RawCam vs Truly Simple RAW Camera

RawCam is a minimal camera for sensor-pure DNG photos and clean video capture. No AI postprocessing, no Smart HDR, no tone mapping, no noise reduction. Shoot RAW, open the photo in your favorite RAW editor, and process it yourself. WHY RAW The standard Camera app runs every shot through a heavy AI pipeline before saving. That pipeline is great for sharing-ready photos, but it bakes its decisions into the final JPEG and the original sensor data is gone. In low light or high dynamic range scenes, that's two or three stops of recovery you can never get back. A DNG file preserves the unprocessed sensor data. You decide how to expose, sharpen, color, and denoise it later, in Lightroom, Capture One, Darkroom, or any other RAW editor. WHAT YOU GET • RAW mode — saves a single 12MP DNG with zero processing • RAW+JPG mode — saves both a clean DNG and a processed JPEG from the selected native rear lens • Video mode — records HEVC video to Photos, with extra formats shown only when the current device supports them • Tap to focus anywhere on the preview • Long-press to lock focus • Manual exposure controls for ISO and shutter speed • EV compensation for auto exposure • Separate focus and exposure targeting • AF/AE lock from the tools grid • White balance controls with presets and Kelvin adjustment • Lens selector with RAW availability • Quick native rear-lens selection • Optional grid, horizon level, and self-timer • Optional aspect guides and steadier photo capture • Volume-button shutter • Three-shot RAW exposure bracketing • RawCam roll for recent in-app photos and videos • Last-shot details for lens, ISO, shutter, EV, white balance, and clipping • App Shortcut for Shortcuts, Siri, Spotlight, and Action Button launch • Flash with off, on, and auto modes • Rear-camera focused capture, with front-camera switching removed to avoid mirrored or distorted RAW previews • Live histogram with orange edge bars for clipped shadows or highlights • Zebra stripes when highlights are clipping • Portrait orientation, designed for one-handed use PRIVACY RawCam doesn't collect anything. There's no account, no login, no analytics, no advertising, no third-party tracking, and no server. The app makes zero network requests. Photos and videos save directly to your photo library and never leave your device. ABOUT THE 12 MEGAPIXEL CAP Apple caps third-party RAW capture at 12MP. The 48MP full sensor readout is reserved for the system Camera app. This is a platform limitation that applies to every third-party camera, not a RawCam limitation. OPEN SOURCE RawCam is open source under the MIT license. The full source lives at github.com/madebysan/rawcam. SUPPORT Found a bug or have a request? Email me directly. The support page link below has FAQs and a contact address.

Most modern smartphone cameras automatically process every picture you take. They apply aggressive smoothing, artificial HDR, and automatic sharpening. Sometimes, you just want the actual, unedited digital negative so you can develop it yourself. Truly Simple RAW Camera bypasses automatic processing to give you the exact, unedited light that hit your iPhone’s physical sensor. NOTE: This app only works on devices with hardware capable of capturing Bayer RAW images, which means most iPhones and iPad Pros but not other sorts of iPad, sorry! It does not work with front-facing cameras, either, for the same reason (they lack that capability). Features: • Pure RAW capture: Saves uncompressed 14-bit Bayer .DNG files directly to your camera roll with zero AI processing. • Tap to focus: Tap anywhere on the viewfinder to physically adjust the lens focal plane and lock in your exposure, just like a real DSLR. • Hardware controls: Switch between the physical back-facing lenses and toggle the hardware flash. No digital zoom allowed. • Tactile feedback: An optional haptic shutter toggle lets you physically feel exactly when a photo is captured. • Visual basics: Toggle a rule-of-thirds grid to frame your shot, and switch between light and dark color themes for comfort. • Quick review: Tap the recent photo thumbnail to instantly jump to your native iOS Photos gallery. • Free: Enjoy a completely free app with no recurring fees, intrusive advertisements, or paywalls.