Field
The decisions behind Field
Field is a camera, not a camera app. Most of what makes it different are things it chooses not to do. These are the decisions, and the trade each one makes.
A focal length is a lens
Each focal length comes from the physical lens it names. The iPhone’s Camera app switches lenses on its own and crops to keep the zoom you chose. Field doesn’t. You get the real lens, including its limits. One lens per focal length.
Fixed stops, no zoom
Ultra wide, 24 mm, a few crops from high resolution sensors, telephoto. Nothing in between. Choosing a frame and moving your feet is part of photography, and fewer choices make the camera faster to use.
The look happens before the photo, not after
You choose a film before you take the photo, see it live in the viewfinder, and the saved photo is finished. There is no editor and no original kept on the side. Films, not filters.
Natural over impressive
Apple’s processing aims for photos that look bright and sharp on a small screen. Field aims for photos that look like the scene: denser shadows, highlights that roll off softly, less sharpening, less local tone mapping. Field still keeps Apple’s multi-frame noise reduction, because it is very good. With RAW on an iPhone Pro, Field develops the photo itself. HEIF or RAW.
Recipes in numbers photographers already know
Your own films use the scales film recipes use online: highlights, shadows, color, white balance shift, grain. Numbers where they mean something to photographers, words where they don’t. Recipes in Field.
Auto until you set it
Everything starts automatic. Set the shutter and Field becomes shutter priority, set the ISO and it becomes ISO priority, set both and it is manual. Values you set stay set and are tinted, so you always see what is yours.
One screen
Camera, camera roll, settings. No modes, no hidden gestures, no long lists. Every control has to earn its place against the feeling of calm.
Never miss the photo
The shutter fires instantly and photos develop in the background. A camera that hesitates or crashes is worse than one with fewer features, so reliability comes first.
Left out
Video, Live Photos, portrait mode, an editor, an account, analytics. Field does one thing.