Why 8-Bit Mobile Editing is Dead: Inside the DeluxeFX 16-Bit Float Pipeline
Why 8-Bit Mobile Editing is Dead: Inside the DeluxeFX 16-Bit Float Pipeline
The cameras in our pockets have fundamentally changed. With the introduction of Apple Log and 10-bit HDR video, modern smartphones are capturing dynamic range and color depth that rival dedicated cinema cameras.
But there is a massive bottleneck in the mobile creator workflow: the editing software.
Most popular photo and video editing apps were built years ago on legacy architectures. The second you import your pristine 10-bit Apple Log footage into a standard social media editor, the app silently transcodes it down to 8-bit. Your colors are crushed, your skies start banding, and your highlight data is thrown away before you even touch a slider.
At DeluxeFX, we decided to completely rewrite the rules of mobile color science. Here is why 8-bit mobile editing is dead, and how our custom Robin Imaging Engine guarantees zero quality loss from import to export.
The 8-Bit Problem: Banding and Lost Data
An 8-bit image can display 256 shades of each primary color (Red, Green, Blue), resulting in about 16.7 million colors. That sounds like a lot, but when you start pushing exposure, recovering shadows, or applying heavy cinematic LUTs, 8-bit math breaks down.
The distance between color values stretches. Gradients in skies become blocky and stepped (banding). Skin tones lose their natural transition and look plastic. You are essentially painting a masterpiece with a limited box of crayons.
The DeluxeFX Solution: A 16-Bit Float Metal Pipeline
To treat mobile footage with the respect it deserves, we built the Robin Imaging Engine natively on Apple’s Metal 3 and 4 architecture.
Instead of processing in 8-bit, every single adjustment in DeluxeFX operates in a 16-bit floating-point environment (rgba16Float).
Zero Clipping Between Filters. In a standard app, if you lower the exposure and then boost the highlights later in the chain, that data is permanently lost. In our 16-bit float pipeline, data is preserved across all 25+ GPU filters. You can push and pull extreme values without ever clipping your data.
Dual Color Space Processing. We calculate exposure adjustments in linear light, while contrast and tonal shifts happen in log space. This gives you a true film-like response with no milky shadows and no harsh digital clipping.
Perceptual Accuracy. We utilize the OKLab perceptual color space for saturation and vibrance. This means when you boost a color’s intensity, its underlying luminance does not unnaturally shift.
What You Shoot Is What You Export
A powerful internal pipeline means nothing if you cannot export the results. We ensure your footage leaves DeluxeFX exactly as intended.
When you hit export, the Robin Engine bypasses standard compression and encodes your video in 10-bit H.265 (Main10 profile) within the Display P3 wide gamut. This mathematically correct tagging ensures there is no color drift when you upload to social media or view the file on a desktop monitor. You retain 25% more colors than standard sRGB, ensuring your cinematic grades look exactly the way you designed them.
Stop Crushing Your Colors
You would not put cheap, plastic glass in front of a $5,000 cinema lens. It is time to stop putting your iPhone 15 Pro footage through legacy 8-bit software.
Experience desktop-class color grading directly on your phone. Download DeluxeFX for free on the App Store and see what a true 16-bit float pipeline can do for your aesthetic.