These camera apps give you more control over the iPhone 18 Pro’s aperture

Moment Pro Camera II and Blackmagic Camera don’t limit you to just four aperture settings like the iOS’ camera app.

Moment Pro Camera II and Blackmagic Camera don’t limit you to just four aperture settings like the iOS’ camera app.

by

Andrew Liszewski

Sep 25, 2026, 5:23 PM UTC

Image: Moment

Andrew Liszewski

is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid.

One of the questionable limitations of theiPhone 18 Pro’s new main camera with a variable apertureis that you’relimited to just four settingsin the native iOS’ camera app in manual mode: f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4. Those same limitations are also in place when the app is adjusting the iris itself in Auto aperture mode, but it turns out that’s not a strict limitation of the iPhone’s camera hardware. Apple’s SDK allows third party camera apps to implement more granular control of the aperture.

BlackMagic Design’s well-featured andstill completely free BlackMagic Camera app for iOSwas one of the first third-party options to introduce support for the iPhone 18 Pro’s adjustable aperture. But instead of just four stop settings, the app offers 10 presets with additional options in-between the settings available in iOS’ camera. TheiPhoneographers YouTube channeltested the new functionality in version 3.5 of the applast week and while they describe it as “pretty buggy” the app has since been updated to version 3.5.1 with “general performance and stability improvements.”

Yesterday, Moment followed suit with anannouncement on Xthat its $12.99Moment Pro Camera II apphas also been updated to support the iPhone 18 Pro’s variable aperture. You can adjust the aperture from f/1.48 to f/4.0 in 1/3 stop increments giving you 10 presets like Blackmagic’s app, which is the same approach as most digital cameras take. Given the small sensor size of the iPhone 18 Pro you may be hard pressed to see a difference in background blur and focus depth when comparing photos with f-stops different by just 1/3 of a stop, but more control is never a bad thing.

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