A HEIF gets the look on top of a file that Apple has already smoothed, sharpened and tone-mapped. RAW files are 10 to 12 times larger. On a Pro iPhone you also choose between two kinds of RAW. ProRAW is cleaner, because Apple merges several frames. Plain Bayer RAW is a single frame with more natural texture.
The short comparison
| HEIF | ProRAW | Plain (Bayer) RAW | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A finished, compressed image. | A DNG: demosaiced, linear, 12-bit. | A DNG with the sensor's raw mosaic. |
| Apple processing | All of it, baked in. | Multi-frame fusion and noise reduction. Tone and sharpening are saved as defaults you can edit. | None beyond the capture. One frame. |
| Typical size | A few MB. | About 13 to 16 MB at 12MP in my tests. Apple gives about 75 MB at 48MP. | Large. It depends on the sensor and resolution. |
| Which iPhones | All. | 12 Pro and later Pro models. | Through third-party apps. |
| Photographic Styles | Yes. On iPhone 16 and later you can edit them later. | No. | No. |
| Look | Clean and bright, sometimes smeared. | Clean, with more room to edit. | Noisier and grain-like, with more natural texture. |
The sizes and models come from Apple's About Apple ProRAW support page. Apple says there that "ProRAW files are 10 to 12 times larger than HEIF or JPEG files". Apple's WWDC 2021 ProRAW session covers the format. ProRAW is 12-bit, compressed without loss and already demosaiced. Smart HDR, Deep Fusion and noise reduction are already applied.
What HEIF gives you
A HEIF from Apple's Camera is a finished photo. The phone has already merged frames, removed noise, sharpened, tone-mapped and chosen the white balance. The file is small and looks good on a phone screen. For most photos of most things, HEIF is the right choice.
HEIF is also the only format that Photographic Styles work with. PetaPixel said in its iPhone 18 Pro review that Styles "are only available if you are capturing HEIF files". The review adds: "they aren't an option if you switch to JPEGs or if you shoot RAW".
On iPhone 16 and later, you can change a HEIF's Style afterwards in Photos, so the look isn't completely fixed. But you can only choose among Apple's Styles, and they go on an image that's already processed. You can't bring back a highlight that the tone mapping gave up on. You can't remove the noise reduction either.
What RAW gives you
- Room to edit. ProRAW stores 12 bits per channel. Apple's session says its encoding holds up to 14 stops of dynamic range. Highlights that look white and shadows that look black usually still have detail in them.
- White balance you can really change. You set it from the sensor data, so you aren't tinting a finished image.
- Your own processing. Sharpening, noise reduction and tone mapping become your choices. For a film look this helps, because those three steps are what make iPhone photos look like paintings.
RAW has costs too. Apple says ProRAW doesn't work with Live Photos or Portrait mode. 48MP is only on the main camera at 1×. And a RAW has to be developed before it looks like anything.
How each format takes a film look
With HEIF, the film look goes on top of Apple's finished image. The fine texture is already gone, so grain lands on smoothed surfaces. The phone already decided how the brightest parts fade to white. The look stays with that one file.
Apple's newest film tools are the iPhone 18 Pro's Film texture and Grain in Photographic Styles. They only work on HEIF, and only on photos taken on an 18 Pro.
With RAW, the film is the way the negative is developed. You can develop a photo with a warm negative look today, and with a black-and-white film you make next year. Nothing is lost between versions, because each one starts from the RAW. That's the idea behind treating every photo as a negative.
ProRAW or plain RAW
Both are DNG files, but they hold different things.
ProRAW is Apple's processing, stopped just before the look is added. The frames are merged, the noise is reduced and the demosaicing is done. Tone mapping and sharpening are saved as defaults you can edit. ProRAW is clean, even in low light, and it works across the phone's cameras. It's the better file for night scenes that must look clean. It's also better for high-contrast scenes where Smart HDR helps.
Plain Bayer RAW is one exposure, straight from the sensor. Nothing is merged, so nothing is smeared. There's more noise. At low ISO in good light, that noise is fine and even, a lot like film grain. In dim light it gets heavy, and you'll need some noise reduction. In decent light, plain RAW usually makes leaves, hair and rough surfaces look more like a photograph and less like a painting.
How much difference you see depends on the scene, the light and how you develop each file. Try both on the same subject before you decide.
Which should you shoot?
- Snapshots you'll share as they are: HEIF, with a Photographic Style if you like one.
- Anything where you care about the look: RAW, with the film added when you develop it.
- Low light that must look clean: ProRAW.
- Texture, leaves, people in good light, a look built on grain: plain RAW.
How much space RAW takes
Apple says a ProRAW photo is about 25 MB at 12MP and about 75 MB at 48MP. My own 12MP ProRAW files from an iPhone 17 Pro Max came out smaller, at 13 to 16 MB. That's still several times the size of a HEIF or JPEG, which is a few MB. A plain Bayer RAW is also large, and its size depends on the sensor and the resolution.
Each RAW also takes up iCloud storage when it syncs. So check how much space you have before you shoot RAW all day.
In Chobial
Chobial shoots RAW by default, with the film live in the viewfinder. So you see the look and keep the negative at the same time. It shoots HEIF and JPEG too, and its films develop those as well, with less room to change things. On Android, it saves RAW as DNG on phones whose camera gives it.
- Tap the format beside the island to go through ProRAW, RAW, HEIF and JPEG. You can also choose it with the Format tile in Controls, or in Settings › Format. ProRAW is on Pro iPhones from the 12 Pro on. Plain RAW is on the lenses that offer it. Where a lens has no RAW, the app takes HEIF.
- Load a film and shoot. The viewfinder shows the develop you'll get.
- For a file to share straight away, turn on Settings › After Capture › Save to Photos (Pro). It saves a copy developed with the loaded film. Add Attach RAW File to keep the negative with it.
- To change the look later, open Library › photo › Edit › Film and tap another film. The photo develops again from its original, even with films you make later.
- On plain RAW, set the film's Develop › Noise Reduction and Sharpness by hand instead of Auto. That keeps the texture. Then let a grain stock do the rest.
RAW negatives are large, and they live inside the app. Settings › Sync Photos is on by default. With it on, photos and their edits sync through iCloud to your other iPhones and iPads, along with films and settings. The app uses its own iCloud storage, which counts toward your iCloud plan. Android doesn't sync.
Shooting, developing, making films and editing light, colour and crop are free. Saving JPEG or HEIC in 22 of the 46 films is free too. Masks, heal and clone are free to try. Pro adds saving in every film, saving photos with masks, heal or clone, and exporting the original DNG.