DoubleHalf by Brian Ellis Sound

A double exposure half-frame film camera for iPhone.

Half-frame cameras split one frame of 35 mm film into two tall pictures side by side. Double exposure takes the same roll of film and runs it through the camera twice.

DoubleHalf does both of these: four captures composited into a single frame.

Four captures, two frames, one image

A camera, not an app

The back is a camera: a screen, four exposure lights that count your shots, three buttons for focus, film and flash, and a shutter. Nothing to swipe, nothing to pinch. The volume buttons work as a shutter release too.

After the fourth press the feed goes dark, the pair develops, and it lands in your camera roll.

Fixed everything

There is no autofocus, no HDR, no computational processing. White balance is pinned. You point it and you press it, and you find out later what you got.

With the flash on, exposure is pinned dark and the lamp carries the picture, so a subject falls off hard into black. Turn the flash off and the camera meters the room instead.

Focus

There is no autofocus, so you choose a distance and commit to it. Press the focus button to cycle between near, medium and far. Near pulls in close, medium sits around arm’s length, and far finds infinity — the lens is set there once, when you choose it, and then stays put.

Film

Also

• Finished frames save straight to your photo library.
• Every saved photo carries its settings in EXIF: film, flash, focus, exposure, zoom.
• No accounts, no ads, no analytics, no network at all.