Halide 3.1 is rolling out soon for iPhone, bringing practical new tools aimed at everyday photographers rather than flashy features. The update includes non-AI perspective correction, a warm new Scarlet color profile, and more reliable manual focus controls. This continues Halide’s recent focus on giving users more natural, less processed mobile photos, following its spring Mark III release.
Halide has long catered to iPhone users who dislike the heavy computational processing of Apple’s default camera app. That niche has expanded over the past few years with apps like Adobe Lightroom Mobile, ProCamera, and Blackmagic Camera offering professional-grade manual controls. Even Apple is shifting toward empowering users with tools like ProRAW. Instead of piling on modes, Halide doubles down on precision, letting users craft photos exactly how they want.
Non-AI perspective correction in Halide 3.1
The headline feature of Halide 3.1 hides inside the Photo Lab’s Frame tab. Users will find options to rotate and flip photos, plus a dedicated slider for perspective correction. Lux Optics, Halide’s developer, emphasizes this tool doesn’t rely on AI but uses traditional keystone correction inspired by tilt-shift lenses. This means skewed vertical lines in architecture and interiors can be straightened directly within Halide, without exporting to a separate editor.
Halide 3.1 key features and updates
- Rotate and flip photos in the Frame tab
- Non-AI perspective correction slider
- New warm Scarlet color profile to enhance tones
- Adjustable photo compression settings
- RAW-only shooting mode for advanced users
- Fixed manual mode tap behavior in viewfinder
The Scarlet color profile, part of Halide’s Looks collection, injects warmer tones, boosts contrast, and intensifies reds. Designed for sunrises, fireworks, and any scenes craving richer colors without heavy filters, Scarlet takes a page from film-style presets popularized by apps like VSCO and Fujifilm’s XApp-but this time it’s baked directly into the camera app before shooting.
Beyond the headline features, Halide 3.1 improves customization by consolidating themes and icons in a dedicated section. It also lets users fine-tune photo compression, balancing file size against image texture and detail. A new RAW-only mode will appeal to advanced shooters, although Halide cautions that many third-party apps don’t yet fully support RAW files.
Another subtle but important tweak: in manual shooting mode, tapping the viewfinder no longer unexpectedly shifts focus or exposure. Such small usability improvements could be key to Halide winning over enthusiasts who might otherwise default back to Apple’s native camera app.
The release date and pricing for Halide 3.1 haven’t been confirmed, but it’s expected soon after the Mark III update dropped just weeks ago. Timely and steady updates matter especially in mobile photography, where software defines the experience more than hardware upgrades. According to Statista, by 2025 smartphones will account for over 90% of all photos taken worldwide, making software the real battleground. In this race, success comes not from AI buzzwords but from tools that genuinely make it easier to perfect your shot.