XA for iPhone

Five cameras for iPhone. Nothing to unlock.

A 2003 digicam, a film camera you load and print, twelve video tapes, a photo-sticker booth and a manual PRO camera, in one app. Free with every feature included. No subscription, no ads, no account, no tracking. Open source.

Coming to the App Store Help · Privacy

DIGI: a 2003 point-and-shoot

Party flash, crunchy CCD color and an orange date in the corner.

Pick 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 or 12 megapixels.
Cheap processing on purpose: clipped highlights, a sharpening halo, color noise and a hard JPEG.
CCD color: deep cyan skies and reds a little too hot.
Pop the flash: near faces go bright and flat, and the room behind falls into the dark.
Bright lights smear a line down the frame, like an old CCD.
Turn each flaw up, down or off.
The screen is a live digicam display, battery icon and all.

FILM: load a roll, time the print

Eleven stocks with made-up names: eight color films, from a fine-grain 100 to a tungsten 500T and a 1600, and three black-and-white films up to 3200.
Shoot 110, half frame, 35mm or 120. Grain and halation are sized in microns on the negative, so 110 is small and gritty and 120 is big and smooth.
Compose in a pocket rangefinder's bright frame, with its meter needle and focusing patch.
In front of the film: a cheap lens, flash falloff, light leaks and a mist filter.
Swipe a stock's box up to push it a stop, down to pull it.
At the lab: minilab auto-correction, print warmth and tint, and preflash.
Scanned like a drum scan by default, at about 5600 dpi, so zooming in shows grain, not pixels. Saved as HEIC.

VIDEO: twelve tapes

VHS: soft color, scanlines, a tracking band and the PLAY display.
An 8mm home movie that flickers and weaves.
CCTV: green-gray security footage with the clock burned in.
Three low-res pocket tapes: green pixels, color pixels and a wide 480×240 band.
Trails, motion, stop motion, slit-scan and datamosh for the strange stuff.
A clean tape for plain video.

BOOTH: a photo-sticker booth

Four shots on a countdown, with the front camera.
Big eyes and glowing skin: Glow, Doll or Alien.
Every shot gets a new backdrop and neon-pen doodles: stars, hearts, roses, cat ears.
Print the four as a sticker sheet, a grid or a strip.

PRO: the iPhone at full quality

The biggest photo the sensor makes, saved as HEIF or JPEG.
A lens selector and a live histogram.
Dials for white balance, exposure, shutter, ISO and focus.
Auto, shutter priority, ISO priority or fully manual.

Make it yours

In DIGI, stack a film sim, a look, a shape and a date back. The sim, look and shape show live in the viewfinder, and the date back is printed on the photo.
FILM uses its eleven stocks, with a date back on the print. Its finder shows the film for a moment after each change, or all the time if you turn that on. VIDEO shows the sim and its tape live. PRO shows the plain picture, and BOOTH has its own skins and doodles.
Open any sim in the editor: color, tone curve, split tone, grain, halation and vignette. Save your own.
Sims: a tungsten 800T, a portrait 800, a consumer 400, a purple-cast 400, an instant 600 printed on a white frame, a 3200 black and white, and Neutral.
Looks: Clean, Grain, Sixteen, Pocket, Pocket Color, 1-Bit, Press, Heat and Booth.
Shapes: Capsule, Porthole, Window, Crush, Nova and four instant prints.
Eight date backs: seven-segment quartz, dot matrix, camcorder, LCD, red-pixel digicam, red ink stamp, marker on tape and film edge print. Put the date in the corner, or let it follow the frame around a Porthole.

Always ready

A Lock Screen camera and a Control Center control. On an iPhone with an Action button, it can open XA too.
On an iPhone with Camera Control, make XA the button's camera: Settings › Camera › Camera Control › Launch Camera › XA.
Camera Control slides through sims and looks in DIGI, stocks in FILM, tapes in VIDEO, and exposure and zoom in PRO. Click it to shoot.
The volume buttons shoot too.
Point at a QR code in DIGI, FILM or PRO and tap to open the link.

Your photos stay yours

Every picture and video goes to Photos, in an XA album when you allow full access. With iCloud Photos, it's backed up with the rest of your library.
Swipe up under the viewfinder, or tap the roll button, for a contact sheet of your roll.
Edit a shot later: exposure, contrast, saturation, warmth, fade, grain, vignette, or a different sim or look. XA saves a copy and keeps the original.
No watermark.

Nothing collected

XA has no account, no server, no analytics and no ads. It doesn't track you and it collects no data: its App Store privacy label is Data Not Collected. Your pictures are developed on your iPhone and saved to your Photos library. Read the privacy policy for the details.

Free

Every camera, stock, sim, look, shape, date back and tape is in the free download. There's no subscription, no ads, no account, no trial and no watermark, and nothing to unlock.

Open source

XA is free software under the GNU GPL version 3, with an additional permission for the App Store and TestFlight. Read the code, report a bug or build it yourself at github.com/gi-os/XA. Film modeling is powered by spektrafilm, Andrea Volpato's open spectral simulation of film from published datasheets.

Questions

Is XA really free?

Yes. Every feature is in the free download. There's no subscription, no ads, no account, no trial and no watermark.

What data does XA collect?

None. XA has no server, no analytics, no ad or tracking code and no account. Pictures are developed on your iPhone and saved to your Photos library. The App Store privacy label is Data Not Collected. The privacy policy has the details.

Why does XA ask for the camera, the microphone and Photos?

The camera takes the pictures. XA asks for the microphone only when you first open VIDEO, to record sound with your clips; if you say no, videos record without sound. Photos access lets XA save your pictures, file them in an XA album and show that album as your roll. For the album, choose Allow Full Access. With limited or add-only access your pictures still go to Photos, but not into the album. With add-only access, the roll explains how to let XA show them.

What happens to my photos if I delete XA?

They stay in Photos, and in the XA album if you gave XA full access. When XA can add to Photos, every shot goes to your library. XA doesn't keep the roll inside the app.

Is XA open source?

Yes. The source is at github.com/gi-os/XA under the GNU GPL version 3. An additional permission (EXCEPTION.md) allows App Store and TestFlight distribution on the condition that the complete source stays public. The film tables are baked with spektrafilm and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. The font licenses ship inside the app.

Which iPhones does XA work on?

Any iPhone with iOS 18 or later. Some features depend on the hardware: Camera Control needs an iPhone with the Camera Control button, the Action button needs an iPhone that has one, 48 MP photos need a 48 MP camera, and developing FILM from RAW needs an iPhone with Apple ProRAW, which means the Pro models. XA is made for iPhone only.

How do I make XA the camera on the Camera Control button or the Lock Screen?

On an iPhone with Camera Control, open Settings › Camera › Camera Control › Launch Camera and pick XA. For the Lock Screen, touch and hold it, tap Customize, choose Lock Screen, tap the minus on a control at the bottom, tap the plus and choose XA. For Control Center, swipe down, tap the plus at the top left, tap Add a Control and choose XA. Tap the control while your iPhone is locked to open the Lock Screen camera.

How big are the pictures?

DIGI saves the size you pick, 1 to 12 megapixels. PRO saves the biggest photo your iPhone's sensor makes. FILM's default drum scan is about 5600 dpi, up to 48 MP: about 43 MP for a 35mm frame, 21 MP for half frame and 11 MP for 110. On an iPhone without a 48 MP camera, the frame is enlarged first and the grain is made at the scan's size, so zooming in shows grain, but it isn't extra detail. A smaller 3088-pixel lab scan is also available. From the Lock Screen, XA offers DIGI, FILM and PRO. PRO saves up to 12 megapixels there, and FILM always saves a lab scan.

Does XA add a watermark?

No.

Can I edit a photo after I take it?

Yes. Open it from the roll and change exposure, contrast, saturation, warmth, fade, grain or vignette, or try a different sim or look. XA saves a copy and keeps the original.

What language is the app in?

The app's interface is in English.

Is XA affiliated with a camera or film company?

No. The film stock and sim names in XA are made up. XA is not affiliated with or endorsed by any camera or film maker.

How do I get help or report a bug?

Email gio@gi-os.com, or open an issue at github.com/gi-os/XA/issues.

Help

Email gio@gi-os.com, or open an issue at github.com/gi-os/XA/issues.

Roll: tap the roll button or swipe up from the shutter row. Drag the roll down to go back.
Camera button: Settings › Camera › Camera Control › Launch Camera › XA. Add the XA control to Control Center or the Lock Screen to open it while locked.
Photos: XA saves every picture and video to Photos, in an XA album when you allow full access.