The update also introduces the app’s take on film stock simulation.
Halide, one of the best alternatives to the iPhone’s built-in camera app, is getting another upgrade. Developer Lux Optics is rolling out Halide Mark III, a paid update that adds a photo editor and filters that simulate film stock. The features extend Halide’s approach to photography after Lux Optics added a way to circumvent Apple’s image processing pipeline with the release of Halide Mark II in 2024.
Looks, Halide’s new filtering system, is part of a larger “film simulation engine” that’s being introduced in Mark III. All the app’s photo features can be customized or disabled, but Halide will now add things like grain and halation to photos you capture depending on the look you chose. Halide Mark III includes five new looks alongside Process Zero, the app’s zero-processing option, and Apple’s default image processing. Those include:
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Valencia: A look designed for landscapes and cityscapes, with “thick contrast, deep saturation and solid color separation.”
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Rembrandt: A look for portraits that features “thick contrast in the mid-tones” and “abundant color in the low end” to highlight bone structure and capture uniform skin-tones.
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Nova: Another look that works best with landscapes, and is “exceptionally colorful, with tight contrast and smooth peachy highlights.”
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Zephyr: The “most subtle and restrained” look, with “filmic contrast” and “the character of a traditional print.”
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Chroma Noir: A black and white look with “medium contrast” and “a touch of extra grain.”
All these new looks include HDR support if you want more detail in highlights and shadows. They can also all be edited and tweaked with Halide’s new Photo Lab editor. The built-in editor is designed to be approachable. There’s a Quick Edit tab if you want to quickly switch film simulations or toggle HDR, along with dedicated sections for making in-depth changes to things like color balance and exposure. The whole thing is designed to show you as much or as little as you need, but the iPad version of Halide Mark III seems like the ideal place to edit thanks to its two-panel setup.
These new features are being paired with updates to Halide’s design and the placement of its virtual buttons. The new design adopts some of Apple’s Liquid Glass tenets, while exposing the most important controls — things like focus, aspect ratio and a lens picker — so that you don’t have to go digging through menus.
As with previous updates, Halide Mark III is available for a monthly subscription of $10, a yearly subscription of $20 or a one-time purchase of $60. Existing subscribers and anyone who purchased Halide Mark II will get the update for free.
This is the first major Halide update Lux Optics has rolled out since its co-founder, Sebastiaan de With, left the company to join Apple in January 2026. The split has reportedly been a bit more complicated than it initially appeared. Not only did Apple originally try to acquire the company, but de With was reportedly fired from Lux Optics after the company’s other co-founder Ben Sandofsky began investigating him for allegedly misusing funds.
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