iOS 27’s new RAW 9 engine promises to dramatically improve photo quality - 9to5Mac

Skip to main content

Toggle social menu

Toggle dark mode

Search for:

Submit

Toggle search form

Toggle dark mode

iOS 27

photos

Apple overhauls RAW photo processing with iOS 27, showcases impressive results

Marcus Mendes | Jul 6 2026 - 3:52 pm PT

5 Comments

With iOS 27 and its companion systems, Apple is introducing a new version of its system-level RAW image processing engine. It uses machine learning to greatly improve detail and reduce noise, including when reprocessing older RAW photos. Here are the details.

iOS 27 to include RAW 9

If you’re not familiar with RAW, it is basically an image format that preserves the data captured directly by a camera’s sensor, giving photographers greater flexibility when editing elements such as exposure, color, and white balance.

Apple has its own system-level pipeline for processing RAW files from third-party cameras, exposed to apps through Core Image. It currently includes support and camera-specific calibrations for nearly 800 camera models, with the full and regularly updated compatibility list available here.

Over the years, Apple has updated its RAW processing algorithm eight times, improving how it handles sensor data, demosaicing, denoising, and adjustments such as white balance, exposure, color, and tone.

With iOS 27, macOS 27, iPadOS 27 and beyond, Apple is introducing RAW 9, which the company says is “its biggest update yet.” Here’s David Hayward, Core Image Engineer at Apple, on the WWDC26 session Enhance RAW image processing with Core Image:

[RAW 9] dramatically improves the rendering of RAW files. It is built atop a tiled CoreML model, that combines demosaic with denoise for best quality. And the model is run on device using the Apple Neural Engine cores, for optimal performance.

In the session, Hayward shows several examples of RAW 9 in action, comparing the results with RAW 8 and, occasionally, the original, unprocessed sensor data:

This is a zoomed-in crop of a low noise image using RAW 8. This Sony Alpha 7 II image of a vintage dial indicator actually looks quite good. However, when you explore that same image under RAW 9, the image is sharper, clearer, and the fine text is easier to read.

The differences are even more dramatic, when you view high noise images. First, observe the actual RAW data that is contained in this very noisy ISO 51,200 image. In this example from a Canon 5D Mark III, the image is a 10x Crop of a box of crayons. There is so much luma and chroma noise in the RAW data, that it’s impossible to discern the unique color of each crayon. Using our previous algorithms, this is the result! RAW 8 did an acceptable job of recovering the actual colors in the scene. But if you examine the results under RAW 9, the output is significantly better. The colors are accurate and well defined. Even the shiny specular highlights on the crayons are visible.

This last example is a crop of a photo of embroidery yarn, shot with a Fujifilm X-T5 at ISO 12,800. This camera has a non-traditional sensor pattern, which is challenging to demosaic. In the RAW 8 results, there are some color artifacts and loss of detail in the yarn. But if you observe the same image under RAW 9, the results are discernibly better. The small text is more legible, and the texture in the yarn much clearer.

For developers, the session goes into detail on how to enable RAW 9, optimize performance for editing and exporting, and much more.

To learn more about RAW 9 and the other Core Image improvements coming with iOS 27, watch the full session here.

Worth checking out on Amazon

Geoffrey Cain – ‘Steve Jobs in Exile’

David Pogue – ’Apple: The First 50 Years’

MacBook Neo

Logitech MX Master 4

AirPods Pro 3

AirTag (2nd Generation) – 4 Pack

Apple Watch Series 11

Wireless CarPlay adapter

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Featured

from 9to5Mac<br>9to5Mac Logo

iOS 27 beta 2 hints at AirPods Pro with cameras: Here’s what we know so far

Michael Burkhardt

Jul 4 2026

Report: iPhone Ultra to have incredibly limited availability at launch, may ship slightly later

Michael Burkhardt

Jul 5 2026

Which iPad is right for you? Here’s what Apple has to say

Marcus Mendes

Jul 3 2026

We really need a way to hand over ownership of an Apple Home

Ben Lovejoy

Jul 3 2026

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

Comments

Expand<br>Close<br>comments

Expand<br>Close<br>comments

Guides

iOS 27

photos

Author

Marcus Mendes

https://www.threads.com/mvcmendes

Marcus Mendes is a Brazilian tech podcaster and journalist who...