VHS Cam

Most camera apps show you a grid of filters. This one hands you a camera.

Pick a body off the shelf, turn the phone sideways, and hold it like the real thing. The whole screen becomes that camera: a mode dial you turn with your thumb, a control pad, a zoom rocker, a power switch, and a little screen set into the body showing the picture, the tape counter and the battery.

Turn the dial and the look changes. Press the shutter and it lands in your gallery.

FIVE BODIES, EACH WITH ITS OWN FEEL

Argent 35, a chrome compact with brushed plates over leatherette

Obsidian Pro, a matte working body with a deep rubber grip

Nova 200, the pearl plastic point and shoot that lived in a drawer

Retrotape VC-90, shoulder era camcorder with a fat red record button

Nighthawk HV-8, a graphite handheld with a green night key

Every body loads its own look, so picking one up changes the picture as well as the buttons.

TWELVE LOOKS, LIVE IN THE VIEWFINDER

Clean, VHS, Worn tape, Camcord 92, 8mm, Nocturne, Mono, Sepia, Slide, Faded, Instant and CCTV.

These run on the live camera feed, not as a sticker laid over a finished photo. Tape wobble, colour smearing sideways, a tracking band rolling up the frame, grain that sits in the mid tones the way film does, scan lines, bloom and vignette. What you see on the camera's screen is exactly what gets saved.

PHOTOS AND VIDEO

Press the shutter for a still, or switch to video and roll tape with sound

The date burns into the corner of the shot and the clip, the way it used to

Front and rear lens, zoom on the rocker, torch on the LIGHT key

Self timer, grid lines, and 16:9, 3:2, 4:3 or 1:1 framing

A MENU INSIDE THE CAMERA

Press MENU and the settings come up on the camera's own screen, driven by the pad. Look strength, grain in four steps, scan lines, vignette, aspect, date stamp, timer, grid, lens, beeps and shutter sound. You can even change body without leaving the viewfinder.

YOUR CARD

Everything you shoot goes straight to your phone's gallery, and into the app's own card view. Swipe between shots, pinch a photo to look closer, play a clip, share it or delete it. The home screen keeps a running count of photos, clips, and a four digit tape counter of the seconds you have shot.

QUIET BY DESIGN

No account and no sign in. It works offline and your shots stay on your phone.

Every make, model and look name in this app is invented. Nothing here is, or is meant to resemble, a product from a real manufacturer.