The 8mm Vintage Camera App Lets You Relive the Glory Days of Film
Apple's free "App of the Week" isn't often exciting or appealing to me, but this one is quite different. Normally $1.99 on the App Store, 8mm Vintage Camera is being highlighted by Cupertino and is free to download for the next few days. It offers a great way to capture the vintage feel of the glory days of film straight from your iPhone videos.
8mm Vintage Camera automatically makes your iPhone videos look like you shot them with your grandfather's trusty old 8mm film camera.
That might sound like a bad thing, but it's actually about as cool as it gets. This app will throw in virtual dust and scratches, film jumps, and all the other jittery goodness that makes old filmstrips look so damned great.
If you want even more control, the app offers seven lenses and 11 filters that you can combine to create dozens of distinct looks from throughout the storied film format's history. You'll find film and filters that include 1920s, Noir, 60s, 70s, Sakura, XPro, Siena, Pela, Indigo, Tuscan and Two-Color.
While you can definitely record video straight from this app, that's not all. 8mm Vintage Camera supports importing videos you've already recorded, even from other apps.
You can take video using your favorite recording app, then render it into a vintage film from 8mm Vintage Camera.
The app supports recording at up to 4K resolution, which is really cool for a vintage-looking video. You can also add sound effects, like a projector noise, to your recording with just the tap of a button.
Give your videos that timeless look and feel
I never owned an 8mm camera, as much as my family wanted to, so this is the next best thing to having one of the cool little gadgets. Finally, my random videos of long-dead birds and creating solar systems in my living room and back porch can look like vintage films of birds, stars, and planets now long dead.
It makes those video creations seem more important, and even haunting, in a sense.
To really add to the mystique of the vintage film look and feel, the app allows you to add opening, interstitial, and end titles to your creation. You can also choose from various themes to apply to your vintage film, some free and some paid.
The stars and planets in my videos have stories to tell, and the vintage look makes that more obvious. The long-dead birds probably drank whiskey with Ernest Hemingway.
People watching these masterpieces will stop wondering why I spend so much time looking at birds and start believing in art again.
This is definitely a great find, even if you only save two bucks. Heck, if you stumble across this article after the free promotion is over, nab up the app anyways. Your friends, family, and even your nostalgia will thank you.
