I'm trying to capture the depth map image using true depth camera in iPhone 15 plus. I was able to setup the AVCapture session with AVCaptureDeviceInput as builtInTrueDepthCamera and AVCapturePhotoOutput with isDepthDataDeliveryEnabled set as true. I also manually made the activeDepthDataFormat of AVCapture device to kCVPixelFormatType_DepthFloat16 or kCVPixelFormatType_DepthFloat32. Finally I have enabled isDepthDataDeliveryEnabled, embedsDepthDataInPhoto , embedsPortraitEffectsMatteInPhoto and embedsSemanticSegmentationMattesInPhoto in AVCapturePhotoSettings before capturing the photo using capturePhoto(with: photoSettings, delegate: self) method. I have checked manually printing the activeDepthDataFormat of AVCapture device. First before setting it by default it is Optional('dpth'/'hdis' 640x 480, { 2- 30 fps}, photo dims:{}, fov:73.699, system exposure bias range:-2.0-2.0) After forcing it to kCVPixelFormatType_DepthFloat16 or kCVPixelFormatType_DepthFloat32 the format is Optional('dpth'/'hdep' 160x 120, { 2- 30 fps}, photo dims:{}, fov:73.699, system exposure bias range:-2.0-2.0) But when I receive the captured photo in func photoOutput(_ output: AVCapturePhotoOutput, didFinishProcessingPhoto photo: AVCapturePhoto, error: (any Error)?) The depth map is Optional(hdis 640x480 (high/abs) calibration:{intrinsicMatrix: [2723.07 0.00 2016.00 | 0.00 2723.07 1512.00 | 0.00 0.00 1.00], extrinsicMatrix: [1.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 | 0.00 1.00 0.00 0.00 | 0.00 0.00 1.00 0.00] pixelSize:0.001 mm, distortionCenter:{2016.00,1512.00}, ref:{4032x3024}}) Here it shows hdis instead of hdep, why is it capturing disparity map instead of true depth map. The depth quality is high and depth data accuracy is absolute. Here is my code import UIKit import AVKit import AVFoundation class ViewController: UIViewController, AVCapturePhotoCaptureDelegate { @IBOutlet weak var previewView: UIView! @IBOutlet weak var resultLbl: UILabel! private var session = AVCaptureSession() private var captureDevice: AVCaptureDevice? private var inputDevice: AVCaptureDeviceInput? private var photoOutput: AVCapturePhotoOutput? private var photoSettings: AVCapturePhotoSettings? private var cameraPreviewLayer: AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer? override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() // Do any additional setup after loading the view. self.setupCaptureSession() } func setupCaptureSession(){ captureDevice = AVCaptureDevice.default(.builtInTrueDepthCamera, for: .video, position: .unspecified) guard let captureDevice else{ print("ERROR::UNABLE TO SET TRUE DEPTH CAMERA ") return } session.beginConfiguration() do{ inputDevice = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: captureDevice) guard let inputDevice else{ print("ERROR: UNABLE TO SET UP INPUT DEVICE") return } if session.canAddInput(inputDevice){ session.addInput(inputDevice) } } catch{ print(error) } photoOutput = AVCapturePhotoOutput() guard let photoOutput else{ print("ERROR: UNABLE TO SET UP PHOTO OUTPUT") return } if session.canAddOutput(photoOutput){ session.addOutput(photoOutput) } session.sessionPreset = .photo photoOutput.isDepthDataDeliveryEnabled = photoOutput.isDepthDataDeliverySupported print("IS DEPTH ENABLED:: \(photoOutput.isDepthDataDeliveryEnabled)") session.commitConfiguration() let availableFormats = captureDevice.activeFormat.supportedDepthDataFormats let depthFormat = availableFormats.filter { format in let pixelFormatType = CMFormatDescriptionGetMediaSubType(format.formatDescription) return (pixelFormatType == kCVPixelFormatType_DepthFloat16 || pixelFormatType == kCVPixelFormatType_DepthFloat32) }.first session.beginConfiguration() try! captureDevice.lockForConfiguration() captureDevice.activeDepthDataFormat = depthFormat captureDevice.unlockForConfiguration() session.commitConfiguration() self.setupPreviewLayer() } func setupPreviewLayer(){ cameraPreviewLayer = AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session: session) cameraPreviewLayer?.videoGravity = .resizeAspectFill if let cameraPreviewLayer{ self.previewView.layer.addSublayer(cameraPreviewLayer) cameraPreviewLayer.frame = self.previewView.bounds } DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInteractive).async { self.session.startRunning() } } @IBAction func captureBtnPressed(_ sender: Any) { photoSettings = AVCapturePhotoSettings(format: [AVVideoCodecKey:AVVideoCodecType.jpeg]) guard let photoSettings else{ print("ERROR: UNABLE TO SETUP PHOTO SETTINGS") return } guard let photoOutput else{ print("ERROR: UNABLE TO SET UP PHOTO OUTPUT") return } photoSettings.isDepthDataDeliveryEnabled = photoOutput.isDepthDataDeliverySupported photoSettings.embedsDepthDataInPhoto = true photoSettings.embedsPortraitEffectsMatteInPhoto = true photoSettings.embedsSemanticSegmentationMattesInPhoto = true photoOutput.capturePhoto(with: photoSettings, delegate: self) } func photoOutput(_ output: AVCapturePhotoOutput, didFinishProcessingPhoto photo: AVCapturePhoto, error: (any Error)?) { print(photo.depthData) switch photo.depthData?.depthDataQuality { case .low: print("Depth quality is low") case .high: print("Depth quality is high") case nil: print("Depth quality is nil") } switch photo.depthData?.depthDataAccuracy { case .relative: print("Depth accuarcy is relative") case .absolute: print("Depth accuarcy is absolute") case nil: print("Depth accuarcy is nil") } if let imageData = photo.fileDataRepresentation(){ if let image = UIImage(data: imageData){ UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(image, nil, nil, nil) } } } }

I am using PHImageRequestOptions and PHImageManager to load images to my app. I use version.original and resizeMode.none, version.original and resizeMode.extract. Both used to work well but since iOS18 version.original and resizeMode.extract doesn't work anymore. The images are loaded but the they are not shown. (Only the frames?) Anyone knows why? Thank you for reading.

I am following the Apple sample code and trying to add a manual focus lens position slider: @available(iOS 18.0, *) private func addCameraControls() { if !self.session.controls.isEmpty { for control in self.session.controls { self.session.removeControl(control) } } self.cameraControlFocusSlider = nil //Focus Slider if self.videoDevice!.isLockingFocusWithCustomLensPositionSupported { self.cameraControlFocusSlider = AVCaptureSlider("Focus", symbolName: "dot.square", in: 0.0...1.0) self.cameraControlFocusSlider!.setActionQueue(self.sessionQueue) { focusValue in //Do manual focus } if self.session.canAddControl(self.cameraControlFocusSlider!) { self.session.addControl(self.cameraControlFocusSlider!) } } } So there are these AVCaptureSessionControlsDelegate methods: final func sessionControlsDidBecomeActive(_ session: AVCaptureSession) { print ("sessionControlsDidBecomeActive") } final func sessionControlsWillEnterFullscreenAppearance(_ session: AVCaptureSession) { print ("sessionControlsWillEnterFullscreenAppearance") } final func sessionControlsWillExitFullscreenAppearance(_ session: AVCaptureSession) { print ("sessionControlsWillExitFullscreenAppearance") } final func sessionControlsDidBecomeInactive(_ session: AVCaptureSession) { print ("sessionControlsDidBecomeInactive") } So when self.cameraControlFocusSlider is presented, I have to show the current value of the lense position. Lens position can change from auto focus and also from manual focus by the user using the app UI. Is there a way to see if self.cameraControlFocusSlider is active or being used? Please note that I will have more than one AVCaptureSlider in the final code.

Hi All, I'm working on a camera system extension where the main app is supposed to transfer a video stream using IOSurface memory sharing to the cam extension. I have built a sample app that does contains all the logic, but without a camera extension. So I'm essentially using IOSurface to render a video in one SwiftUI view and show the result in another SwiftUI view. Just for testing purposes. And everything works fine so far. Now, when moving the receiver code to the camera extensions, I'm having problems in accessing the IOSurface via ID. I am sharing the IOSurface ID via UserDefaults. I know from the logs the ID is correctly transferred. Here is the code that uses IOSurfaceLookup to get the IOSurface. But this fails with the given message. The error message prints the surface ID which is the correct one. I know this from the main app where I get the ID and print it as well. private var surfaceId: Int = -1 { didSet { logger.info("surfaceId has changed") if surfaceId == -1 { stopReceivingFrames() ioSurface = nil } else { guard let surface = IOSurfaceLookup(IOSurfaceID(surfaceId)) else { logger.error("failed to lookup IOSurface with ID: \(self.surfaceId)") return } self.ioSurface = surface logger.info("surface set, now starting receiving frames") startReceivingFrames() } } } My gut feeling says that this issue might be related to some missing entitlement, sandboxing. In general, I have a working camera extension. I'm just not able to render a video in the main app, and send it over to the camera extension to overlay another web cam. Both, the main app and camera extension are in the same XCode workspace and share the same AppGroup. In short, my actual questions are: Is there any entitlement required for using IOSurface between app and camera system extension? Is using IOSurface actually possible in system extensions? Is there any specific setting/requirement that I need to handle to make this work?

Hi, We have created an app which allows recording 4K 60 fps videos in the app. We have noted that some time the recording switched to 20 fps (the value 20 is constant) even though the resolution settings is at 4K 60fps. We are using AVCaptureDevice to invoke the camera. has anyone experienced this problem before ? What is unique to 20 fps? Why does it resort to 20 fps from 60 fps and why not to other numbers ?

We are facing a strange issue where a small portion of our large userbase can not start the capture session in our app, as it gets interrupted with the following reason: AVCaptureSessionInterruptionReasonVideoDeviceNotAvailableWithMultipleForegroundApps Our users are all from iPhones, no one is using an iPad. Just to be sure we have set session.isMultitaskingCameraAccessEnabled = true but it does not seem to make any difference. Another weird interruption we are seeing

Following WWDC 2023 "Support HDR images in your app", I'm trying to save 48-megapixel ProRAWs (taken on an iPhone 14 Pro Max) as HDR HEICs to the Photo Library. After processing the ProRAW file using CIRAWFilter, whether I use CIContext.heif10Representation() or convert to a CGImage, then UIImage, and use UIImage.heicData(), I get photos that behave oddly in the Photo Library. They appear too dark, and visibly brighten when first viewed, but more problematic is that the photos brighten a great deal more when you edit them with the Photos editor. This is the behavior when using the itur_2100_PQ color space, but itur_2100_HLG behaves similarly, except that it gets dramatically darker when edited. This behavior occurs whether CIRAWFilter.extendedDynamicRangeAmount is set to 0.0, or 2.0, or not set at all. So what am I doing wrong? Here is a minimal iOS app -- well, just the ContentView -- that demonstrates the issue. You also need a .dng ProRAW file included in the project directory named test.dng. I'd love to include such a file, but I can't. Be prepared for a multi-second wait when you save the photo. import SwiftUI import Photos struct ContentView: View { let context = CIContext() let hdrColorSpace = CGColorSpace(name: CGColorSpace.itur_2100_PQ)! var body: some View { VStack(spacing: 100) { Button("Save Photo From CGImage/UIImage") { savePhotoFromUIImage() } Button("Save Photo From CIImage") { savePhotoDirectFromCIImage() } }.padding(60) } //convert RAW with CIRAWFilter to CIImage, then convert to CGImage, then UIImage, then HEIF private func savePhotoFromUIImage() { if let ciImage = processRAW(url: Bundle.main.url(forResource:"test", withExtension: "dng")!) { guard let outputCGImage = context.createCGImage(ciImage, from: ciImage.extent, format: .RGB10, colorSpace: hdrColorSpace) else { return } let uiImage = UIImage(cgImage: outputCGImage) if let heicData = uiImage.heicData() { saveHEIFPhotoToLibrary(imageData: heicData) } else { print("Failed to convert UIImage to HEIC") } } } //convert RAW with CIRAWFilter to CIImage, then to HEIF private func savePhotoDirectFromCIImage() { if let ciImage = processRAW(url: Bundle.main.url(forResource:"test", withExtension: "dng")!) { do { let heif = try context.heif10Representation(of: ciImage, colorSpace: hdrColorSpace) saveHEIFPhotoToLibrary(imageData: heif) } catch { print("Failed to get HEIF representation from CIContext") } } } private func processRAW(url: URL) -> CIImage? { guard let coreRawFilter = CIRAWFilter(imageURL: url) else { return nil } coreRawFilter.extendedDynamicRangeAmount = 2.0 //the issue persists whether this is not set, or set to 0, or set to, say, 2.0 guard let ciImage = coreRawFilter.outputImage else { return nil } return ciImage } private func saveHEIFPhotoToLibrary(imageData: Data) { PHPhotoLibrary.shared().performChanges({ let creationRequest = PHAssetCreationRequest.forAsset() let options = PHAssetResourceCreationOptions() creationRequest.addResource(with: .photo, data: imageData, options: options) }) { success, error in if let error = error { print("Error saving photo: \(error.localizedDescription)") } else { print("Photo saved.") } } } }

I have an iPad app that I want to run on Apple Silicon macs. Everything works fine except for VNDocumentCameraViewController. According to the docs this class is available on: iOS 13.0+ iPadOS 13.0+ Mac Catalyst 13.1+ visionOS 1.0+ yet when I try using it I get Document camera is not available on my Mac Studio running macOS 15.2 Is this expected behaviour? Thanks

Hi: I am working with the ObjectCapture frameworks and sample code. Everything works great. We are trying to go from capturing 12MP images as in the sample code to capturing 48MP 6048 × 8064 images. We can't seem to get it to work. Any advice here?

I want to create a Live Photo. The project includes a .jpg image and a .mov video (2 seconds). Two permissions in xcode have been added: Privacy - Photo Library Usage Description Privacy - Photo Library Additions Usage Description Simulate: iphone 16, ios 18.3 The codes in ContentView.swift : private func saveLivePhoto(imageURL: URL, videoURL: URL, completion: @escaping (Bool, Error?) -> Void) { PHPhotoLibrary.shared().performChanges { let creationRequest = PHAssetCreationRequest.forAsset() let options = PHAssetResourceCreationOptions() options.shouldMoveFile = false creationRequest.addResource(with: .photo, fileURL: imageURL, options: options) creationRequest.addResource(with: .pairedVideo, fileURL: videoURL, options: options) } completionHandler: { success, error in DispatchQueue.main.async { print(error) completion(success, error) } } } guard let imageURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "livephoto", withExtension: "jpeg"), let videoURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "livephoto", withExtension: "mov") else { showAlertMessage(title: "error", message: "cant find Live Photo ") return } print("imageURL: \(imageURL)") print("videoURL: \(videoURL)") saveLivePhoto(imageURL: imageURL, videoURL: videoURL) { success, error in if success { xxxxx } else { xxxxx } } Really need help, thanks

I'm using Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode in my native iOS application, which is similar to Google Meet, using the VideoSDK.live Native iOS SDK. The SDK has built-in support for PiP and it's working fine for the most part. However, I'm running into a problem: When the app enters PiP mode, the local camera (self-video) of the participant freezes or stops. I want to fix this and achieve the same smooth behavior seen in apps like Google Meet and WhatsApp, where the local camera keeps working even in PiP mode. I've been trying to find documentation or examples on how to achieve this but haven't had much luck. I came across a few mentions that using the camera in the background may require special entitlements from Apple (like in the entitlements file). Most of the official documentation says background camera access is restricted due to Apple’s privacy policies. So my questions are: Has anyone here successfully implemented background camera access in PiP mode on iOS? If yes, what permissions or entitlements are required? How do apps like WhatsApp and Google Meet achieve this functionality on iPhones? Any help, advice, or pointers would be really appreciated!

[[PHPhotoLibrary sharedPhotoLibrary] presentLimitedLibraryPickerFromViewController:self];弹出照片选择器时，导航栏背景颜色和导航栏字体颜色均为白色，导致无法辨认。 使用 [[UINavigationBar appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses:@[UIImagePickerController.class]] setTintColor:[UIColor blackColor]];没有作用

Hi all, I'm using Apple Sample Code below to create application using dockkit. "Controlling a DockKit accessory using your camera app" https://developer.apple.com/documentation/dockkit/controlling-a-dockkit-accessory-using-your-camera-app?changes=_8 I used vision hand recognition and put the observation data to dockAccessory.track, but Belkin or Insta360 devices never move on iPhone 16 Pro Max with iOS 18.3. If I use other functions like face search (system tracking) in the app, those work ok. I used Belkin and Insta360 Flow 2 Pro to reproduce the problem. My friend is also saying that the custom tracking feature was working fine on the OS 18 beta, but on recent iOS 18.3 that feature does not work. If I can get the iOS 18.0 beta then we can test that feature. But I cannot revert my iOS from 18.3 to the iOS 18.0 Beta. Regards, TO

Hello, I'm developing an app that displays a photo library using UICollectionView and PHCachingImageManager. I'd like to achieve a user experience similar to the native iOS Photos app, where low-quality images are shown quickly while scrolling, and higher-quality images are loaded for visible cells once scrolling stops. I'm currently using the following approach: While Scrolling: I'm using the UICollectionViewDataSourcePrefetching protocol. In the prefetchItemsAt method, I call startCachingImages with low-quality options to cache images in advance. After Scrolling Stops: In the scrollViewDidEndDecelerating method, I intend to load high-quality images for the currently visible cells. I have a few questions regarding this approach: What is the best practice for managing both low-quality and high-quality images efficiently with PHCachingImageManager? Is it correct to call startCachingImages with fastFormat options and then call it again with highQualityFormat in scrollViewDidEndDecelerating? How can I minimize the delay when a low-quality image is replaced by a high-quality one? Are there any additional strategies to help pre-load high-quality images more effectively?

Hello, my company is developing a product that will send data to/from the phone over cable and Wi-Fi. I have three questions: Do we need an MFi authentication chip in our product if we plan to send video and commands to the iPhone/iPad over USB or Lightning cable? Likewise, do we need an MFI authentication chip for communication over Wi-Fi? (Informal research suggests that the answer is no to this one.) And, do we even still need MFI certification at all for Wi-Fi comms? (We are not using HomeKit.) Thank you!

Just downloaded iOS 26.1 and my phone keeps ringing after the call has been answered. Any fixes for this?

I'm developing a video capture app using AVFoundation, designed specifically for use on a boat pylon to record slalom water skiing. This setup involves considerable vibration. As you may know, the OIS that Apple began adding to lenses since the iPhone 7 is actually very problematic in high vibration circumstances, ironically creating very shaky video, whereas lenses without OIS produce perfectly stable video. Because of this, up until iPhone 14, the solution for my app was simply to use the Selfie lens, which did not have OIS. Starting with iPhone 14 through iPhone 16 (non-Pro models), technical specs suggest the selfie lens still does not include OIS. However, I’m still seeing the same kind of shaky video behavior I see on OIS-equipped lenses. The one hardware change I see in this camera module is the addition of PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), so that is my best guess as to what is causing the unstable video. 1- Does that make any sense - that in high vibration settings, PDAF could create unstable video in the same way that OIS does? Or could it be something else that was changed between the iPhone 13 and 14 Selfie lens? Thinking that the issue was PDAF, I figured that if I enabled my app to set a Manual Focus level, that ought to circumvent PDAF (expecting that if a lens is manually focusing, it can’t also be autofocusing via PDAF). However, even with manual focus locked via AVCaptureDevice in my app, on the Selfie lens of an iPhone 16, the video still comes out very shaky, basically unusable. I also tested with the built-in Apple Camera app (using the press-and-hold to lock focus and exposure) and another 3rd party camera app to lock focus, all with the same results, so it's not that my app just isn't correctly doing manual focus. So I'm stuck with these questions: 2- Does the selfie camera on iPhones 14–16 use PDAF even when focus is set to locked/manual mode? 3- Is there any way in AVFoundation to disable or suppress PDAF during video recording (e.g., a flag, device format setting, or private API)? 4- Is PDAF behavior or suppression documented or controllable via AVCaptureDevice or any related class? 5- If no control of PDAF is available, are there any best practices for stabilizing or smoothing this effect programmatically? Note that I also have set my app to use the most aggressive form of stabilization available, so it defaults to .cinematicExtendedEnhanced, if that’s not available, then .cinematicExtended, etc. On the 16 Selfie lens, it is using .cinematicExtended. As an additional question: 6- Would those be the most appropriate stabilization settings for a high vibration environment, and if not, what would be best?

Based on the iPhone 14 Max camera, implement model recognition and draw a rectangular box around the recognized object. The width and height are calculated using LiDAR and displayed in centimeters on the real-time updated image.

(Note: this is part 2 of a 3 part posting. See Part 1 or Part 3) At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for Camera & Photos. WWDC25 Camera & Photos group lab ran for one hour at 6 PM PST on Tuesday June 10th, 2025 Question 10 Can we directly integrate auto-capture triggers (e.g., when image is steady or text is detected) using Vision and AVFoundation? Yes apps can use AVCaptureSession's VDO + AVCapturePhotoOutput, run vision on VDO buffers and capture photo when certain scene or text is detected. Just to be careful to run Vision on VDO buffers async so it doesn't cause frame drops. Question 11 What Camera or Photos framework features support working with images from external media, like connected cameras or SD cards? Any best practices? The ImageCaptureCore framework supports camera devices, memory cards, scanners read and write, where supported check out the docs to see how to browse connected devices, folders, files, etc. Question 12 Hi Brad, to follow up on your SwiftUI cautionary note: using AVCaptureVideoPreview inside a UIViewRepresentable, is okay, right? Thanks all for the great info! Yes, this is totally fine. AppKit or UIKit views inside appropriate SwiftUI representables should be equivalent performance Question 13 What’s the “right” way to transition media in my photos app between HDR modes? When I’m in a one-up view, we use HDR, but in other contexts (like thumbnail) we don’t want HDR. Is there a nice way to tone map? There’s a suite of new System Tone Mapper APIs in this years’ OSes CoreImage ImageKit CoreAnimation, CoreGraphics For example: CoreImage: new CISystemToneMap filter. CoreAnimation: layer.preferredDynamicRange = CADynamicRangeConstrainedHigh Using image views (NSImageView/UIImageView/SwiftUI Image/CALayer) support animations on preferredDynamicRange Can go from high to constrained to standard Tone mapping is provided by the system (CISystemToneMap for controllable example) Question 14 What is your recommendation to preprocess and upscale your depth map in order to render a realistic portrait mode image? One way to do this: the CIEdgePreserveUpsample CIFilter can be use to upsample a lower resolution depth map by using a higher resolution RGB image as a guide. Question 15 For buffering frames for later processing from real-time camera output should we prefer a AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer centered approach or AVCaptureVideoDataOutputSampleBufferDelegate centered approach? When would we use each? AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer and AVCaptureVideoDataOutputSampleBufferDelegate are used hand in hand for custom camera preview. For buffering for later processing, ensure you make copies of VDO buffers to not drop frames from the output Question 16 Hello, my question is on Deferred Photo Processing? Say I have a photo capture app that adds a CIFilter to the capture. How can I take advantage of Deferred Photo Processing? Since I don’t know how to detect when the deferred captured photo is ready CIFilter can be called on the final at that point Photo will have to be re-inserted into the Photo library as adjustment Question 17 Is digital zoom (e.g., 1.5x) before taking a photo the same as cropping the photo afterward? digital zoom upscales the image to output dimensions and cropping will yield a smaller output image while digital zoom will crop, it also upscales Question 18 How do you design camera interfaces that work for both casual users and photography enthusiasts? Progressive disclosure: Put the most common controls up front, and make it easy for pros to drill down. Sensible Defaults: Choose defaults that work well for casual users, but allow those defaults to be modified for photography enthusiasts A good philosophy is: Keep the simple things easy, make the hard things possible Question 19 Recent iPhone models introduced macro mode which automatically switch between lenses to take into account of the focal distance difference. Is there official API to implement this, or should I implement them myself using LiDAR values. Using builtInTripleCamera and builtInDualWideCamera will automatically switch to macro when available Question 20 a couple of years ago at WWDC, the option of replacing a camera with a virtual camera was mentioned. How does one do that - make the “physical” camera effectively disappear, so only the virtual camera is accessible to the user? You can't prevent the built-in camera from being available to the user Question 21 Can developers now integrate custom Core ML models with Vision for on-device photo analysis more seamlessly? Yes they can, use CoreMLRequest , provide their model container Been supported for a while (iOS 18/macOS 15) For more details go to Machine Learning & AI group lab Thursday use smaller images for better performance Question 22 What would you recommend for capture of the new immersive and spatial formats? To capture Spatial Video use AVCaptureMovieFileOutput’s spatialVideoCaptureEnabled property Not all device formats support spatial capture, check AVCaptureDevice.activeFormat.spatialVideoCaptureSupported See WWDC 2024 talk “Build compelling spatial photo and video experiences” for more details Question 23 You mentioned JPEG-XL. What is the current status of support on iOS and macOS for encoding and decoding? For decoding, we support JPEG-XL files in all our OSes, regular SDR files, as well as ISO HDR files. For encoding, we only support JPEG-XL for ProRAW DNG capture in the Camera app or via third-party AVFoundation APIs. If you have any requests for improvement or new features related to JPEG-XL, please file a Feedback request using the Feedback Assistant. (Note: this is part 2 of a 3 part posting. See Part 1 or Part 3)

(Note: this is part 1 of a 3 part posting. See Part 2 or Part 3) At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for Camera & Photos. WWDC25 Camera & Photos group lab ran for one hour at 6 PM PST on Tuesday June 10th, 2025 Introductory kick-off questions Question 1 Tell us a little about the new AVFoundation Capture APIs we've made available in the new iOS 26 developer preview? Cinematic Capture API (strong/weak focus, tracking focus)(scene monitoring)(simulated aperture)(dog/cat heads/groupIDs) Camera Controls and AirPod Stem Clicks Spatial Audio and Studio Quality AirPod Mics in Camera Lens Smudge Detection Exposure and Focus Rect of Interest Question 2 I built QR code scanning into my app, but on newer iPhones I have to hold the phone very far away from the QR code, otherwise the image is blurry and it doesn't scan. Why is this happening and how can I fix it? Every year, the cameras get better and better as we push the state of the art on iPhone photography and videography. This sometimes results in changes to the characteristics of the lenses. min focus distance newer phones have multiple lenses automatic switching behavior Use virtual device like the builtInDualWide or built in Triple, rather than just the builtInWide Set the videoZoomFactor to 2. You're done. Question 3 Last year, we saw some exciting new APIs introduced in AVFoundation in the health space. With Constant Color photography, developers can take pictures that have constant color regardless of ambient lighting. There are some further advancements this year. Davide, could you tell us about them? constant color photography is mean to remove the "tone mapping" applied to photograph captured with camera app, usually incldsuing artistic intent, and instead try to be a close as possible to the real color of the scene, regardless of the illumination constant color images could be captured in HEIF anf JPEG laste year. this year we are adding Support for the DICOM medical imaging photo format. It is a fomrat used by the health industry to store images related to medical subjects like MRI, skin problems, xray and so on. It's writable and also readable format on all OS26, supported through AVCapturePhotoOutput APIs and through the coregraphics api. for coregrapphics there is a new DICOM entry in the property dictionary which includes all the dicom availbale and defined propertie in a file. finder will also display all those in the info panel (Address why a developer would want to use it) - not for regualr picture taking apps. for those HEIF and JPEG are the preferred delivery format. use dicom if your app produces output that are health related, that you can also share with health providers or your doctors Main session developer questions Question 1 LiDAR vs. Dual Camera depth generation: Which resolution does the LiDAR sensor natively have (iPhone 16 Pro) and when to prefer LiDAR over Dual Camera? Both report formats with output resolutions (we don't advertise sensor resolution) Lidar vs Dual, etc: Lidar: Best for absolute depth, real world scale and computer vision Dual, etc: relative, disparity-based, less power, photo effects Also see: 2022 WWDC session "Discovery advancements in iOS camera capture: Depth, focus and multitasking" Question 2 Can true depth and lidar camera run at 60fps? Lidar can do 30fps (edited) Front true depth can do 60fps. Question 3 What’s the first class way to use PhotoKit to reimplement a high performance photo grid? We’ve been using a LazyVGrid and the photos caching manager, but are never able to hit the holy trinity (60hz, efficient memory footprint, minimal flashes of placeholder/empty cells) use the PHCachingImageManager to get media content delivered before you need to display it specify the size you need for grid sized display set the options PHVideoRequestOptionsDeliveryModeFastFormat, PHImageRequestOptionsDeliveryModeFastFormat and PHImageRequestOptionsResizeModeFast Question 4 For rending live preview of video stream, Is there performance overhead from using async and Swift UI for image updates vs UIViewRepresentable + AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer.self? AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer is the most efficient display path Use VDO + AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer if you need to modify the image data Swift UI image is optimized for static image content Question 5 Is there a way to configure the AVFoundation BuiltInLiDarDepthCamera mode to provide a depth map as accurate as ARKit at close range? The AVCaptureDepthDataOutput supports filtering that reduces noise and fills in invalid values. Consider using this for smoother depth maps Question 6 Pyramid-based photo editing in core image (such as adobe camera raw highlights and shadows)? First off you may want to look a the builtin filter called CIHighlightShadowAdjust Also the noise reduction in the CIRawFilter uses a pyramid-based algorithm. You can also write your own pyramid-based algorithms by taking an input image: down sample it by two multiply times using imageByApplyingAffineTransform apply additional CIKernels to each downsampled image as needed. use a custom CIKernel to combine the results. Question 7 Is the best way to integrate an in-app camera for a “non-camera” app UIImagePickerController? Yes, UIImagePickerController provides system-provided UI for capturing photos and movies. Question 8 Hello, my question is on Deferred Photo Processing? Say I have a photo capture app that adds a CIFilter to the capture. How can I take advantage of Deferred Photo Processing? Since I don’t know how to detect when the deferred captured photo is ready CIFilter can be called on the final at that point Photo will have to be re-inserted into the Photo library as adjustment Question 9 For shipping photo style assets in the app that need transparency what is the best format to use? JPEG2000? will moving to this save a lot of space comapred to PNG or other options? If you want lossless compression PNG is good and supports unpremutiplied alpha If you want lossy compression HEIF supports premutiplied or unpremutiplied alpha (Note: this is part 1 of a 3 part posting. See Part 2 or Part 3)