{"slug": "halide", "name": "Halide", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 7, "warners": 1, "score": 3.048, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2025-12-28", "latest": "2026-08-11", "why": "Thank you Halide for making high-quality software, even if I'm not in the target market.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Thank you Halide for making high-quality software, even if I'm not in the target market.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "halide.cam", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://halide.cam", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Halide"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 785199840, "item_id": 49074990, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49074990", "by": "dblohm7", "date": "2026-07-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There are projects such as Halide[1] that actually allow you to achieve performance without needing to resort to asm.", "excerpt": "There are projects such as Halide[1] that actually allow you to achieve performance without needing to resort to asm. [1] https://halide-lang.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Memory Safety Absolutists"}, {"id": 752740320, "item_id": 47046270, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47046270", "by": "SebastianKra", "date": "2026-02-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love your work. Keep doing what you do.", "excerpt": "I felt so vindicated when Halide finally released Process Zero, years after the iPhone 13. I still remember that 50-page community thread of people complaining about the ugly camera, and one guy swearing up and down that \u201cit's fine, it's fine you're all wrong\u201d. > It's your *expectations* that are wrong, not the phone. If you go out and buy a \"professional\" $6000 DSLR and $6000 lens\u2026 you will have many of these same i", "context": "", "use_case": "iPhone camera app", "switched_from": "", "story": "Looks: A Halide Mark III Preview"}, {"id": 752608752, "item_id": 47038047, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038047", "by": "alsetmusic", "date": "2026-02-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Thank you Halide for making high-quality software, even if I'm not in the target market.", "excerpt": "In 2020, when the sky turned orangish-red in California due to massive wildfires, Apple's phones were unable to accurately capture it (I read Android too, but I use iPhones). It was very frustrating. The camera app kept overcorrecting the images. I remember reading that people using Halide's app were able to capture correctly and seeing examples on blogs and such. Thank you Halide for making high-quality software, ev", "context": "iPhone user", "use_case": "iPhone photography", "switched_from": "", "story": "Looks: A Halide Mark III Preview"}, {"id": 743162048, "item_id": 46447628, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46447628", "by": "alsetmusic", "date": "2025-12-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is one:\n\nhttps://halide.cam", "excerpt": "This is one: https://halide.cam", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "What an unprocessed photo looks like"}, {"id": 742856464, "item_id": 46428529, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46428529", "by": "eloisius", "date": "2025-12-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use camera apps that\u2019s give me more control (Halide, Leica Lux)", "excerpt": "It\u2019s fair to recognize. Personally I do not like the aesthetic decisions that Apple makes, so if I\u2019m taking pictures on my phone I use camera apps that\u2019s give me more control (Halide, Leica Lux). I also have reservations about cloning away power lines or using AI in-painting. But to your example, if you got your film scanned or printed, in all likelihood someone did go in and change some stuff. Color correction and t", "context": "", "use_case": "manual control of phone photos", "switched_from": "", "story": "What an unprocessed photo looks like"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 788276272, "item_id": 49267267, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49267267", "by": "LoganDark", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I loved Halide, but that bug made it too unreliable.", "excerpt": "At this point, I don't remember if I was using Halide from the lock screen or not, but I lost tons of photos because apparently I turned the screen off before the photo finished saving to the library. Halide forgot about it, and even after reopening the app, it was gone forever. This would only seem to happen when I turned the screen off quickly after taking the photo. These days, I use the regular Camera app because", "context": "", "use_case": "iPhone photography", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: iPhone app takes simultaneous images from 2 lenses, fuses into 1 photo"}]}], "who": [{"by": "alsetmusic", "context": "iPhone user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038047", "date": "2026-02-16"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["iphone photography", "camera app", "iphone camera app", "manual control of phone photos"], "compared": [], "makers": [{"id": 788273473, "item_id": 49267092, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49267092", "by": "sandofsky", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "We switched to Apple's StoreKit 2 framework, which uses different internal plumbing. Not only is it the recommended way moving forward from Apple, but it improves the user experience for purchase management. The issue is that, indeed, it actually validates that the App Store account currently logged in purchased the app. I believe this is intended behavior, as it closes a piracy loophole where you could log into the ", "context": "developer of Halide", "use_case": "camera app", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: iPhone app takes simultaneous images from 2 lenses, fuses into 1 photo"}, {"id": 788269744, "item_id": 49266859, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49266859", "by": "sandofsky", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "In May, we launched Mark III, which was a huge rewrite and leap forward in features. https://www.lux.camera/halide-mark-iii/ As for the subscription, there\u2019s always been a pay-once option for major releases. You just miss out on a free trial, the beta program, and anything we might release with ongoing costs.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: iPhone app takes simultaneous images from 2 lenses, fuses into 1 photo"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49226623", "title": "Show HN: iPhone app takes simultaneous images from 2 lenses, fuses into 1 photo", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47010018", "title": "Looks: A Halide Mark III Preview", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46415225", "title": "What an unprocessed photo looks like", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49050058", "title": "Memory Safety Absolutists", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46409969", "title": "Last Year on My Mac: Look Back in Disbelief", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 2}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 788276272, "item_id": 49267267, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49267267", "by": "LoganDark", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I loved Halide, but that bug made it too unreliable.", "excerpt": "At this point, I don't remember if I was using Halide from the lock screen or not, but I lost tons of photos because apparently I turned the screen off before the photo finished saving to the library. Halide forgot about it, and even after reopening the app, it was gone forever. This would only seem to happen when I turned the screen off quickly after taking the photo. These days, I use the regular Camera app because", "context": "", "use_case": "iPhone photography", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: iPhone app takes simultaneous images from 2 lenses, fuses into 1 photo"}, {"id": 788226371, "item_id": 49264148, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49264148", "by": "ebbi", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I paid the lifetime fee in it's early days, but that doesn't unlock the new updates sadly.", "excerpt": "They just released a major update, but it's not something I would pay a subscription for. I paid the lifetime fee in it's early days, but that doesn't unlock the new updates sadly. I use Analogue for day to day capture, and NoFusion and Moment apps for things I will want to edit later. All with one-time purchase. I don't mind paying for quality apps, but I do have subscription fatigue now.", "context": "", "use_case": "camera app", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: iPhone app takes simultaneous images from 2 lenses, fuses into 1 photo"}, {"id": 785199840, "item_id": 49074990, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49074990", "by": "dblohm7", "date": "2026-07-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There are projects such as Halide[1] that actually allow you to achieve performance without needing to resort to asm.", "excerpt": "There are projects such as Halide[1] that actually allow you to achieve performance without needing to resort to asm. [1] https://halide-lang.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Memory Safety Absolutists"}, {"id": 752740320, "item_id": 47046270, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47046270", "by": "SebastianKra", "date": "2026-02-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love your work. Keep doing what you do.", "excerpt": "I felt so vindicated when Halide finally released Process Zero, years after the iPhone 13. I still remember that 50-page community thread of people complaining about the ugly camera, and one guy swearing up and down that \u201cit's fine, it's fine you're all wrong\u201d. > It's your *expectations* that are wrong, not the phone. If you go out and buy a \"professional\" $6000 DSLR and $6000 lens\u2026 you will have many of these same i", "context": "", "use_case": "iPhone camera app", "switched_from": "", "story": "Looks: A Halide Mark III Preview"}, {"id": 752608752, "item_id": 47038047, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038047", "by": "alsetmusic", "date": "2026-02-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Thank you Halide for making high-quality software, even if I'm not in the target market.", "excerpt": "In 2020, when the sky turned orangish-red in California due to massive wildfires, Apple's phones were unable to accurately capture it (I read Android too, but I use iPhones). It was very frustrating. The camera app kept overcorrecting the images. I remember reading that people using Halide's app were able to capture correctly and seeing examples on blogs and such. Thank you Halide for making high-quality software, ev", "context": "iPhone user", "use_case": "iPhone photography", "switched_from": "", "story": "Looks: A Halide Mark III Preview"}, {"id": 743162048, "item_id": 46447628, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46447628", "by": "alsetmusic", "date": "2025-12-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is one:\n\nhttps://halide.cam", "excerpt": "This is one: https://halide.cam", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "What an unprocessed photo looks like"}, {"id": 742856464, "item_id": 46428529, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46428529", "by": "eloisius", "date": "2025-12-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use camera apps that\u2019s give me more control (Halide, Leica Lux)", "excerpt": "It\u2019s fair to recognize. Personally I do not like the aesthetic decisions that Apple makes, so if I\u2019m taking pictures on my phone I use camera apps that\u2019s give me more control (Halide, Leica Lux). I also have reservations about cloning away power lines or using AI in-painting. But to your example, if you got your film scanned or printed, in all likelihood someone did go in and change some stuff. Color correction and t", "context": "", "use_case": "manual control of phone photos", "switched_from": "", "story": "What an unprocessed photo looks like"}, {"id": 742639376, "item_id": 46414961, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414961", "by": "FireBeyond", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Halide too.", "excerpt": "Interesting, likewise, the Camera app. And other camera apps, I use Halide too. And Photos. Will it sync? Yes. When? Who the fuck knows? Doesn't matter whether you're on Ethernet or Wifi, gigabit internet. You can quit Photos on both devices, you can then keep Photos open foreground... so what? Photos will sync when it wants to, not what when you want it to.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Last Year on My Mac: Look Back in Disbelief"}]}