LibreCam: Manual RAW Camera1.9

LibreCam is a manual RAW camera for iPhone that captures what the sensor sees, and nothing more. Shoot true Bayer DNGs, single-frame HEIFs, or both at once, with no fusion, no aggressive processing, no account, no tracking and no subscription.

The stock camera applies Smart HDR, Deep Fusion, noise reduction, sharpening and tone mapping to every shot. LibreCam turns off everything that can be turned off, and is honest about what cannot.

DNG: the true Bayer sensor readout. No fusion, no noise reduction, no tone mapping, no distortion correction. One frame, exactly as the sensor read it.

HEIF: a single frame developed by the hardware ISP. No fusion, no HDR, no semantic tricks.

LOOKS: nine fixed color recipes, applied to the HEIF as you shoot. Build your own with dials in the Look Editor, and import or export standard .cube files. The DNG is never touched.

PRINT: share a shot as a framed print. Ink or paper matte, and a label with the exposure, camera, date, place and your name, set like a museum caption. A copy made for sharing; the photo itself stays as it is.

LIBRECAM PRO: one purchase, no subscription, and only two things are paid: the Look Editor for your own recipes, and the Apple Watch remote. Everything else is free.

FEATURES

- Every physical lens on your iPhone. No digital zoom, ever.
- The front camera too, with mirrored or true-to-sensor selfies.
- An Apple Watch remote: shutter, readouts, framing assist. (LibreCam Pro)
- Manual focus, shutter, ISO, exposure bias and white balance. Everything is automatic until touched.
- Focus peaking: the sharpest edges glow amber while you focus.
- Level: a horizon line that reports the tilt your photo will actually have. It never straightens anything.
- Histogram: all three channels live on the glass, with marks for which one is clipping, and at which end.
- Nine looks free; build your own with LibreCam Pro.
- Print: a framed, captioned copy of any shot, ready to share.
- Frame lock: 9:16, 2:3, 4:5 or 1:1 on the glass, the developed copy cropped to match. The DNG keeps the full frame.
- Flash: off, auto or on. On auto, the bolt turns amber only when the scene will fire it.
- Aperture on iPhone 18 Pro: f/1.48 to f/4 on the 24 mm lens in thirds of a stop, one tap each. Automatic until touched.
- Shutter priority and ISO priority metering.
- Camera Control on iPhone 16 and later: focus, aperture, shutter, ISO, EV, white balance and the lenses, right on the button.
- Hardware shutter on the volume buttons. No shutter sound.
- Add-only Photos access. No account, no tracking.
- Optional location tagging, written into the photo on your device.

A camera, not a computer.

Version History CAMERA CONTROL. On iPhone 16 and later, the Camera Control now does what the dials do: focus, aperture, shutter, ISO, EV and white balance, and the lenses too. Slide on the button to set a value, and its dial comes up on screen. A fast swipe moves in big steps, a slow one step by step. AUTO on the dial hands a setting back to the camera, and whatever you change on screen shows on the button as well. A full press still takes the picture.

IPHONE DUO. Opened, the camera makes use of the large display: the shutter and the two switches stand together in the margin down one side, where your thumb already is, and the dials keep to that half of the screen, clear of the fold. Folded, everything stays where it always was. 1.9 6d ago APERTURE IN THIRDS. The 24 mm lens on iPhone 18 Pro now stops down in thirds of a stop: ten positions from f/1.48 to f/4, where there were four. The lens's own marks, f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8 and f/4, still read brightest in the row, with the thirds between them. The f-number on the button is the one the iris is set to and the one written into the file. Lenses with a fixed aperture are unchanged.

FOCUS LOUPE. With the focus dial up, LOUPE under the ruler shows the focus point magnified in a corner of the frame, so you can see whether a detail is really sharp. Drag the white brackets to look somewhere else without refocusing. It magnifies the preview, not the sensor. Next to it, PEAK now turns focus peaking off and on.

FIXED. Held sideways, the level stood across the horizon instead of lying along it. It now turns with the phone, and its reading with it. A rare crash when switching lenses is gone too. 1.8.1 Oct 3 APERTURE IN THIRDS. The 24 mm lens on iPhone 18 Pro now stops down in thirds of a stop: ten positions from f/1.48 to f/4, where there were four. The lens's own marks, f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8 and f/4, still read brightest in the row, with the thirds between them. The f-number on the button is the one the iris is set to and the one written into the file. Lenses with a fixed aperture are unchanged.

FOCUS LOUPE. With the focus dial up, LOUPE under the ruler shows the focus point magnified in a corner of the frame, so you can see whether a detail is really sharp. Drag the white brackets to look somewhere else without refocusing. It magnifies the preview, not the sensor. Next to it, PEAK now turns focus peaking off and on. 1.8 Oct 1 LEVEL AND HISTOGRAM. Two instruments for the viewfinder, and neither one touches the file.

The level draws a horizon that reports the tilt your photo will actually have. It is measured against the frame the file gets, so it reads zero held sideways as well as upright, and it never straightens anything. Point the camera at the floor and it becomes a bubble.

The histogram shows all three channels live, with colored marks for which channel is clipping and at which end. It counts the preview rather than the sensor, so a DNG still holds more in the highlights than it shows.

Both sit under a new viewfinder button in the bottom bar, along with the grid and the frame lock.

LARGER INTERFACE. Text, buttons and controls can now be a size larger everywhere in the app. Switch it on in the info screen, under Display.

FIXED. On iPhone 17, iPhone Air and newer, switching to the front camera could leave the viewfinder frozen on the last frame from the back camera while a look was active. The front camera was live the whole time. A stale overlay was sitting on top of it.

ALSO FIXED. Holding an aperture and then switching to a lens with a fixed one could close the app. The held f-number was being sent to a lens that has no iris to move. 1.7.4 Sep 26 LEVEL AND HISTOGRAM. Two instruments for the viewfinder, and neither one touches the file.

The level draws a horizon that reports the tilt your photo will actually have. It is measured against the frame the file gets, so it reads zero held sideways as well as upright, and it never straightens anything. Point the camera at the floor and it becomes a bubble.

The histogram shows all three channels live, with colored marks for which channel is clipping and at which end. It counts the preview rather than the sensor, so a DNG still holds more in the highlights than it shows.

Both sit under a new viewfinder button in the bottom bar, along with the grid and the frame lock.

LARGER INTERFACE. Text, buttons and controls can now be a size larger everywhere in the app. Switch it on in the info screen, under Display.

FIXED. On iPhone 17, iPhone Air and newer, switching to the front camera could leave the viewfinder frozen on the last frame from the back camera while a look was active. The front camera was live the whole time. A stale overlay was sitting on top of it.

ALSO FIXED. Holding an aperture and then switching to a lens with a fixed one could close the app. The held f-number was being sent to a lens that has no iris to move. 1.7.3 Sep 26 LEVEL AND HISTOGRAM. Two instruments for the viewfinder, and neither one touches the file.

The level draws a horizon that reports the tilt your photo will actually have. It is measured against the frame the file gets, so it reads zero held sideways as well as upright, and it never straightens anything. Point the camera at the floor and it becomes a bubble.

The histogram shows all three channels live, with colored marks for which channel is clipping and at which end. It counts the preview rather than the sensor, so a DNG still holds more in the highlights than it shows.

Both sit under a new viewfinder button in the bottom bar, along with the grid and the frame lock.

FIXED. On iPhone 17, iPhone Air and newer, switching to the front camera could leave the viewfinder frozen on the last frame from the back camera while a look was active. The front camera was live the whole time. A stale overlay was sitting on top of it.

ALSO FIXED. Holding an aperture and then switching to a lens with a fixed one could close the app. The held f-number was being sent to a lens that has no iris to move. 1.7.2 Sep 18 LEVEL AND HISTOGRAM. Two instruments for the viewfinder, and neither one touches the file.

The level draws a horizon that reports the tilt your photo will actually have. It is measured against the frame the file gets, so it reads zero held sideways as well as upright, and it never straightens anything. Point the camera at the floor and it becomes a bubble.

The histogram shows all three channels live, with colored marks for which channel is clipping and at which end. It counts the preview rather than the sensor, so a DNG still holds more in the highlights than it shows.

Both sit under a new viewfinder button in the bottom bar, along with the grid and the frame lock.

FIXED. On iPhone 17, iPhone Air and newer, switching to the front camera could leave the viewfinder frozen on the last frame from the back camera while a look was active. The front camera was live the whole time. A stale overlay was sitting on top of it. 1.7.1 Sep 17 LEVEL AND HISTOGRAM. Two instruments for the viewfinder, and neither one touches the file.

The level draws a horizon that reports the tilt your photo will actually have. It is measured against the frame the file gets, so it reads zero held sideways as well as upright, and it never straightens anything. Point the camera at the floor and it becomes a bubble.

The histogram shows all three channels live, with colored marks for which channel is clipping and at which end. It counts the preview rather than the sensor, so a DNG still holds more in the highlights than it shows.

Both sit under a new viewfinder button in the bottom bar, along with the grid and the frame lock. 1.7 Sep 16 APERTURE. The 24 mm lens on iPhone 18 Pro has an iris that moves, and it is now a control: the lens's marked stops in a row, one tap each, automatic until touched like everything else. Hold the aperture and the meter steers shutter and ISO around it; hold it with one of them and the other still follows. The f-number is written into the DNG. Lenses with a fixed aperture are unchanged. 1.6.1 Sep 15 APERTURE. The 24 mm lens on iPhone 18 Pro has an iris that moves, and it is now a control: the lens's marked stops in a row, one tap each, automatic until touched like everything else. Hold the aperture and the meter steers shutter and ISO around it; hold it with one of them and the other still follows. The f-number is written into the DNG. Lenses with a fixed aperture are unchanged. 1.6 Sep 15 FRAME. Lock the camera to 9:16, 2:3, 4:5 or 1:1. The whole sensor stays on the glass with everything outside the frame darkened, and the developed copy is cropped to match. The DNG keeps the full frame. FLASH. Off, auto or on; on auto, the bolt turns amber only when the scene will fire it. And the look a shot was developed with is now its caption in Photos. 1.5 Sep 14 The grid button now cycles three states: off, hairline and a thicker line that stays visible in bright daylight. And the looks can be put in your order: ARRANGE in the picker opens a list to drag them into place, the built-in shelf and your own alike. 1.4.3 Sep 5 The look travels with the photo. A shot developed with a look now names it in the file's EXIF, and a custom look also carries its recipe, so a photo can always say which look made it. The print label can quote the look too, next to the exposure. 1.4.2 Sep 4 Faster start. The camera now warms up while the app is still launching, and the viewfinder appears the moment live frames arrive, not a beat later. Older iPhones feel the difference most. And prints of older shots: share a photo from Photos to LibreCam, and the print room opens. 1.4.1 Sep 4 PRINT. Open a shot in the gallery and share it as a framed print: ink or paper matte, and a label with the exposure, camera, date, place and your name. A copy made for sharing; the photo itself stays as it is. And bug fixes. 1.4 Sep 3 Bug fixes and performance improvements. We tried to write something more interesting, then remembered we don't do post-processing. 1.3.3 Sep 2 Bug fixes and performance improvements. We tried to write something more interesting, then remembered we don't do post-processing. 1.3.2 Sep 1 A new app icon: the dial, on iPhone and Apple Watch. A photography guide, linked from the settings. Fixed: the Lock Screen camera control and the Siri shortcut now open the camera reliably. 1.3.1 Aug 30 The wrist remote: an Apple Watch app with the shutter, your readouts, and a framing assist. Part of LibreCam Pro. 1.3 Aug 30 Looks: nine fixed color recipes, applied to the HEIF as you shoot. The DNG stays untouched.
Look Editor: build your own looks with dials, live in the viewfinder, and import or export recipes and standard .cube files.
Gallery: swipe through this session's shots and pinch to zoom, right in the camera.
The front camera joins the lens turret. Selfies save mirrored or as the sensor sees them, your choice.
A rule-of-thirds grid, one tap from the viewfinder.
Focus peaking: while the focus dial is up, the sharpest edges glow amber.
New: a Lock Screen control and a Home Screen widget that open the camera.
The About screen is now a proper manual. 1.2.1 Aug 27 Looks: nine fixed color recipes, applied to the HEIF as you shoot. The DNG stays untouched.
Look Editor: build your own looks with dials, live in the viewfinder, and import or export recipes and standard .cube files.
New: a Lock Screen control and a Home Screen widget that open the camera.
The About screen is now a proper manual. 1.1 Aug 27 Fixing a crash when switching lenses. 1.0.1 Aug 23 1.0 Aug 21