Free FilmMeter App Is an Analog Photographer’s Best Good friend

Photographer Zachary Hou shoots movie, so he determined to construct an iPhone app to assist him out. The new app, FilmMeter, combines a number of helpful options right into a single, totally free utility, and it appears as fairly as it’s helpful.

Hou explains that his new FilmMeter app is constructed for a complete analog workflow. It tracks movie, gives gentle metering, helps photographers nail focus, has an publicity timer, and gives a movie capturing log. As PetaPixel editor-in-chief and analog evangelist Jaron Schneider says, “Most apps do one of the four things this does.”

“The light meter and rangefinder combo is very nice, not to mention the roll tracking. I like that aspect of it since it’s hard to remember if you want to push or pull a roll, or what roll was shot on what camera,” Schneider continues. “I’ve wanted something like this just for that tracking, and the way it’s implemented here is pretty to look at in addition to being legitimately useful.”

FilmMeter does loads. Once photographers load a roll of movie into their digicam, they’ll log it within the app and preserve monitor of which digicam has which roll. The app lets customers create profiles for his or her cameras and lenses, which they’ll then hyperlink to a particular roll. As for movie roll administration, the app features a ton of movie shares.

The app makes use of the iPhone’s built-in digicam to precisely measure publicity in real-time, together with spot and common metering modes. The person retains full management over their desired aperture, shutter velocity, and ISO. FilmMeter additionally helps push/pull metering.

iPhone 16 and 17 customers may even regulate EV utilizing the touch-sensitive Camera Control button on the facet of their telephone. There can also be built-in scene recognition to assist movie photographers deal with tough circumstances, comparable to backlit photographs or snowy landscapes.

The app has a focal size body vary from 28mm to 200mm and side ratio overlays for 135 and 120 codecs. So photographers can meter and take a preview shot utilizing the FilmMeter app, dial of their settings on their movie digicam, after which have the iPhone shot to reference later for his or her notes and capturing log. Hou says {that a} long-term aim for the app is to let customers add their scans and have the app routinely match them with the capturing log. Every time the person meters within the app, it saves full parameters and placement, which could be exported to a CSV file.

The app helps ND filters for publicity calculations, starting from ND2 to ND10000. The app has a protracted publicity timer that integrates with the iPhone’s Dynamic Island, so photographers can nail lengthy exposures with out a fancy distant timer. The app will alert the photographer when it’s time to shut the shutter.

It contains reciprocity information for a variety of fashionable movie shares, too, which helps photographers dial in the correct publicity values for his or her older and expired movie.

With LiDAR-enabled iPhone fashions, together with all Pro and Pro Max variations for the reason that iPhone 12, the app may also ship ranging and depth-of-field info, together with 35mm and medium-format calculations for DoF and hyperfocal distances.

Best of all, FilmMeter is free. There is not any subscription, and the app works totally offline. There are technically in-app purchases, however they’re simply methods for individuals to assist Hou’s work. While the app is simply out there for iOS now, Hou says on Threads that he’s began enthusiastic about an Android model, however it’ll “take some time” to make.

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Image credit: FilmMeter