iPhone XS iOS 12.1 (beta) and Smart HDR

[Thai]

For me, Xs Smart HDR is amazing! Love it. Works great. And i can tell when Smart HDR is active in a scene by seeing the shutter button spin for a split second. This was on 12.0.1.

Ever since i installed 12.1 (beta 3 & 4), smart HDR is not the same. It is as if my phone is doing REAL-TIME HDR on the screen. So, i do NOT see the shutter button spinning like before to denote Smart HDR processing at all...as i did with 12.0.1. Basically, i think that it is doing smart HDR instantly on the iphone screen...so, when i click shutter button, there is no lag or processing at all. Weird. I almost feel like that there is no smart HDR at all....but it is turned ON in setting...and what i see on display is controlled highlights etc.. Is it doing real-time smart HDR on the display itself so that when i click shutter button, it does not need to do any additional processing (thus no spinning shutter button)?? Odd feeling compared to 12.0.1.

It is clear that Apple is still fudging around with the smart HDR setting. At least from me testing it, the highlights are not as well controlled with Smart HDR as it was on 12.0.1...the highlights (bright spots) are not as toned down as before on 12.0.1.

Anyone else notice this? Sorry, no comparison picture to show what i mean.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Maybe try the beta forum.

 

[jonnyb098]

It could be due to all the complaining about the skin smoothing, etc. It does sound like the smart HDR is a little over-aggressive and noted by a few reviews online. For example, brick walls look terrible with HDR with low contrast and look more realistic with HDR off. They will be tweaking it for a while as more and more feedback comes in. That’s the downside with computational photography in that the creators can change it whenever they feel like.

So to your point it causes a lack of consistency from one update to the next and that’s not cool.

 

[Thai]

It could be due to all the complaining about the skin smoothing, etc. It does sound like the smart HDR is a little over-aggressive and noted by a few reviews online. For example, brick walls look terrible with HDR with low contrast and look more realistic with HDR off. They will be tweaking it for a while as more and more feedback comes in. That’s the downside with computational photography in that the creators can change it whenever they feel like.

So to your point it causes a lack of consistency from one update to the next and that’s not cool.

For me, if they kept smart HDR the same.......but just turn the contrast ONE click up, then it would be perfect.

 

[Thai]

Ok, just an update to this. I finally had the time to post before and after 12.1 update. I took a picture with iOS 12.0.1 and one with 12.1 beta 4. Same location. Same time more or less (15 mins apart due to be updating software).

On 12.0.1, when you take a picture that smart HDR processes it, you get a momentary spinning of the shutter button.

On iOS 12.1 b4, there is no such processing time. Instantaneous, just like if you’re taking a regular photo.

The difference i saw is that on 12.0.1, what you see on the iPhone display is just a regular view of the scene...with highlights being blown. THEN when you click the shutter button, the processing takes place and the final picture saved to phone has the highlights fixed. So, the final saved picture looks different than what you saw on the phone display just prior to taking the pic.

With 12.1 b4, smart HDR is doing REAL-TIME HDR while you are looking thru the iPhone display!! In other words, the highlights are being controlled in REAL TIME even before you press the shutter!!! So, when you take the picture, there is no further processing needed.

Amazing. Damn. A12 chip is freaking awesome!! REAL-time processing all the time. Apple has made huge jump in photography here.

(Just for contrast, Pixel 3 is having issues with their pictures being saved...apparently, this is an issue on p2 too. On P3 at least, if you take a picture and get out of the camera app too early, then the picture is not saved because the processing was still going on when you left the app!)