36 frames per roll, a small viewfinder, no preview, no delete. Finished rolls develop for 48 hours, then come back as a contact sheet. Real film emulation, all on-device: no accounts, no feed, no tracking. The camera is free; film is bought by the roll.
No reviews yetBe the first to leave a review for Latent
Maker
📌
Hi Product Hunt, I'm Ive, a solo developer in Zadar, Croatia. Latent is my
fifth app, and the first one designed to be used less.
The idea came from watching people photograph sunsets they never actually
watched: shoot, check, reshoot, post, and the light is gone. My first fix was
going to be a phone case with a viewfinder hole. It ended up as software,
because the discipline turned out to be the product.
So Latent borrows film's rules instead of its look. You get 36 frames per
roll. You frame through a small viewfinder on an otherwise black screen.
There is no preview, no retake, no delete. When the roll is done, it develops
for 48 hours. Then the whole thing comes back at once, as a contact sheet.
The part I'm proudest of is what's not in it: no zoom, no filters, no feed,
no accounts, no servers, no analytics. Photos develop on your phone and save
to your Photos at full resolution. Each film stock is a real emulation recipe
(tone curve, channel mix, grain, halation) running as GPU shaders at develop
time, not a filter you drag over a photo.
The economics are film's too: the camera is free and comes with a roll of
NOVA 200 every month. Extra rolls cost 0,99 €, like film used to. One stock,
AURORA 800 (the summer night stock), is limited and retires when summer ends.
The first roll is on us. I'd genuinely love to hear what you think,
especially if you find the 48-hour wait unbearable. That means it's working.
Report
The 48 hour wait for contact sheets is honestly such a cool idea, but I'd love a simple in-app timer or estimated return date once I drop off a roll so I'm not just refreshing hoping my shots came back.
Report
Maker
@nuriyeiujd Thank you, this is exactly the tension I was most worried about getting wrong. Good news: you're already covered. The moment you finish a roll it shows a live countdown on the Rolls screen (a little film canister that fills as it develops), and you get a notification the second it's ready, so no refreshing and no guessing. The wait is meant to be a discipline, not a cruelty. I do like the idea of a plain "ready ~Thursday afternoon" datestamp sitting next to the countdown though, writing that one down.
Report
the 48-hour wait for the contact sheet is such a clever move, it actually makes the camera feel like film instead of just mimicking the look. love that the app has zero accounts and the film is what you pay for.
Report
Maker
@necatii73277 Thank you! The wait was the first thing in the spec and the thing everyone told me to cut during beta. But the look is the easy half of film; anyone can borrow grain. The waiting is the part you have to actually do, and it changes how you shoot frame one.
The 48 hour wait for contact sheets is honestly such a cool idea, but I'd love a simple in-app timer or estimated return date once I drop off a roll so I'm not just refreshing hoping my shots came back.
@nuriyeiujd Thank you, this is exactly the tension I was most worried about getting wrong. Good news: you're already covered. The moment you finish a roll it shows a live countdown on the Rolls screen (a little film canister that fills as it develops), and you get a notification the second it's ready, so no refreshing and no guessing. The wait is meant to be a discipline, not a cruelty. I do like the idea of a plain "ready ~Thursday afternoon" datestamp sitting next to the countdown though, writing that one down.
the 48-hour wait for the contact sheet is such a clever move, it actually makes the camera feel like film instead of just mimicking the look. love that the app has zero accounts and the film is what you pay for.
@necatii73277 Thank you! The wait was the first thing in the spec and the thing everyone told me to cut during beta. But the look is the easy half of film; anyone can borrow grain. The waiting is the part you have to actually do, and it changes how you shoot frame one.