FiLMiC announced today it has extended its mobile filmmaking and still imagery expertise to the photography market with the launch of Firstlight for iOS. Android comes next.

Right on the heels of Adobe’s announcement of its Photoshop Camera app for Android and iOS, FiLMiC reveales its own ambitions to have a slice of the smartphone photography market, with Firstlight, presented as an app able to deliver an enhanced iOS photography experience for photographers of all skill levels, with intuitive controls and clean interfaces that offer high-end camera features on iOS devices. FiLMiC is also close to launching the Android private external Beta very soon, and the app will ship soon after.

https://youtu.be/6zfQunw8RGQ

Contrary to Adobe Photoshop Camera, that will only be available in 2020, Firstlight is immediately available from the Apple App Store, and is a FREE download. The app, says FiLMiC, offers “access to a compelling set of features that provide an enhanced photo shooting experience for photographers of all skill levels.  Photographers will be drawn to the clean interface and intuitive controls to dial in shots with precision and accuracy and yielding the results they most desire.”

Key FREE features

All Firstlight customers have access to the following free features:

• Fast, intuitive focus and exposure controls: Tap the screen to set focus/exposure, tap again to lock.
• AE Mode: Included is our proprietary Auto Exposure mode for setting shutter/iso combination.
• Cross-swipe manual controls: The most intuitive way to manually adjust focus and exposure. Swipe across the image to dial in your perfect shot. Swipe up and down to adjust exposure. Swipe left and right to adjust focus.
• Reactive analytics: A foundation feature of FiLMiC Pro and now in a photo app. Manually adjusting your focus and exposure will automatically apply focus peaking or zebra stripes to make sure you get your shot just right.
• RGB Histogram: Dynamically shows the exposure profile of the image across all color channels.
• Vintage film simulations: The magic of Firstlight is in our realistic tributes to authentic film stocks. A range of film simulations are included for free with the app.
• Film grain: Apply natural looking film grain effects to give your photos that ‘film look’. Medium grain is included as a free option.
• Vignette: Apply a subtle dark vignette to your image. Medium vignette is included as a free option.
• Lens selector: Quickly switch between all available lenses on your device. Go from tele to ultrawide with the tap of a finger. (Note: camera/lens support is device specific).

Some professional features

Additional professional camera features included with the free download include:

• Burst mode
• Timer
• Flash
• Grid overlays
• Aspect ratios: 4:3, 16:9, 3:2, 1:1, 5:4
• Expanded shadow detail
• JPG or HEIC Selection
• HDR control (for iPhone Xs, Xs Max, Xr and newer devices only)
• Volume button shutter and support for most bluetooth camera shutter remotes
• FiLMiC Pro quick launch button (for owners of FiLMiC Pro)

The Premium Membership Subscription

The Firstlight photo app is completely free, but FiLMiC also offers a Premium Membership Subscription for photographers who want to capture the full potential of the app. Firstlight Premium Members will gain access to a host of advanced features as well as new film simulations that will continuously be developed, along with in depth education materials that elevate the artistic potential of all members, regardless of skill level.

Premium Members will have access to:

• Shutter and ISO priority modes for maximum creative expression and sport shooting capability. In addition to Auto Exposure, users can set specific Shutter Speed or ISO values to adhere to, and allowing the app automatically adjust exposure for the unlocked value.
• Expanded film simulation options: Premium members will be the first to sample the majority of Firstlight’s non-stop release schedule of realistic film simulations.
• Film grain: Fine, coarse and ISO adaptive options are available, in addition to medium grain included in the free version.
• Adjustable vignette: Low and heavy options in addition to medium.
• Configure burst mode with additional options for slow and fast burst rate.
• Anamorphic adapter support: Attach a Moondog anamorphic lens or any other 1.33x Anamorphic smartphone lens to capture gorgeous wide aspect photos.
• RAW: DNG and TIF formats for full control over your photo edit. (note: Film simulations are not supported in Raw formats)
• Custom Function button: Assign favorite Firstlight settings to the custom function button to quickly access them from the main screen.  For photographers who frequently switch photo formats or aspect ratios, or shoot in burst mode or with countdown timer often, all of these options can be configured and customized.
• Custom live analytics: Adjust the colors and sensitivity for focus peaking and zebra stripes to personalize processes for dialing in focus and exposure.
• Embedded copyright: Set copyright info in the app and it will be encoded in the exif data for the photo.

FiLMiC Firstlight is compatible with any iPhone that works with iOS 13. Those devices include the iPhone SE, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, X, Xr, Xs, Xs Max, 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max.  As mentioned above, FiLMiC Firstlight is available immediately as a free download from the Apple App Store. Firstlight Premium Member Subscriptions are available for $0.99 per month, or for an annual subscription rate of $7.99.