‘Frames’ Is a Film Photographer’s Digital Companion That Syncs Metadata With Scans
A few years ago, Vincent Tantardini, created datafilm, a digital notebook app for analog photographers to keep track of their film photography adventures. With the aid of encouraging feedback and support from the analog community, Tantardini has created datafilm’s successor: Frames.
Not to be confused with the photography social media app, Frames, the new analog notebook app, Frames, has been rebuilt and redesigned from the ground up with the same goal in mind: “helping film photographers record the details behind each shot.”
However, the new app has many improvements. As Bellamy Hunt explains on Japan Camera Hunter, Frames remains a notebook app crafted for analog photographers, “where each frame you shoot is treated like an intentional record.” Photographers can keep track of their camera, lens, film stock, aperture, shutter speed, focal length, location, and more within the app.
Unlike a more general-purpose note-taking app, Frames is built specifically for film photographers, so it understands the info that analog shooters care about most. It comes preloaded with more than 200 film stocks, allows users to log push and pull exposures, and has all the metadata fields photographers care about, including flash use and exposure compensation tracking.
Everything about the app is designed to be swift and accessible, enabling users to log vital film data in just a few simple taps.
However, Frames goes beyond the smartphone. The app also has a companion Mac desktop version that communicates with the smartphone app and lets users import a .frames file from the phone, attach matching JPEG scans, and export updated photo files with embedded metadata, including shutter speed, aperture, GPS coordinates (which the phone can generate while shooting), and even film stock info.
“Because EXIF is a universal standard, your data will appear seamlessly in Apple Photos, Adobe Lightroom, Flickr, and other photo apps/platforms,” Tantardini explains.
Frames is secure and private. There is no account system, cloud syncing, or data tracking. All data stays on-device, and exporting is “completely open.” Logs are currently available as JSON files; however, other formats are in development.
After releasing datafilm years ago, the analog community has been incredibly supportive and offered significant real-world feedback. Frames has been built with that feedback in mind.
As Hunt writes on Japan Camera Hunter, “… while digital tools may seem out of place in the world of film, I still believe there’s beauty in bridging both. After all, remembering what you shot and how you shot it is part of the joy of shooting film.”
Pricing and Avaiability
Frames is available now on iOS and Mac. The app is free to download, but using it costs $1.99 per month or $17.99 annually. Tantardini says that the team has an Android version of Frames on their radar, although they are focused on perfecting the iOS and Mac experiences first.
Image credits: Frames, developed by Vincent Tantardini
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