In Apple's iOS 8, third-party app developers to get full access to manual camera controls

One of iOS 8’s biggest change comes to the camera with Apple mentioning in the keynote address that it would allow third-party app developers to make their filters and editing tools accessible in the Photos app directly. Now according to a post on Anandtech Apple’s plans for opening up the camera app are in fact even bigger.   The report points out that ‘iOS 8 exposes almost every manual camera control possible" and is thus giving third-party apps access to features like ISO, shutter-speed, white balance, exposure.’   Currently in iOS there are no camera controls. You can switch on HDR mode, and toggle to the front camera. You can also choose from Photos to Video to Square to Panorama mode for shooting. The only other tool accessible is AE/AF (Auto Exposure/Auto Focus) lock. Essentially you couldn’t change the exposure or focus while taking a picture, since there was no manual tool.   Now all of this is going to change. According to AnandTech_, “_iOS 8 will expose just about every manual camera control possible. This means that ISO, shutter speed, focus, white balance, and exposure bias can be manually set within a custom camera application.”   Focus on iPhone is also going to improve and the report claims now “it is possible to focus in situations where contrast detection auto-focus mechanisms struggle to work correctly. This opens up new ways to compose an image, and also opens up new kinds of shots with video.”   The manual controls will be available to third-party apps as well, and ‘with the controls that Apple has exposed, it’s even possible for developers to write their own custom auto-exposure algorithms’ for better pictures, further adds the report.   For developers and users, the improvements in the Apple camera app will be a big boon.