Launched this week
MatchGrain
Real EXIF metadata for your film scans, straight from iPhone
5 followers
Real EXIF metadata for your film scans, straight from iPhone
5 followers
Film cameras don't record dates, locations or settings. Log each frame as you shoot — camera, lens, aperture, shutter, film stock — and when your scans come back, MatchGrain writes it into the files as real EXIF: date, GPS, exposure. Readable in Lightroom, Photos, and anywhere else. Entirely on iPhone. No Mac, no desktop software, no spreadsheets.
Well, hello, Product Hunt! I'm Stas, nice to meet you.
I've been into film photography, on and off, for 15 years! Almost half of my life. But the most recent active phase started in 2022 when I almost accidentally bought the Canon AT-1 at a used camera shop in Istanbul. I shot more than 20 rolls in six months around the world, came home, and sent them all for processing, and in parallel started thinking about how to organize it all. Camera, lens, it's obvious, easier than digital ones, because it doesn't require charging (I'm still not used to this modern world with absolutely everything having a battery and some wireless chip). The negatives, ok, I found their place in sleeves, methodically labelled on the bookshelf. Digital scans, at first they were fine, having their own folder in my cloud storage provider, labelled same as the sleeves. That held up for 42 rolls. Then I lost a shot (yes, like Walter Mitty, almost).
That was the time when I decided to add a digital layer to this tactile, retro hobby. It all started as an app for myself, and for almost 3 years I kept adding some features, fixing some bugs. But then yes, coding agents arrived. As a solo developer I could finally have some hands on the team and focus on the product more. That's when my productivity went up, and so did my willingness to share this creation. In my travels, I've met other hobbyists and we all end up building our own systems for storing scans, and everyone admits theirs has flaws they've never got around to fixing. So, maybe this app will be a good fit for their systems, and yours.
I'm really glad to share this with you all. And more than that, I have a vision for this app, with many useful features in the works, even some additional platforms, and I'm really excited to share them with you too, so the first update, with Film Stock, won't keep you waiting. It will allow you to log your film even before you put it in your camera, with prices, statistics and so much more.
And if you'd like to suggest a feature, or you find a bug, don't hesitate, tell me through the app in settings - there's a convenient menu for that.
As for actually using the app, you can log everything for free, forever. Merging one roll's metadata with scans is also free, after that it's a one-time purchase, which costs less than a roll, $3. No subscription for merging, I promise.
Share your film photography hacks or quirks, would love to hear them.
How many times have you forgotten to set the right ISO for a new roll before realizing mid-roll? It was every other roll for my first dozen :)
And if you read this far, I have a batch of promo codes. Comment "Make it more grainy" below, or DM me the same on X, whichever you prefer, and I'll send one over.
Of course, on the app launch date, my VPS provider is down, so no site for now, sorry.
I hope nothing's serious and the provider will fix everything without losing data.
In the meantime, take a look at the previously mentioned discovery of the lost photo.