Assessment of the Crown + Flint Cell App for Movie Photographers: Easy, Intuitive, and Useful

Crown + Flint is a brand new iOS and Android cellular app for movie photographers created by Silicon Valley veteran, Don Goodman-Wilson. It’s an entire workflow app that helps analogue shooters monitor gear, movie, metadata, growing steps, and extra. There’s additionally a useful mild meter constructed into it! I’m excited to share my expertise testing the app on this evaluate. It’s a powerful instrument, in each the simplicity and ease of use of the design but additionally the thoughtfulness and thorough nature of its capabilities.

“Crown + Flint is the digital companion in your analog way of life.” – Crown + Flint

Right here’s a straightforward bullet listing of all of the issues the app is designed that can assist you with:

• Monitor digicam assortment
• Monitor movie assortment
• Meter mild
• Retain reference frames and picture metadata together with location
• Taking extra notes on rolls of movie (reminiscent of pushing or pulling)
• Monitoring the growing course of used
• Exporting information

*A word right here to say that metadata like location is optionally available. This setting may be turned off when you want.

The app has a free trial model the place you’ll be able to check out as much as 5 rolls of movie. After that, the premium model is a one-time value of 19.99 USD. I discover this value level very cheap and I admire that this isn’t a subscription-based app.

Disclaimer: This evaluate just isn’t sponsored in any approach and every thing written is my trustworthy ideas, opinions, and expertise. 

Crown + Flint Workflow

Crown + Flint capabilities in a approach that’s just like an analogue photographer’s capturing workflow. Choose a digicam, load a movie, shoot the movie, develop the movie, and archive the movie.

Step one in utilizing the app is so as to add a digicam and a lens. Within the gear part, cameras and lenses may be added, permitting the app to accommodate a whole assortment for customers. Fortunately, every thing may be edited and adjusted if want be after the preliminary addition of a chunk of drugs.

Inputting your digicam and lens choices and skills (shutter speeds, apertures, and so forth) may even affect the sunshine meter because it pulls up settings in accordance with your digicam and lens, a function I actually admire.

After the gear is loaded into the app, customers will now have the ability to load the movie. The app permits a number of movie rolls to be loaded at a time, so you’ll be able to monitor a whole assortment throughout the app. Or just shoot one after the other, it’s as much as you! I benefit from the capability so as to add extra movie rolls and equipment as a result of typically I neglect what I’ve obtainable to shoot and it’s useful to see all of it there in a single place. After all, you might additionally export the information and put it right into a spreadsheet. The ecosystem of the app is versatile and thorough.

Loading a roll of movie is fast and there’s even an choice to say if you want to push or pull the movie. I attempted actually onerous to consider something that is perhaps lacking from my capturing workflow to maintain monitor of, however I couldn’t. It appears Don has considered every thing!

Be sure to load a digicam first although, as a result of when you begin halfway by means of including a movie roll and get to the digicam half and haven’t added it but, it’s a must to begin once more. What I did to keep away from forgetting about this was to load my complete digicam assortment into the app at first. It doesn’t take too lengthy to get this arrange and it’s price it for fast capturing when the movie is prepared.

As soon as the movie is loaded, it’s time to report the primary body! Within the display under, click on +New Body, it opens up the sunshine meter, will get your settings, after which you’ll be able to modify your digicam or ignore the meter and snap away.

One merchandise on the listing of potential options so as to add from this level is publicity compensation. Facet word – Crown + Flint has a Discord group, and Don lately posted a ballot for customers to vote on the options they needed to be added most, subsequent. Publicity compensation is on this listing in addition to a couple of different issues. It’s thrilling to see among the issues which are deliberate to come back and it reveals that the app is being invested in and up to date actively and never simply revealed and forgotten about. Try the discord right here.

Alright, again to the capturing menu. One extra function I admire is the flexibility to skip a body. Let’s say you bought so caught up within the second and forgot to report your settings for that picture. Whilst you may additionally report it after, the app additionally helps you to skip it when you can’t be bothered. I discover this handy for when capturing road pictures and I’d blast away a couple of frames rapidly utilizing the identical settings.

As soon as your roll is completed, you’ll be able to then transfer it over to the uncovered part. Add your growing notes after which it is able to be archived. I discover this tremendous good to have the ability to report growing notes as I used a wide range of chemical substances and movies. It’s nice to have the ability to refer again to the app as a substitute of flipping by means of an enormous binder of negatives.

Should you construct up fairly a set within the app, I don’t at the moment see a option to search within the archives. This is able to be a really welcome function and will probably be added down the road.

Within the archive part, there may be the flexibility to export particular person rolls. For the time being, I’ve not been monitoring my movie metadata very nicely. Out of the 3 ways to avoid wasting the metadata, which embody export to JSON, CSV, and ExifTool, the one I acknowledge is CSV. This permits me to import to Google Drive, which is the place I retailer most issues. What I’d love is to have the ability to export to a PDF and save this in my information or print it to maintain as a canopy web page for my negatives. I had a chat with Don and talked about this. He let me know that this can be a operate that others have requested for as nicely and it’s coming to a future model of the app! I can’t wait.

It’s superb to have the creator of a product accessible and open to questions and suggestions. I like that Don created the Discord server for customers of the app to talk, share experiences, ask questions, and so forth. There may be additionally an e-mail assist menu merchandise within the app that robotically queues up a assist e-mail for you, which I discovered a pleasant contact.

Would I like to recommend it?

Sure! At the very least check out the free model to see if it’s one thing that may profit your movie pictures workflow.

My favourite factor in regards to the Crown + Flint app is that it’s designed to work with a photographer’s workflow. It simply is smart. It really works the way in which I’d shoot, course of, and archive my movie.

The opposite factor that I admire is the app’s simplicity. It’s all you want and nothing extra. Nothing superfluous. It’s simple to navigate and straightforward to make use of. It’s not bloated with unneeded options and every thing has a goal.

Now, even in case you have a digicam with a light-weight meter, the app continues to be useful to report your settings and metadata. I discovered this particularly useful for doing evaluations of movie shares and cameras as a result of now I can present the earlier than and after in my movies or articles. Particularly for brand new movie shares, it’s useful to see the digital picture of the scene after which how the movie renders the colours or tonalities and high quality of the sunshine.

Total, the app is extraordinarily nicely thought out and designed and I adore it. I’m excited for what’s to come back sooner or later as nicely. Chatting to Don, it appears there are quite a lot of cool concepts within the pipeline!

The app is on the market now for each iPhone and Android customers in every respective app retailer, see the hyperlink right here for every thing. You too can observe Crown +Flint on Instagram and TikTok or be part of up on the Discord server!