MARS turns your iPhone into a black-and-white film camera
MARS is an iPhone app that emulates black-and-white film photography with glow and grain. Release date, price, and key features.
The MARS app creates monochrome photos and videos with glow and grain, mimicking film. It will be released on the App Store on November 1, 2026, and will cost $6.99.
MARS focuses on black-and-white photography with a film glow effect
Japanese photographer Keitaro Kobayashi is developing MARS, a camera app for iPhone. It is designed for monochrome photography and mimics the characteristic light diffusion of film—the effect in which bright areas seem to spill beyond their boundaries.
The app has three settings: Glow adjusts the intensity of the glow, Exposure controls the brightness of the frame, and Grain adjusts the visibility of the grain. Before shooting, users can also choose an aspect ratio: 1:1, 5:4, 4:3 (the camera’s native format), 3:2, or 16:9. Both landscape and portrait orientations are supported.
The MARS interface is designed to look like a camera viewfinder, framed by a matte border that resembles glass. According to Kobayashi, the brightest part of a scene should spread light into the surrounding darkness, as it does with film glow. Each frame is created in real time from the camera’s HDR signal: the image users see while shooting is saved in both photos and videos.
MARS stands out for its specialized focus
Kobayashi has shared examples of photos taken with MARS. They look noticeably different from standard iPhone photos. There are already plenty of mobile photography apps that emulate film, so MARS stands out primarily for combining black-and-white imagery with pronounced glow and grain.
For users who value a wide range of settings and high image quality, there is, for example, Halide. Lightroom lets users shoot and edit photos with an industry-standard set of tools. MARS is for those looking not for a universal tool, but for a specific visual style. In this case, the limited number of settings is part of the concept, not a drawback.
One of the app’s competitors is the long-running Hipstamatic. On October 15, 2026, it received a major update, adding new features and apps inspired by analog photography.
Price and release date
MARS will arrive on the Apple App Store on November 1, 2026. The app will cost $6.99. The developer has opted out of advertising, subscriptions, and collecting user data.
The featured photos were taken by Keitaro Kobayashi.
