self.isLoading = false print("No valid image or video URL") } } private func preloadAndPlayVideo(from url: URL) { self.player = AVPlayer(url: url) let playerViewController = AVPlayerViewController() playerViewController.player = self.player self.playerViewController = playerViewController let playerItem = AVPlayerItem(url: url) playerItem.preferredForwardBufferDuration = 1.0 self.player?.replaceCurrentItem(with: playerItem) ... print("Live Photo Video URL set: \(url)") } private func saveWallpaperToPhotos() { if let imageURL = imageURL, let livePhotoVideoURL = livePhotoVideoURL { saveLivePhotoToPhotos(imageURL: imageURL, videoURL: livePhotoVideoURL) } else if let imageURL = imageURL { saveImageToPhotos(url: imageURL) } } private func saveImageToPhotos(url: URL) { ... } private func saveLivePhotoToPhotos(imageURL: URL, videoURL: URL) { isLoading = true downloadVideo(from: videoURL) { localVideoURL in guard let localVideoURL = localVideoURL else { print("Failed to download video for Live Photo") DispatchQueue.main.async { self.isLoading = false } return } print("Video downloaded to: \(localVideoURL)") self.generateAndSaveLivePhoto(imageURL: imageURL, videoURL: localVideoURL) } } private func generateAndSaveLivePhoto(imageURL: URL, videoURL: URL) { LivePhoto.generate(from: imageURL, videoURL: videoURL, progress: { percent in print("Progress: \(percent)") }, completion: { livePhoto, resources in guard let resources = resources else { print("Failed to generate Live Photo") DispatchQueue.main.async { self.isLoading = false } return } print("Live Photo generated with resources: \(resources)") self.saveLivePhotoToLibrary(resources: resources) }) } private func saveLivePhotoToLibrary(resources: LivePhoto.LivePhotoResources) { LivePhoto.saveToLibrary(resources) { success in DispatchQueue.main.async { if success { self.isImageSaved = true print("Live Photo saved successfully") } else { print("Failed to save Live Photo") } self.isLoading = false } } } private func fetchDownloadURL(from gsURL: String, completion: @escaping (URL?) -> Void) { let storageRef = Storage.storage().reference(forURL: gsURL) storageRef.downloadURL { url, error in if let error = error { print("Failed to fetch image URL: \(error)") completion(nil) } else { completion(url) } } } private func downloadVideo(from url: URL, completion: @escaping (URL?) -> Void) { let task = URLSession.shared.downloadTask(with: url) { localURL, response, error in guard let localURL = localURL, error == nil else { print("Failed to download video: \(String(describing: error))") completion(nil) return } completion(localURL) } task.resume() } }```
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854
Mar ’25
PHLivePhotoEditingContext.saveLivePhoto results in AVFoundation error -11800 "The operation could not be completed" reason An unknown error occurred (-12815)
When trying to edit some Live Photos, calling PHLivePhotoEditingContext.saveLivePhoto results in the following error: Error Domain=AVFoundationErrorDomain Code=-11800 "The operation could not be completed" UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=An unknown error occurred (-12815), NSLocalizedDescription=The operation could not be completed, NSUnderlyingError=0x300d05380 {Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-12815 "(null)"}} I was able to replicate it on my device by taking a new Live Photo. Not sure what's wrong with that one specifically, not all Live Photos replicate the issue. I've submitted FB15880825 with a sysdiagnose and a Photos Diagnostics as well. Any ideas what's going on here? It's impacting multiple customers. Thanks!
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591
Jun ’25
Improving the transition between ultra wide and wide angle lens
I'm building an app which uses the camera and want to take advantage of the ability of the builtInTripleCamera and builtInDualWideCamera to automatically switch between the ultra wide and wide angle lens to focus on close up shots. It's working fine - except that the transition between the two lenses is a bit jumpy. I looked at what the native Camera app does and it seems to apply a small amount of blurring when the transition happens to help "mask" the jumpiness. How can I replicate this, or is there another way to improve the UX of switching between one lens and another automatically?
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509
Feb ’25
Attaching depth map manually
Hi, I have a problem when I want to attach my grayscale depth map image into the real image. The produced depth map doesn't have the cameraCalibration value which should responsible to align the depth data to the image. How do I align the depth map? I saw an article about it but it is not really detailed so I might be missing some process. I tried to: convert my depth map into pixel buffer create image destination ref and add the image there. add the auxData (depth map dict) This is the output: There is some black space there and my RGB image colour changes
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414
Mar ’25
Photo permission dialog not shown when iOS app runs on Mac
According to the docs: The first time your app performs an operation that requires [photo library] authorization, the system automatically and asynchronously prompts the user for it. (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/photokit/delivering-an-enhanced-privacy-experience-in-your-photos-app) I.e. it's not necessary for the app to call PHPhotoLibrary.requestAuthorization. This does seem to be what happens when my app runs on an iPhone or iPad; the prompt is shown. But when it runs on a Mac in "designed for iPad" mode, the permission dialog is not presented. Instead the code continues to see status == .notDetermined. That's today, on macOS 15.3. It may have worked in the past. Is anyone else seeing issues with this? Should I call requestAuthorization explicitly? (Would that actually work?)
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468
Mar ’25
Unkown photos were added to my iPhone Photo App.
There are several unknown pictures were added to my iPhone Photos. I'm developing a iOS app in swiftUI. And I'm sure that neither my developing app asked a permission to save photos to iOS device, nor these pictures are taken by myself, downloaded from the web, or synced from my iCloud. Why does this happen? Is my account or my iPhone attacked or hacked? btw, my device has turned the debug mode on, will this setting option would leads some vulnerability or some debug tools would add photos to my albums? The attached pictures are the unknown photos in my Photos App. I'v search this photo with google. And I found that many developers in stack overflow use this picture when they encounter troubles with image display or other manipulation. Where where are this photo come from? Why does it exist in my Photo albums?
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481
Feb ’25
3D scanning and 3D model with texture mapping
I am new here and would appreciate help in coding or an explanation what to use in swift for an app which will be able to capture LiDAR scanning and RGB data from taken pictures, generate a 3D mesh, and create .OBJ, .MTL, and .JPEG file set for further manipulation of 3D model. I am able to create from LiDAR scanning 3D mesh and .OBJ file but can not generate .MTL and .JPEG for a texture of 3D model.
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419
Feb ’25
PHPickerViewController update preselectedAssetIdentifiers
I am trying to recreate the iOS Messages app photo selection UI, where a PHPickerViewController is displayed half screen, with the message text field and a scrolling photo viewer on top. I have that UI mostly working, but cannot figure out how to allow a user to remove an image from my scrolling photo viewer (just like in the iOS Messages app). When the picker is initially displayed, I can show selected images using the preselectedAssetIdentifiers. However, if the user taps the "x" to remove an image from the scrolling photo viewer, there is no way that I have found to update that selection in the picker. I can dismiss/show a new picker with the animated property set to false, but that creates a very apparent bounce in the screen. Are there any ways I am missing to accomplish this? Here is what I have so far:
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423
Feb ’25
PHPhotoLibrary.shared().performChanges raised error 3303
I want to modify the photo's exif information, which means putting the original image in through CGImageDestinationAddImageFromSource, and then adding the modified exif information to a place called properties. Here is the complete process: static func setImageMetadata(asset: PHAsset, exif: [String: Any]) { let options = PHContentEditingInputRequestOptions() options.canHandleAdjustmentData = { (adjustmentData) -> Bool in return true } asset.requestContentEditingInput(with: options, completionHandler: { input, map in guard let inputNN = input else { return } guard let url = inputNN.fullSizeImageURL else { return } let output = PHContentEditingOutput(contentEditingInput: inputNN) let adjustmentData = PHAdjustmentData(formatIdentifier: AppInfo.appBundleId(), formatVersion: AppInfo.appVersion(), data: Data()) output.adjustmentData = adjustmentData let outputURL = output.renderedContentURL guard let source = CGImageSourceCreateWithURL(url as CFURL, nil) else { return } guard let dest = CGImageDestinationCreateWithURL(outputURL as CFURL, UTType.jpeg.identifier as CFString, 1, nil) else { return } CGImageDestinationAddImageFromSource(dest, source, 0, exif as CFDictionary) let d = CGImageDestinationFinalize(dest) // d is true, and I checked the content of outputURL, image has been write correctly, it could be convert to UIImage and image is ok. PHPhotoLibrary.shared().performChanges { let changeReq = PHAssetChangeRequest(for: asset) changeReq.contentEditingOutput = output } completionHandler: { succ, err in if !succ { print(err) // 3303 here, always! } } }) }
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406
Feb ’25
Set the capture device color space to apple log not works.
I set the device format and colorspace to Apple Log and turn off the HDR, why the movie output is still in HDR format rather than ProRes Log? Full runnable demo here: https://github.com/SpaceGrey/ColorSpaceDemo session.sessionPreset = .inputPriority // get the back camera let deviceDiscoverySession = AVCaptureDevice.DiscoverySession(deviceTypes: [.builtInWideAngleCamera], mediaType: .video, position: .back) backCamera = deviceDiscoverySession.devices.first! try! backCamera.lockForConfiguration() backCamera.automaticallyAdjustsVideoHDREnabled = false backCamera.isVideoHDREnabled = false let formats = backCamera.formats let appleLogFormat = formats.first { format in format.supportedColorSpaces.contains(.appleLog) } print(appleLogFormat!.supportedColorSpaces.contains(.appleLog)) backCamera.activeFormat = appleLogFormat! backCamera.activeColorSpace = .appleLog print("colorspace is Apple Log \(backCamera.activeColorSpace == .appleLog)") backCamera.unlockForConfiguration() do { let input = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: backCamera) session.addInput(input) } catch { print(error.localizedDescription) } // add output output = AVCaptureMovieFileOutput() session.addOutput(output) let connection = output.connection(with: .video)! print( output.outputSettings(for: connection) ) /* ["AVVideoWidthKey": 1920, "AVVideoHeightKey": 1080, "AVVideoCodecKey": apch,<----- prores has enabled. "AVVideoCompressionPropertiesKey": { AverageBitRate = 220029696; ExpectedFrameRate = 30; PrepareEncodedSampleBuffersForPaddedWrites = 1; PrioritizeEncodingSpeedOverQuality = 0; RealTime = 1; }] */ previewSource = DefaultPreviewSource(session: session) queue.async { self.session.startRunning() } }
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451
Mar ’25
kCGImageSourceDecodeToHDR and CGImageSourceCopyPropertiesAtIndex
Hi, I'm using Core Graphics to load a .DNG photo shot by a Leica Q3 camera. The photo is shot in portrait, however the embedded preview is rotated 90 degrees to landscape. I load the photo like this: let options = [kCGImageSourceDecodeRequest: kCGImageSourceDecodeToHDR] as CFDictionary let source = CGImageSourceCreateWithData(data as CFData, nil) let cgimage = CGImageSourceCreateImageAtIndex(source, 0, options) let properties = CGImageSourceCopyPropertiesAtIndex(source, 0, nil) as? [CFString : Any] When doing this I can see that the orientation property is 1 indicating that the orientation is 'Up', which it isn't. If I don't specify the kCGImageSourceDecodeToHDR option (eseentially setting options to nil) - the orientation property is 8 (rotated 90 degrees). What puzzles me is that a chang to the CGImageSourceCreateImageAtIndex call can have an influence on that latter call to CGImageSourceCopyPropertiesAtIndex ? I would expect these to work independently? Cheers Thomas
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470
Feb ’25
Prevent iOS from Switching Between Back Camera Lenses in getUserMedia (Safari/WebView, iOS 18)
I’m developing a hybrid app (WebView / Turbo Native) that uses getUserMedia to access the back camera for a PPG/heart rate measurement feature (the user places their finger on the camera). Problem: Even when I specify constraints like: { video: { deviceId: '...', facingMode: { exact: 'environment' }, advanced: [{ zoom: 1.0 }] }, audio: false } On iPhone 15 (iOS 18), iOS unexpectedly switches between the wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses during the measurement. This breaks the heart rate detection, and it forces the user to move their finger in the middle of the measurement. Question: Is there any way, via getUserMedia/WebRTC, to force iOS to use only the wide-angle lens and prevent automatic lens switching? I know that with AVFoundation (Swift) you can pick .builtInWideAngleCamera, but I’m hoping to avoid building a custom native layer and would prefer to stick with WebView/JavaScript if possible to save time and complexity. Any suggestions, workarounds, or updates from Apple would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot!
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422
Mar ’25
Capturing & Processing ProRaw 48MP images is slow
Hey, I have a camera app that captures a ProRaw photo and then runs a few Core Image filters before saving it to the device as a HEIC. However I'm finding that capturing at 48MP is rather slow. Testing a minimal pipeline on an iPhone 16 Pro: Shutter press => file received in output: 1.2 ~ 1.6s CIRawFilter created using photo file representation then rendered to context, without any filters: 0.8s ~ 1s Saving to device ~0.15s Is this the expected time for capturing processing? The native camera app seems to save the images within half a second. I'm using QualityPrioritization.balanced and the highest resolution available which is 48MP. Would using the CIRawFilter with the pixelBuffer from the photo output be faster? I tried it but couldn't get it to output an image. Are there any other things I could try to speed this up? Is it possible to capture at 24MP instead? Thanks, Alex
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442
Mar ’25