Final Cut Camera adds variable aperture control for iPhone 18 Pro

Apple said on September 29, 2026, that Final Cut Camera 2.4 is available as a free update, adding variable aperture control for video recorded with the iPhone 18 Pro’s Fusion Main camera. The change gives users a setting Apple says they can adjust directly while filming, alongside a redesigned interface and additional monitoring tools.

How aperture control works on iPhone 18 Pro

Apple says users can dial in an aperture setting in Final Cut Camera or choose shutter-priority and aperture-priority modes. It identifies the iPhone 18 Pro’s Fusion Main camera as the hardware for the feature and calls this the first aperture control on an iPhone. The announcement does not establish whether other iPhone models can use that control.

Aperture affects how much light passes through a camera lens and can change how much of a scene appears in focus. TechRadar’s camera editor explains that a wider aperture lets in more light and produces a shallower depth of field, while a narrower setting lets in less light and can keep more of the scene in focus. Those are the principles behind the setting; they are not measured results from the new app.

TechRadar reported an aperture range of f/1.48 to f/4 for the iPhone 18 Pro. Its camera editor said a narrower aperture could be useful in bright conditions and could allow slower shutter speeds for video. The outlet also cautioned that a small sensor limits the depth-of-field effect of a mechanical aperture and that computational photography remains important to the finished image.

What else changes in Final Cut Camera 2.4

Apple says the update also brings Cinematic mode effects to regular video, including footage captured in ProRes and Apple Log. It says creators can adjust focus points and depth of field while editing that footage in Final Cut Pro. These editing controls are a separate part of the announcement from the mechanical aperture setting on the iPhone 18 Pro camera.

With iOS 27, Apple says Final Cut Camera adds an RGB Parade and histogram for monitoring footage. The company describes RGB Parade as a display of the red, green and blue channels that can help users check color balance and exposure. It also lists clean SDI output through an HDMI-to-SDI converter and genlock offset among the new options.

Apple says genlock offset can compensate for artifacts when filming a display or for latency differences between an iPhone and other genlocked cameras. Clean SDI output is intended to send a clean video signal through a converter for streaming. The announcement describes what these controls are intended to do; it does not present independent performance measurements for them.

How earlier phone apertures compare

Variable aperture has appeared in smartphones before. In a 2018 hands-on test of Samsung’s Galaxy S9, PCWorld reported that users could choose between f/1.5 and f/2.4, while the phone switched automatically in low light. That earlier implementation provides precedent for a phone camera with more than one physical aperture setting; it does not establish how Apple’s new camera performs.

PCWorld found brighter images at the S9’s wider setting during its early low-light testing, but it also observed chromatic aberration. Samsung had restricted comparison shots with other phones during the demonstration, and PCWorld said broader testing was needed. The example shows why a camera control’s practical effect needs to be judged from footage rather than its specifications alone.

TechRadar says most phones, including earlier iPhones, have used fixed apertures and relied on computational photography for effects such as background blur and low-light processing. Apple’s September 29 announcement establishes that its new filming app exposes aperture control on the iPhone 18 Pro. It does not provide independently tested examples showing how much that control changes recorded video.