Phocus is live · pricing from $7.99 one-time · last verified 25 Oct 2026 · viability monitor
Phocus
A dedicated iOS portrait camera and depth editor with RAW capture, custom apertures, and per-region colour control for iPhone and iPad.
If you shoot portraits on an iPhone and you've hit the ceiling of Apple's Portrait mode, Phocus is the natural next step: RAW plus depth capture, a real aperture control, and foreground/background tone sliders you simply don't get in the stock camera. The per-region brightness, contrast, saturation, highlights, shadows, temperature and tint controls, plus curves and brush/eraser mask refinement, are the reason to pay rather than stay free. It is a focused purchase, not a suite — if you also want manual shutter and lens simulation for non-portrait work, look at Halide; if you want to change focus point and depth after the fact more aggressively, Focos is the other name worth comparing.
Verdict generatedVerified 5d ago · liveness 58/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/phocus
- iPhone and iPad portrait photographers who want RAW capture with depth
- Shooters who need foreground and background edited independently
- Social creators who need polished bokeh from a phone
- Enthusiasts ready to learn aperture and masking controls
- Android users — the vendor describes an iPhone and iPad app only
- Anyone needing a full photo editing suite beyond portraits
- Beginners who want one-tap automatic portrait enhancement
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Skip Phocus if you shoot on Android, work primarily on desktop, or want a fully automatic one-tap portrait fix — every control the vendor describes assumes you're willing to adjust aperture, tone and masks yourself on an iPhone or iPad.
Phocus sits in the same price band as other paid iOS camera utilities — a small app-store purchase rather than a subscription, which is the opposite trade from cloud-based editors that bill monthly and grow with storage or export volume. If you compare against free stock Portrait mode, the cost is the app itself; if you compare against desktop retouching software, you're trading capability for portability.
In short
Phocus — A dedicated iOS portrait camera and depth editor with RAW capture, custom apertures, and per-region colour control for iPhone and iPad. Best for iPhone and iPad portrait photographers who want RAW capture with depth, Shooters who need foreground and background edited independently, Social creators who need polished bokeh from a phone. Plans from $7.99 one-time.
What is Phocus?
Phocus — A dedicated iOS portrait camera and depth editor with RAW capture, custom apertures, and per-region colour control for iPhone and iPad. Best for iPhone and iPad portrait photographers who want RAW capture with depth, Shooters who need foreground and background edited independently, Social creators who need polished bokeh from a phone. Plans from $7.99 one-time.
Phocus is a portrait camera and depth editor for iPhone and iPad, published by Ray Informatics. It captures in RAW with depth data and lets you set ISO and exposure duration at the moment of shooting, rather than accepting whatever the stock camera app decides. From there you simulate DSLR-style lenses to control depth, sharpness and bokeh, and dial in a custom aperture to set how much of the frame falls out of focus. The part that separates it from Apple's built-in Portrait mode is what happens after capture: you can edit brightness, contrast, saturation, highlights, shadows, temperature and tint separately for the subject and the background, apply curve adjustments, and use brush and eraser tools to tidy the edges of a depth mask. Instant background removal strips a background in one tap, and a set of portrait-specific filters finishes the image. It is built for iPhone 8 or newer and for photographers who'd rather carry one device — reviewers at iMore and iGeeksBlog are quoted on the vendor page, and the company says the app has passed a million users. Expect an iOS-only tool: there is no Android, web or desktop version described anywhere on the vendor page.
Key features
- Capture in RAW with depth data
- Manual ISO and exposure duration control at capture
- Real-time lens and depth effect preview
- DSLR-style lens simulation for bokeh and sharpness
- Custom aperture control for depth of field
- Separate foreground and background tone editing
- Per-region brightness, contrast, saturation, highlights, shadows, temperature and tint
- Curve adjustments for tonal control
- Brush tool for refining depth mask edges
- Eraser tool for cleaning up depth masks
- One-tap instant background removal
- Portrait-specific filters
- Black and white portrait editing
- iPhone and iPad app (iPhone 8 or newer)
Behind the verdict
Phocus is a single-purpose app and that is its strength. The vendor page is unusually specific about what it does: capture in RAW and depth, set ISO and exposure duration, simulate pro-grade DSLR lenses for depth/sharpness/bokeh, control aperture, and then edit the background and foreground independently across brightness, contrast, saturation, highlights, shadows, temperature and tint. Curves are available for tonal work, and brush and eraser tools exist specifically to refine the edges of the subject where a depth mask usually falls apart — hair, glasses, a shoulder against a busy background. One-tap background removal and a set of portrait filters round it out, along with black-and-white portrait editing that reviewers on the vendor page single out. The honest constraints: everything described is tied to iPhone and iPad. There is no Android build, no web app, and no desktop app mentioned on the vendor's page, so this isn't a cross-platform workflow tool — it's a device-bound one. The 'DSLR-quality' and 'pro-grade lens' language is the vendor's own framing and shouldn't be read as an independent measurement of optical equivalence. And the feature list implies a learning curve: masking and per-region curves reward someone who wants dials, and will frustrate someone who wants a single auto-enhance button. The app has been covered favourably by iMore and iGeeksBlog, and the vendor quotes a community of over a million users, which is a reasonable signal of stability for a paid iOS utility. Where it fits: portrait-first shooters who want RAW and depth and are willing to spend a few minutes per image on a mask. Where it doesn't: anyone needing a general photo editor, batch processing, desktop retouching, or Android.
Limitations
- Phocus is an iPhone and iPad app; the vendor page describes no Android, web or desktop version, so it won't fit cross-platform or desktop-first workflows.
- The editing model is control-heavy — separate foreground/background tone sliders, curve adjustments, brush and eraser mask refinement — which rewards photographers who want dials and frustrates anyone hoping for a single auto-enhance tap.
- Larger depth edits and masking can take a few minutes per image.
- The phrases "DSLR Lens Magic" and "pro-grade DSLR lenses" are the vendor's own marketing descriptions on its page, not independent measurements of optical equivalence to a DSLR.
as of 2026-10-08
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Is Phocus still active?
Phocus is live · pricing from $7.99 one-time · last verified 25 Oct 2026 · viability monitor.
Viability score
How well maintained and how widely used is Phocus? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →What do users say about Phocus?
What people actually say about Phocus — is it worth it?
Our community sentiment research written Jul 23, 2026 is more than 90 days old, so it is being re-reviewed against current data and is not shown.
How we verified this
Every listed fact about Phocus— pricing, features, links, status — is re-read from the vendor's own pages by our verification pipeline and each change is logged with a date; the last pass ran on 25 Oct 2026. Pages mix model-assisted synthesis with human review; see how we verify.
Verification history
We have re-verified Phocus 12 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — changed who it suits, description, our verdict, features, hidden costs, limitations, switching in, switching out, who should skip it, pricing fit, setup time, summary, use cases
- — changed limitations
- — changed switching in, setup time, switching out, hidden costs, who should skip it, pricing tiers, description, pricing fit
- — changed domain expiry, SSL certificate
- — changed limitations
- — changed SSL certificate
Showing the 6 most recent of 12 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
How much does Phocus cost in 2026?
Phocus: Plans from $7.99 one-time. Pricing last verified 25 Oct 2026.
Plans compared
Every published Phocus tier, its price as the vendor publishes it, who it fits, and what it adds over the tier below. The 12-month cost projection follows.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid App | $7.99 one-time | one-time | iPhone and iPad portrait photographers who want RAW-plus-depth capture, custom aperture control and per-region foreground/background editing in one purchaseAdds: Starting tier — a single paid app unlock covering RAW and depth capture, ISO and exposure duration, lens simulation, aperture control, separate foreground/background tone editing, curves, brush and eraser masking, and background removal |
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Phocus's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Phocus sits in the same price band as other paid iOS camera utilities — a small app-store purchase rather than a subscription, which is the opposite trade from cloud-based editors that bill monthly and grow with storage or export volume. If you compare against free stock Portrait mode, the cost is the app itself; if you compare against desktop retouching software, you're trading capability for portability.
Has Phocus' pricing changed?
No plan price for Phocus has moved since we began logging in Aug 2026; the pricing page is re-read on every verification pass.
Who should pick Phocus?
Pick Phocus if you are iPhone and iPad portrait photographers who want RAW capture with depth, Shooters who need foreground and background edited independently, Social creators who need polished bokeh from a phone, Enthusiasts ready to learn aperture and masking controls.
Look elsewhere if you are Android users — the vendor describes an iPhone and iPad app only, Anyone needing a full photo editing suite beyond portraits, Beginners who want one-tap automatic portrait enhancement, People who need web-based or desktop editing workflows.
Skip it if Skip Phocus if you shoot on Android, work primarily on desktop, or want a fully automatic one-tap portrait fix — every control the vendor describes assumes you're willing to adjust aperture, tone and masks yourself on an iPhone or iPad.
GeneratedReal-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Phocus actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You shoot a portrait outdoors at golden hour, capture in RAW with depth, drop exposure duration to hold the highlights, and preview the bokeh before you commit to the frame.
Outcome: You leave with a RAW file plus depth data that still has aperture and focus headroom for a second pass later.
You shoot a subject against a cluttered café background, use one-tap background removal, then apply a portrait filter and brighten the subject separately from the surroundings.
Outcome: A clean, finished portrait ready to post without opening a second editor.
You take a portrait with the default aperture, then reopen it to test different DSLR lens simulations and tune the depth mask with the brush and eraser.
Outcome: You build intuition for how aperture and masking change a portrait, on a phone rather than a DSLR.
Use cases
- Shoot a RAW portrait with real-time bokeh preview on your iPhone and adjust ISO before you press the shutter.
- Edit a subject's brightness and colour separately from the background so the face reads correctly without blowing out the scene behind it.
- Simulate different DSLR lenses to get a tighter or creamier bokeh character for a specific shot.
- Clean up a messy depth mask around hair or a shoulder with the brush and eraser tools.
- Remove a background in one tap and drop in a portrait filter for a finished social image.
- Revisit a portrait days later and change the aperture to soften or tighten the blur.
- Produce a black and white portrait with controlled tonal shaping.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Phocus — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Install from the App Store and you're shooting in a few minutes — capture is a straightforward camera interface. Count on an hour or so of experimentation before the separate foreground/background tone controls, curves and brush/eraser masking feel natural; the aperture and lens simulation are quick to grasp, the mask refinement is the part that takes practice.
Switching to or from Phocus
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Apple's native Portrait mode: shoot the same scenes in Phocus to capture RAW and depth, then use per-region tone sliders and aperture control to go beyond the fixed blur.
- →From another iOS depth editor: re-capture or import your portrait, use the brush and eraser tools to rebuild the depth mask, then apply curves and portrait filters.
- ↗To a general photo editing suite: export your edited portrait as a flattened image and continue with non-portrait work elsewhere.
- ↗To a desktop retouching workflow: export the RAW and depth result from your iPhone, then finish masking and colour work on a computer.
Resources & guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Phocus”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Phocus” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Phocus.
Official links
What are the best Phocus alternatives?
The closest alternatives to Phocus we list are Painnt, PicMa Studio and Overlay. Ranked by direct product-type match, not category overlap.
| Alternative | Pricing | Starts at | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Painnt | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| PicMa Studio | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Overlay | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
Alternatives to Phocus
View all
Painnt
Painnt turns iPhone and iPad photos into AI paintings and comic-book cartoons with 2000+ filters.
PicMa Studio
PicMa Studio turns a phone photo into a product shot, an editorial portrait, or a five-second AI video clip.
Tools that pair well with Phocus
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Phocus, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Painnt
Painnt turns iPhone and iPad photos into AI paintings and comic-book cartoons with 2000+ filters.
PicMa Studio
PicMa Studio turns a phone photo into a product shot, an editorial portrait, or a five-second AI video clip.
Overlay
Overlay is an iPhone and iPad app for layered photo compositing with AI cutouts and generative fill.
Phocus vs its closest rival
Phocus's closest head-to-head is with Qoves — If you want to understand your facial aesthetics and get a non-surgical improvement plan backed by research, QOVES is the clear choice. If you need a premium portrait camera app with advanced depth editing on iOS, Phocus is purpose-built for that. They solve completely different problems, so pick based on your need: self-analysis vs. photography. Verdict generated
Head-to-head comparisons
Phocus vs Qoves
If you want to understand your facial aesthetics and get a non-surgical improvement plan backed by research, QOVES is the clear choice. If you need a premium portrait camera app with advanced depth editing on iOS, Phocus is purpose-built for that. They solve completely different problems, so pick based on your need: self-analysis vs. photography.
GeneratedPhocus vs Adobe Firefly Services
Phocus and Adobe Firefly Services serve entirely different needs. Choose Phocus if you're an iPhone/iPad user seeking pro-level portrait control on-device—no coding, instant results. Pick Adobe Firefly Services if you're an enterprise automating content creation at scale, with a budget for API costs and a developer team. They don't compete directly; your choice depends on whether you're a mobile photographer or a marketing tech lead.
GeneratedPhocus vs The New Black
These tools are in completely different verticals. Choose The New Black if you're in fashion design (apparel/accessories) and need AI-generated designs with tech pack exports; choose Phocus if you're an iPhone user wanting pro-level portrait photography with advanced depth editing. No overlap means the decision depends entirely on your need—fashion design or mobile portrait photography.
GeneratedFrequently asked questions
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