How To: Set & Preserve Your Favorite Camera Mode on Your iPhone

The iPhone’s camera has long been one of the best smartphone cameras around, and with the release of iOS 10.2, you can set and preserve your favorite Camera mode with just a few taps of the finger. Here’s how.

Set and Preserve the Previous Camera Mode in iOS

1. Open the “Settings” app and go to “Photos & Camera”
2. Tap on “Preserve Settings”
3. Toggle the switch next to “Camera Mode” to the ON position
4. Open the Camera app on your iPhone or iPad and choose the camera mode you want to default to Time Lapse, Slo-Mo, Video, Photo, Square, or Pano

As you can see in the middle screenshot above, you can also preserve the last used filter and the setting for the Live Photo feature.

Now, whenever you use the Camera app, it will open in the last used mode. If you shot a Square photo last time you used the Camera, that’s what it’ll be ready for when you use the app again. If you shot a video the last time you used the Camera, it’ll be ready to shoot a video the next time around.

Sadly, you can’t set the Camera app to use HDR every time you shoot a photo. That was available in a previous version of iOS, but for some reason, Apple disabled it. So, you’ll need to toggle that on whenever you need it.

(Original tip via OS X Daily)