# The Film Friend: Light Meter — Darkroom timer & film log

> Darkroom timer & film log (iPhone/iPad app by Jose Gerardo Palma Duran.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-film-friend-light-meter/id6759234180 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Jose Gerardo Palma Duran](https://appshunter.io/developer/1873843788)
- Category: Utilities, Productivity
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 18.0 · 165 MB
- Languages: American English, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French (France), German (Germany) and 21 more
- Released: 2026-02-19
- Data updated: 2026-08-18
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-film-friend-light-meter/id6759234180/reviews.md

## What is The Film Friend?

A Complete Companion for Film Photography

Built for photographers who work with film every day, this app combines modern design with precise tools for exposure, development, and large-format workflows. Everything is customizable, distraction-free, and designed to support the analog process from capture to darkroom. Guided tutorials and a quick welcome tour help you get started from the very first launch.

Light Meter and the Zone System

- A built-in light meter with spot metering, aperture or shutter priority, a live histogram and an EV readout
- Apertures in thirds of a stop, so a reading lands where your lens actually clicks
- A live Zone System map drawn over the scene: every region of the frame labelled with its zone, one stop per zone, so you can place a shadow and see where the highlight lands
- Tap to meter a single spot and place it on any zone

Sun Tracker

- Plan natural light for any location and any date: the sun's path, the golden and blue hours, and twilight
- A live augmented reality overlay draws the sun's path over your camera view, so you can see where the light will fall
- Upcoming solar and lunar eclipses with local timing, plus alerts for moments like sunrise or golden hour
- Entirely offline: every calculation and every dataset lives on your device

Development Tools and History

- Development history keeping a detailed record of past processes
- Custom development processes you can create, edit, import, export, and share
- A guided development runner with agitation cues, countdown, and a phase-end alarm that keeps timing even on the lock screen
- Chemistry tracking for batches, capacity, and expiry, with reminders before your chemistry runs out
- A test strip timer for f-stop print exposures, and a mixing calculator for dilutions and volumes
- Support for the most common processes and kits: black and white, C-41, E-6, RA-4 and ECN-2

Your Film, Tracked

- A catalogue of 247 films: pick one and the brand, ISO, process, type and format fill themselves in
- Film holder management for sheets, holders, statuses and exposures, with a full history of every sheet
- Inventory for cameras, lenses, tripods, film stock, lights and accessories, with expiry reminders
- Analytics across four dashboards: what you shoot, what you have left, how your chemistry is holding up, and how your development runs compare

Darkroom-Friendly Design

- Dedicated darkroom themes designed for film safety
- Spectral color selection to precisely choose wavelengths that minimize the risk of fogging
- Custom darkroom colors and a clean, low-distraction interface optimized for low light

More Calculation Tools

- Reciprocity compensation for long-exposure corrections
- Bellows extension compensation for large format
- Depth of field with near and far limits, hyperfocal distance, and a visual preview
- Focal length equivalency across formats
- Negative preview that inverts your film to a positive in real time, with a library, a curves and tones editor, and contact sheet printing

Yours, and Offline

- No account, and no signal required for anything but the optional cloud backup
- Import and export your data, keeping full ownership and portability
- Cloud sync to back up your library and restore it on another device
- Available in 33 languages

Designed for the Analog Workflow

This app respects traditional photography while taking advantage of your phone's modern capabilities. Whether you are in the field, the studio, or the darkroom, it provides accurate tools and a flexible interface that let you focus on the image instead of the calculations.

Built for film. Designed for photographers.

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pro Version | $2.99 | one-time |



## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.11.1 — 2026-08-11

Privacy policy in Settings
Open our privacy policy any time, right from the Settings screen.

Clearer privacy choices
Improved consent and controls for personalised ads.

Stability improvements
Fixes and refinements across the app.

### 1.11 — 2026-08-11

Film stock catalogue
Pick from 247 films and the form fills itself: brand, ISO, process, type and format.

Live Zone System map
The light meter now draws the zones straight onto the scene, one stop per zone.

History and analytics
Four dashboards over your sheets, film stock, chemistry and development runs.

Finer apertures
The meter now works in thirds of a stop, so readings land where your lens does.

### 1.10 — 2026-07-29

Version 1.10 makes every session more dependable while keeping the Film Friend experience you know.

  • Steadier live light-meter readings
  • More resilient iCloud sync and backup restores
  • Safer handling of images saved in Negative Preview and Inventory
  • More reliable Pro purchases and restores
  • More dependable timers, Live Activities, alarms, and expiry reminders
  • Smoother Sun Tracker AR when returning to the app or rotating your device
  • Better VoiceOver support for Analytics charts and key controls
  • Clearer ad privacy choices; Pro remains completely ad-free

### 1.9.0 — 2026-07-14

Version 1.9 introduces Analytics: your photographic history, recorded for you and shown as charts.

Analytics
• A new Analytics section gathers dashboards for your holders, film stock, chemistry, and development.
• Follow trends over time with charts and headline numbers, filtered by the last 30 days, 90 days, 12 months, or all time.

History, recorded for you
• The app now remembers which film you load and develop in each film holder, how much film stock you use, and how often you use each chemistry batch.
• Every tool keeps its own history list you can look back through, and your development runs feed the development charts.

Film stock
• Film stock gains a quick use-a-roll and restock control, so your counts stay right as you shoot and reload.

### 1.8.1 — 2026-07-09

Version 1.8 introduces the Sun Tracker, guided tutorials, and more film and development data.

Sun Tracker
• See the sun's path, the golden and blue hours, and twilight for any location and any date.
• A live augmented reality overlay draws the sun's path over your camera view, so you can plan the light on location.
• Browse upcoming solar and lunar eclipses with local timing, and set alerts for moments like sunrise or golden hour.

Tutorials and onboarding
• A new Help and Tutorials section in Settings walks you through every tool, one step at a time.
• A short welcome guide introduces the app the first time you open it, and you can replay it whenever you like.

Film and development
• Foma development times are now built in: Fomapan 100, 200, and 400, plus Retropan 320.
• A new film stock joins the catalog: Optik Oldschool OptiColour 200.

## Apps similar to The Film Friend

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [NEAR Connect](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/near-connect/id6736962364) | — | Free | Utilities |
| [Thirty Five mm](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/thirty-five-mm/id6739161477) | — | Free | Utilities |
| [Lab Assistant: Darkroom Timer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lab-assistant-darkroom-timer/id6754861810) | — | Free | Utilities |
| [Padme - Custom keypad for Mac](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/padme-custom-keypad-for-mac/id6784965259) | — | Free | Utilities |
| [DOF Pro](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dof-pro/id1436971987) | 5.0 (1) | $5.99 | Utilities |
| [DarkroomFlow](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/darkroomflow/id6756948144) | — | Free | Utilities |

## More apps by Jose Gerardo Palma Duran

- [Canadian Citizenship Questions](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/canadian-citizenship-questions/id6758591623)
- [Cooking Units](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cooking-units/id6758641490)
- [Engineering Units Converter](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/engineering-units-converter/id6758744042)
- [Group Expenses](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/group-expenses/id6758870531)
- [Mood Tracker: Daily Diary](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mood-tracker-daily-diary/id6758899989)
- [Kiss Counter: Couple Game](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kiss-counter-couple-game/id6758961685)

All apps by Jose Gerardo Palma Duran: https://appshunter.io/developer/1873843788

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-18.*
