Apple is working on a broader set of Camera app improvements in iOS 27 it has announced, according to a new deep dive from MacRumors forum member "pdfu."
iOS 27 beta code apparently points to five features that could arrive alongside new iPhone models this week or in a future software update:
- Exposure scopes: The Camera app can display a waveform or histogram to help judge exposure while shooting. A histogram shows how much of the image is too dark, too bright, or in between, while a waveform shows similar information but keeps it lined up with where those areas are in the frame.
- Focus peaking and highlight warnings: New code overlays helpful information right on top of the camera preview. Focus peaking highlights the edges of whatever's in sharp focus using a colored outline, while a separate overlay warns when part of the image is getting overexposed, using a solid color, a pulsing color, diagonal stripes, or a checkerboard pattern.
- Repeated self-timer shots: Apple is adding the ability to take several timed photos in a row rather than just one. After each shot, the countdown starts again right away instead of waiting for the photo to finish saving, so the shots can be taken back to back.
- Manual focus: A control for manually setting and locking focus, rather than relying on autofocus, has also turned up in testing, similar to what's already available in Apple's Final Cut Camera app. A version of this existed in iOS 26 with a focus slider, but that slider was removed in iOS 27 beta 1. The underlying focus-locking code is still there, but Apple has restricted it to devices that ship with iOS 27 or later, so it won't work on any current iPhone.
- Aperture-based image correction: A change to how photos are processed could be tied to a future iPhone with a variable aperture, a lens opening that can widen or narrow rather than staying fixed. iOS 27 can adjust lens corrections depending on the aperture setting, blending between up to four reference points to smooth out the results.
Although the hidden features could be made available to other iPhone models, the presence of aperture-based image correction when the iPhone 18 Pro is widely expected to offer a variable aperture main camera suggests that at least some of the capabilities could arrive with the new models.
None of the five features are accessible to users in the current betas, and Apple could still hold some or all of them back from the September release. The findings follow pdfu's recent code discoveries covering unreleased game controllers, a four-speaker HomePod surround system, and new Apple Watch details.
