Hasselblad Phocus Mobile 2 Update

credits: Hasselblad

Hasselblad has rolled out version 4.0.0 of its Phocus Mobile 2 editing app, and it is a pretty nice update if you edit on an iPhone or iPad. The headline addition is a new Mask feature, which finally brings localised adjustments. Until now, Phocus Mobile 2 was mostly about quick, global adjustments so this update definitely pushes the app closer to being a more serious mobile editing tool, especially for photographers working with large medium-format files.

Version 4.0.0 adds three different mask types, Linear Gradient, Radial Gradient, and Brush. Linear Gradient masks are meant for broad areas like skies or foregrounds, with adjustable falloff and an easy way to flip the gradient direction. Radial Gradient masks are better for isolating subjects, and they can be inverted to affect everything outside the selected area. The Brush mask gives you manual control, with adjustable size and flow for more detailed selections. You can apply multiple masks to a single image, duplicate them, or delete them as needed. Within each masked area, you can also adjust exposure, highlights, saturation, temperature, and tint.

Hasselblad mentioned that getting this to work smoothly on mobile was not easy. Medium-format files can be pretty big (often 100 megapixels with lots of colour data) and early versions reportedly struggled with memory usage and performance.

According to the company, optimisation work led to performance improvements of three to five times compared to the beginning. The interface itself is kept fairly clean, with consistent behaviour across all mask types to reduce friction on smaller screens. Hasselblad sees this release as a starting point rather than a finish line, with plans to keep expanding Phocus Mobile 2 into a more complete “mobile studio” in the near future.