FRMT - Film Simulation

FRMT is the most accurate film simulation on the App Store. Here is why that is a real claim and not marketing.

Most film apps are filters. A filter is a lookup table. It takes the color of a pixel, swaps it for a different color, and that is the whole trick. Same color in, same color out, every time, no matter what is around it.

Film does not work like that. Light scatters sideways through the emulsion. Each dye layer chemically holds back the layers next to it. Dye forms in clumps, and how much forms depends on how much light hit that exact spot. What a pixel becomes depends on everything around it.

FRMT simulates that, stage by stage, on every frame you shoot.

WHAT IT ACTUALLY DOES

Halation. Light passes through the emulsion, bounces off the film base, and exposes it again slightly off to the side. Bright edges bloom instead of stopping dead.

Interimage effects. Developing dye releases a chemical that drifts sideways and holds back its neighbors. This is most of what gives a stock its color signature, and it is why reds stay clean next to greens.

Real grain. Not a texture laid on top. Grain here is the actual variation in how much dye formed, so it follows the tones. Strongest in the midtones, almost gone in deep shadow, the way it works on the real thing.

The curves and the numbers come off the manufacturers' own published datasheets. Nobody eyeballed a preset.

FOUR STOCKS

Cinnabar 50. Punchy and saturated. Landscapes, foliage, sunsets.
Galena 100. Neutral and even. Travel, streets, mixed light.
Baryta 100. Soft and fine grained. People, portraits, overcast days.
Flint 64. Grainy and warm with cool shadows. Street, hard light, neon.

You load one at a time, the way you load a roll. There is no look picker on the capture screen and there are no sliders. None of the four is a preset of another.

HOW IT WORKS

Press the shutter and a RAW negative is written immediately. Developing happens afterward, in the background, and takes about a minute per frame. That is not a loading spinner, it is real work on the GPU. Frames wait on the roll until they are done, and you can set developing to hold until you are plugged in.

Finished photos save to your photo library and stay in the app, so you can look at them without leaving.

You can also import RAW files you shot on something else and develop those.

ON A PHONE WITHOUT PRORAW

The simulation is built for RAW negatives, and that is where it is most accurate. On an iPhone that cannot shoot ProRAW, FRMT still works: it develops the phone's own photos through the same film, from what is left after the phone's processing, and marks those frames on the roll so you always know which is which. You can also import RAW files from another camera and develop those at full accuracy.

NO SUBSCRIPTION, EVER

Pay once. No account, no cloud, no ads, no watermark, no in app purchases. Your photos never leave your phone. There is no networking code in the app at all.

WHAT TO EXPECT

The viewfinder shows you the scene, not the film. Grading a live preview means guessing at the answer, and a preview that guesses wrong is worse than one that is honest. Use the exposure dial to place your highlights.

This is slide film. There is not much room above the highlights. That is faithful, not a bug.

Most accurate on an iPhone that can capture ProRAW. Works on any iPhone running iOS 17.2 or later.