Which iPhones does CAM135 run on?

Any iPhone running iOS 15 or later. The film looks are computed on the phone, so a newer iPhone renders faster, but the pictures come out the same.

Does it use the iPhone's camera, or edit photos afterwards?

Both. The camera shoots through the film and the vintage camera live, so the look is on the photograph when you press the shutter. The batch filter prints a film onto photos already in your library, up to twenty at a time.

Does the iPhone film camera app shoot video?

Yes, through seven camcorders from Super 8 to Mini DV, with the tape's timestamp burned into the corner. Video records at 1080p.

Is there a watermark?

No. Not on the free tier, not on the paid one, not on video.

Is it an iPad app too?

CAM135 is built for iPhone. It is a camera first, and a phone is the camera you have with you.

Film camera app for iPhone · App Store

A film camera app for iPhone that undoes what the iPhone does.

The iPhone camera is built to get everything right: no clipped sky, no dark shadow, every face sharp and smooth. Film did none of that, and that is the look. CAM135 puts it back.

Download on the App Store See the same photo

Free to start · $19.99 once · iOS 15 or later

CAM135's camera screen on an iPhone: the viewfinder showing a woman at a train window on Portra 400, an orange date stamp in the corner, the film dial at 50, and the shelf of films along the bottom — the actual app, not a mockup

01What the iPhone does to your photo

Same photo. iPhone on the left, Portra 400 on the right.

A backlit café portrait is the hardest case for both. The iPhone recovers the window and lifts the shadows until the whole frame is evenly lit. Portra lets the window bloom and leaves the shadows where they were.

A bearded man in a mustard corduroy jacket at a café window table, backlit by a bright overcast sky, as an iPhone renders it: the window fully recovered, shadows lifted, edges sharpened, skin smoothed

The same café portrait printed as Portra 400: the window blooms softly toward white, the shadows stay open but dark, skin is creamy and pink, and fine grain sits in the picture

HDR flattens: iPhone: Bright windows are pulled down, shadows pulled up, until nothing clips and nothing is dark.; Film: Highlights roll off softly into white. Shadows stay shadows, with grain in them.
Sharpening: iPhone: Edges are crisped up so the picture looks sharp at thumbnail size.; Film: A lens has a centre and corners. Sharpness falls off, and that falloff is part of the picture.
Noise reduction: iPhone: Texture in skin and shadow is smoothed away, leaving a waxy surface.; Film: Grain is texture. It sits in the shadows and midtones and gives the surface back.
Neutral colour: iPhone: White balance is corrected to neutral in every frame.; Film: Each film leans. Portra pink, Gold amber, Superia green. Tungsten light goes orange, and CineStill lets it.

SAME PHOTOGRAPH · THE RIGHT ONE WAS PRINTED THROUGH THE APP'S OWN PORTRA 400 RECIPE

02The camera, on your iPhone

A viewfinder, a shelf of film, one dial.

Pick a film or a camera from the shelf under the viewfinder. Turn the dial for how much of it you want. Switch the date stamp on. Shoot. The look is on the photograph when the shutter fires, not applied afterwards.

A young girl asleep in the back seat of a car at night in a puffer jacket with a stuffed rabbit in her lap, orange streetlights streaking across the rain-flecked window behind her, warm and grainy like Portra 800 — asleep before the motorway

PRO: ISO, shutter speed, white balance, exposure and focus, with the film applied live in the viewfinder. Or leave it on auto.
Gates: 4:3 for the iPhone's full sensor. 3:2 for 35mm. 1:1 for medium format and instant.
Date stamp: The orange LED date of a 90s point-and-shoot, in the corner where it belongs. A switch, not a sticker.
The roll: Everything you shoot lands on a contact sheet inside the app, and in your Photos library.
Frames: Eleven photographed frames, from an SX-70 chin to a slide mount, with a handwritten caption.

0311 film filters on iPhone

Portra, Gold, Superia, Tri-X, CineStill.

Each named after a real film and built from its colour, contrast and grain. Three are free. Tap one on the film filters page and watch the same photo change.

P400 · FREEPortra 400
800T · FREECineStill 800T
TRI-X · FREETri-X 400
GOLDKodak Gold 200
EKTARKodak Ektar 100
SX70Polaroid SX-70
P160Portra 160
P800Portra 800
E64Ektachrome 64
SUP400Fuji Superia 400
VISTAAgfa Vista

See all 11 film filters

04Vintage camera app for iPhone

23 cameras in one iPhone.

A Leica M6 renders clean and sharp. A Holga vignettes and leaks. A pinhole gives up focus. Seven camcorders record on tape. Each brings its own film.

LC-ALomo LC-A

HOLGAHolga 120N

ROLLEIRolleiflex 2.8F

SX70Polaroid SX-70

QL17Canonet QL17

M6Leica M6

AE-1Canon AE-1

F3Nikon F3

FM3ANikon FM3A

OM-1Olympus OM-1

503CWHasselblad 503CW

P67Pentax 67

PEN-EEOlympus Pen EE

QSNAPFuji QuickSnap

BROWNIEKodak Brownie

PINHOLEPinhole 6×6

The vintage camera app, in full

05Your photos stay on your iPhone

The film is computed on the phone.

Shooting, the dial, the batch filter and the frames all run on the iPhone itself. Nothing is uploaded to make a photo look like film.

Two things do use the network, and we say which: the optional cloud backup of your roll, which is the only subscription in the app, and the AI photo editor, which sends the one photo you are editing to a server and brings it back. Neither is needed to shoot film.

06iPhone film camera app · pricing

Free to start. $19.99 once for everything.

Three films and three cameras with no card. All 11 films, all 23 cameras, the frames and the batch filter for $19.99, one time. No subscription, no watermark, no ads.

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

See the full pricing

Questions

The short answers.

Which iPhones does CAM135 run on?: Any iPhone running iOS 15 or later. The film looks are computed on the phone, so a newer iPhone renders faster, but the pictures come out the same.
Does it use the iPhone's camera, or edit photos afterwards?: Both. The camera shoots through the film and the vintage camera live, so the look is on the photograph when you press the shutter. The batch filter prints a film onto photos already in your library, up to twenty at a time.
Does the iPhone film camera app shoot video?: Yes, through seven camcorders from Super 8 to Mini DV, with the tape's timestamp burned into the corner. Video records at 1080p.
Is there a watermark?: No. Not on the free tier, not on the paid one, not on video.
Is it an iPad app too?: CAM135 is built for iPhone. It is a camera first, and a phone is the camera you have with you.