Mar 22, 2026
3 min read
Two months ago, Halide co-founder and designer Sebastiaan de With made a surprise announcement that he would be joining Apple's design team.Apparently the move comes after Apple expressed interest in buying Lux Optics, the app development studio behind the professional camera app.
Apple plans to upgrade the iPhone 18 Pro camera software
Apple is reportedly looking to add more pro camera features to its software with the iPhone 18 Pro's camera hardware upgrade this year.
Aaron Tilley reports for The Information that Apple held talks to acquire Lux Optics in the summer.
Lux Optics is a popular third-party photography app, just like Kino for recording videos, Specter for long exposure photos, and Orion for turning an iPad into an external HDMI monitor.
Unfortunately, public knowledge of Apple's interest in buying Lux Optics was revealed in a lawsuit filed against De Witt by co-founder Ben Sandofsky.
As far as Apple's acquisition interests go, however, the lawsuit claims the company was interested in Lux Optics' intellectual property:
The acquisition of Lux, whose Halide app gives users more precise manual control over the iPhone's camera hardware, could help Apple accelerate improvements to its built-in camera app, which is currently a priority for the company.
The camera on Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 Pro model will debut compatible
Professional level cameras in terms of some advanced features.As such, the company is looking to offer an upgrade to its built-in camera app, people familiar with the effort said.The iPhone's existing camera app has a lot of controls.
The information says talks between Apple and Lux Optics ended in September when the two co-founders agreed that future updates to Halide could increase the company's value.
Apple considered buying Halide, lawsuit claims
A month later, Sandofsky began accusing his co-founder of mishandling company funds before putting him on leave.The lawsuit claims de With was fired by Lux in December.
It also says de With has "confidential information about the future development of Lux" and the Apple Design Award he won with Lux Optics.
Frankly, the situation with Lux optics sounds unfortunate with clear mistrust issues.It's a sad state of affairs for such a beloved app.
There is no Halide without de With's design chops and marketing expertise.It is also interesting to know that even before he was hired to design for Apple (for the second time), Lux Optics was moving forward without de With.
But complicated litigation aside, it makes sense that Apple would want to improve its proprietary photography tools.There really wouldn't be Lux Optics without the iPhone's camera hardware.
As Apple continues to squeeze more pro features into its cameras, it's only natural that the software should follow suit.
At the same time, de With has design chops that touch every element of the user interface in addition to the camera software.Perhaps we'll see the first signs of its impact at WWDC 2026 with iOS 27.
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