User Guide

Photo or Cinema

The switch next to the title changes the wheel. Photo uses f-stops, shutter speeds (1 s to 1/4000) and ISO. Cinema uses T-stops, shutter angle (360° to 11.25°) with a frame rate, and EI. Switching resets shutter and sensitivity to sensible defaults (1/125 · ISO 100, or 180° · EI 800 with ND 0.9) and sets the aperture to match the scene.

Scene light

• Measured — read by the iPhone camera while the viewfinder is open. The wheel keeps the last reading when you close it.
• Manual — choose Sunny (EV 15), Overcast (12), Indoor (8) or Night (5).
• Spot appears after you use “Expose for this point” in the viewfinder.

The small not calibrated note opens the meter calibration (see Project Info). Under the card, the wheel tells you how many stops over or under the current settings are, in thirds of a stop.

The rings

Drag the rings round: outer — aperture or T-stop (1.4 to 22); middle — shutter or angle; inner — ISO or EI (100 to 12800). Each step clicks lightly. Tap the iris in the middle, or turn the phone sideways, to open the viewfinder. The EV at the top right is the EV of the current settings, filters included.

Below the wheel

• The filters line (when filters are mounted) and the subject distance card — see Focus.
• Aperture, shutter and ISO in large type, then the depth of field card: near and far limits, hyperfocal distance, sensor size, crop factor, circle of confusion and the lens’s horizontal angle of view.
• The color temperature card opens Color.
• Format — Photo: Micro 4/3, APS-C, Full frame, Medium format. Cinema: Super 16, Super 35, Large format, 65 mm. Frame rate (Cinema): 24 to 120.
• Filters — add with + Add filter: ND 0.3–2.1, polarizer (≈1⅔ stops), 85 and 85B (⅔), 80A (2), 81A (⅓), diffusion ⅛–1 (no light loss) or a custom loss in stops. Tap a filter to remove it. The total loss counts in the exposure.
• Lens — 8 to 600 mm.
• Set aperture for the scene picks the aperture or T-stop closest to correct exposure.

The focus ring

The subject distance card works like a lens focus scale: drag the ruler left or right under the copper index. The scale is logarithmic — close distances are spread out, far ones bunched up. Drag slowly for fine steps, fast to move quickly. Each step gives a light tap; whole meters or feet give a firmer click. Dragging the ruler never scrolls the page.

Steps (meters)

1 cm up to 2 m · 5 cm from 2 to 5 m · 10 cm from 5 to 10 m · 50 cm from 10 to 30 m · then ∞.

Steps (feet)

1″ up to 6′6″ · 2″ up to 16′6″ · 4″ up to 33′ · 1′6″ up to 100′ · then ∞.

The − / + buttons move one step of the current range; hold them to repeat, faster the longer you hold. Tap the large value to type an exact distance (for example 2.37 m, or feet and inches), or choose ∞. The m / ft switch changes the unit.

In the viewfinder

The same distance appears in the viewfinder’s Focus tab, and the iPhone camera focuses at about that distance. On iPhones with LiDAR, Measure distance measures the point in the center of the frame (up to about 5 m) and writes it in. Other iPhones show Estimate distance instead: from the depth data of the two rear cameras, or — on iPhones with one rear camera — roughly from where the autofocus settles. Estimates are marked ≈ here, in the viewfinder and in the frame’s details. In every case the Distance measuring offset in Project Info is added for the distance between phone and sensor plane.

Depth of field

Depth of field uses the circle of confusion of the chosen format and is shown to the centimeter below 10 m (for example 2.31–2.48 m), or in feet and inches.

What you see

The iPhone camera zooms so that the active lens’s frame (copper, in the chosen aspect ratio) and its protect lines fill the picture — almost edge to edge in landscape, full width in portrait. The iPhone switches between its ultra-wide, wide and telephoto cameras by itself. Outside the frame is darkened; neighboring lenses are drawn as dashed frames with their focal lengths. If your lens is wider than the phone can show, ◂ Wider ▸ appears.

Top of the screen

• ← Wheel, the format label, Color, Archive and ?. The format label shows the sensor format, the ratio, the anamorphic squeeze and how many protect ratios are on (e.g. Super 35 · 2.39 · 2× · +2); tap it to change them.
• Live · 1.4× — the phone’s zoom (1× = main camera).
• The scene · shot label — tap to open Project Info.
• EV · stops — the scene light and how far the settings are from correct exposure.

Tabs

• Lens — choose the focal length.
• Exposure — choose an aperture or T-stop to preview: the picture brightens or darkens to show the over- or underexposure. The frame you save records this value.
• Focus — the focus ring and Measure distance (LiDAR) or Estimate distance (other iPhones, see Focus).

Format, aspect ratio and anamorphic

Tap the format label (in landscape, the ratio on the rail) to open Format & Ratio:

• Format — the sensor format of the current mode (Photo or Cinema).
• Aspect ratio — 1.33 (4:3), 1.66, 1.78 (16:9), 1.85, 2.00, 2.20, 2.39, 1:1, and 4:5 and 9:16 for vertical social video, or Custom (0.50–3.00 in steps of 0.01). The frame is the largest area of that ratio that fits the sensor: a ratio wider than the sensor is cut from the top and bottom, a narrower one from the sides. The horizontal angle of view and the frame lines follow from it.
• Anamorphic squeeze — Spherical, 1.3×, 1.5×, 1.8× or 2×. With an anamorphic lens the horizontal angle widens by the squeeze; the frame and angle of view are worked out on the desqueezed picture, and the chosen ratio is the ratio of the desqueezed picture.
• Protect — up to two extra ratios for shoot & protect (e.g. 16:9 for TV and 9:16 for social). Each is the largest area of that ratio on the sensor, drawn as a thin dashed line with a small label in its top-left corner.

With an active project, Make default for … stores the ratio, squeeze and protect lines as the project’s default (see Project Info).

Spot metering

Tap anywhere in the picture to meter that point; a ring and its EV appear. Expose for this point makes it the scene light (source Spot) and sets the wheel’s aperture to match. ✕ returns to average metering.

Sun marker

With location and compass, a copper disc shows where the sun is in the picture, or an arrow at the edge points to it. Backlight appears when the sun is inside the frame. If the marker is off, center the real sun horizontally and tap Align next to it; fine-tune in Project Info › Compass correction.

Saving a frame

Press the round copper shutter. The screen flashes and “Saved · Scene 12 · Shot 3” appears. The frame is cropped to the active lens’s frame in the chosen ratio and saved in the archive with the lens, format, aspect ratio, anamorphic squeeze, protect ratios, exposure, filters, focus distance, depth of field, date, project, day, scene and shot, and — when available — location and compass heading. It is also added to Photos, with an info strip below it if you turned that on. With “Advance the shot number with each frame”, the shot number goes up by one.

The small switch under the shutter (on the rail in landscape) chooses the exposure of the saved frame: Shoot exp. (default) keeps the simulated exposure you see in the viewfinder, so an underexposed setting is saved dark; Normal exp. lets the phone expose correctly for a moment before saving — good for recording the framing and the location. The frame’s details show which one was used (Saved exposure).

Protect ratios are drawn on the saved frame as thin dashed lines with a small label — in the frame details, the PDF and the copy in Photos. A protect area larger than the frame shows only the lines that fall inside it (e.g. the sides of 9:16 on a 2.39 frame). Turn this off in Project Info › Export.

Turn the phone sideways for the landscape layout: the controls move to a rail on the right, with preset distances in the Focus tab.

Open Color from the color temperature card on the wheel or from the viewfinder.

Light reading

• Measured — the iPhone camera’s automatic white balance, read live while the viewfinder runs.
• Spot — the viewfinder opens with “Tap a white or grey surface”; the color of that spot is measured and sent back here.
• Manual — Candle 1900 K, Tungsten 3200 K, HMI / Daylight 5600 K, Overcast 6500 K, Shade 7500 K, or the slider (1500–12000 K). Changing a value by hand switches the source to Manual.

The tint slider (−50 to +50) can be adjusted by hand. The reading is approximate — the phone is not a color meter.

Camera and mired shift

Set the camera’s white balance (3200, 4300, 5600, 6500 K or the slider). The mired shift is camera minus light: plus means the light is too blue (warm it with CTO), minus means it is too warm (cool it with CTB).

Suggestions

• Gels on the light — Rosco or LEE, one gel or a pair, with product numbers, the shift, what remains and the resulting color temperature.
• Or a filter on the lens — 85, 85B, 85C, 81A–C, 80A–C, 82A with their filter factors. Mount on the lens adds 85, 85B, 80A or 81A to the wheel’s filters.
• Green · magenta — from the tint: Plus or Minus Green, full, ½ or ¼ (Rosco 3304/3315/3316 and 3308/3313/3314; LEE 244–246 and 247–249). Tint is roughly in CC units.

Rosco values are as published. LEE publishes conversions; its mired shifts here are calculated from them. Camera filters use Wratten values.

Project Info

Open it from the scene · shot label in the viewfinder or from Archive › Project Info.

• Projects — tap a project to make it active; + New project creates one. New frames go to the active project.
• Today’s shoot — day, scene and shot counters with − / +; Advance the shot number with each frame.
• Credits — project name, director, cinematographer, production and shoot dates; they appear in the archive and on the PDF cover.
• Frame default — turn it on to give the project an aspect ratio, anamorphic squeeze and protect lines; when you pick the project, the viewfinder switches to them. You can still change them in the viewfinder.
• Delete project — its frames stay in the archive.

Settings (in Project Info)

• Distance unit (m or ft) and Distance measuring offset (±100 cm; plus if the camera’s sensor is behind the phone). It applies to LiDAR readings and to estimates.
• Meter calibration — ±3 stops in thirds. Meter the same scene with a light meter and the viewfinder and enter the difference.
• Compass correction — ±45°.
• Export — add an info strip (project, scene/shot, format, aspect ratio, anamorphic and protect ratios, lens, exposure, depth of field) under frames saved to Photos, ending with CINEBRAIN PRO; and Draw protect lines on saved frames (on by default).
• Introduction — watch the tour again, or open this guide.

Scout Archive

Open it with Archive in the viewfinder. Frames are grouped by project (the active one first), then by day and scene, with the shot number under each thumbnail. Tap a frame for its details; touch and hold to delete it.

Frame details

The saved frame, each detail in its own box (format and aspect ratio separately), the Light Plan and a note field that saves itself.

PDF scout report

PDF makes a report for the whole project, Day PDF for one day. Choose 1 or 2 frames per page. The cover carries the credits; each frame has its scene and shot, date, details, the best light times and its note — or ruled lines to write on. The share sheet then sends it where you like.

Every frame saved with a location has a light plan for that day and place, calculated on the phone (NOAA solar formulas).

• Sunrise, sunset, golden hour (sun between −4° and 6°) and blue hour (−6° to −4°); evening times are shown.
• Sun dial — north up, overhead in the center, horizon at the edge. The dashed copper line is the sun’s path with hours; the grey wedge is the frame’s direction, as wide as the lens’s angle of view.
• Day line — night, blue hour, golden hour and day. Drag along it to pick a time.
• Moments for this frame — Frame time, Front light, Side light left and right, Backlight and Blue Hour: the best time of day for each, preferring a low sun. “—” means it does not happen that day. Tapping one moves the sun on the dial.

For the chosen time you see the sun’s direction and height, where it is relative to the frame, an estimated light level (a rough EV for a clear sky) and suggested settings: in Cinema the angle, frame rate and EI stay and the ND (then the T-stop) changes; in Photo the ISO and filters stay. For backlight it suggests opening about one stop for faces. Set the wheel to this time loads that light, lens, format and settings into the Exposure Wheel (the scene light becomes Manual).

Moments that depend on direction need the compass heading of the frame.