In today's digital-first world, film photography continues to hold a special place for many of us. Shooting with intention, hearing the click of a mechanical shutter, and waiting to see how a roll turns out is something special. But while the experience of shooting film is timeless, keeping track of all the shooting data – camera settings, film stocks, and location – can get messy fast.
Frames, a new app for iPhone and Mac, is designed to help film photographers keep their analog notes in digital order. Think of it as a modern "Analog Book" – your trusted companion for recording all the metadata behind each shot, minus the hassle of scribbled notes and lost notebooks (most of us probably know this)...
"Analog meets digital" might sound like a contradiction, maybe even something purists want to avoid. But in this case, digital tools aren't replacing the analog experience – they're supporting it. Frames isn't about filters or edits. It's about making your analog workflow smoother, cleaner, and more organized.
The App was created by Vincent Tantardini, a fellow film shooter, and developed hand-in-hand with the Japan Camera Hunter (JCH) community. Vincent built Frames out of a personal frustration: the constant juggling of paper notes, loose metadata, and trying to remember which lens or film stock was used on which roll.
As he put it, "Frames is the spiritual successor to Datafile, rebuilt and redesigned with the same goal: helping film photographers record the details behind each shot – but expanded in every way."
Frames let you log everything and turn each roll into a fully documented record, so when you're reviewing your shots or organizing your archive, you've got all the info in one place.
Personally, I've often looked back at my digital photos just to check settings or geotags. That kind of metadata is something we take for granted in the digital world. Frames offers the same for film shooters. While this type of app is nothing brand new, Frames is designed thoughtfully – without giving up the soul of analog.
In the end, Frames doesn't interfere with your analog photography. It just helps you make more sense of it afterwards – a well-thought-out companion that brings order to the one or other beautiful mess of film photography.
You can learn more about the app on the official Frames website.
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If you are into analog photography, here is our guide to the best film scanners, and we also discussed how you can digitize slides and prints using a DSLR or mirrorless camera.
