New iPhone Camera App, MARS, Lives for Grainy Black-and-White Photos
Japanese photographer Keitaro Kobayashi is building a new iPhone camera app, MARS. It’s a black-and-white camera app that aims to mimic the look of film, specifically how film blooms.
It’s a simple, straightforward camera app, offering users just three controls. Users can control Glow, Exposure, and Grain. As Kobayashi says, glow is “how much the light overflows,” “exposure” is how bright the image is, of course, and grain is, you guessed it, the amount of grain.
They can also select an aspect ratio and then fire away. Available aspect ratios include 1:1, 5:4, 4:3 (native), 3:2, and 16:9, plus landscape and portrait orientation support.
The user interface has been designed to mimic the look of a camera’s viewfinder, including a frosted glass border.
“The brightest light in the frame spreads into the darkness around it, the way light blooms on film,” Kobayashi explains. “Each frame is developed live from the camera’s HDR signal, so what you see while shooting is what you keep, in photographs and in video.”
Kobayashi has supplied a few sample photos captured inside MARS, and they definitely have a distinct look compared to standard iPhone photos. There are a lot of great iPhone camera apps out there, including many that aim to mimic the look of film, so MARS hopes to separate itself through its monochrome-only approach and the heavy emphasis on glow and grain.
Photographers who want a bunch of controls and excellent image quality can go for an app like Halide. Those who want a bunch of industry-standard editing tools can take and process photos inside Lightroom. But for those who really want a very specific style? Perhaps MARS is the way to go. There are instances when limitations are themselves a feature.
MARS also competes against longstanding app, Hipstamatic, which just this week got a significant update and some new analog photography-inspired apps and features.
Pricing and Availability
MARS also opts for a refreshingly simple payment strategy. The app is $6.99 with no ads, no subscription, and no data collection of any kind. MARS will launch on November 1, 2026, on the Apple App Store.
Image creditsPhotos by Keitaro Kobayashi
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