Instruction
Manual

FVLM is a film camera. One stock, one look: a real colour cube, real scanned grain, real light leaks. There is no filter list, and nothing to grade later.

You shoot, it develops. Photos and clips leave the camera already finished. The moment of capture is the edit.

There is no negative. What develops is the picture. Treat every frame like film: choose, then press.

Everything happens on the phone. No account, no cloud, no network. The roll is yours because it never leaves you.

Hold it upright. The camera is portrait. Video opens a landscape gate inside the upright finder (chapter 6); films play back wide.

Lost? The little (i) on the finder opens this manual's in-app twin. It retires after the first read; Settings keeps it forever.

Two stocks. KD1 in colour, and a mono cut of the same emulsion: the tones hold, the chroma goes. Swap in Settings → Look.

Three gauges. Grain size: fine, medium, coarse: a 35, a 16, an 8. Real scanned emulsion, printed into the frame when it develops. Never a live overlay.

The leak door. Roughly one frame in three develops with a light leak. You will not see it coming, and no two are the same. This is the film, not a fault.

The date back. A small date burns into the corner as the frame develops: orange on colour, neutral on mono. Toggle DATE in the deck's drawer.

Rolls come in 24, 27 and 36. At zero the roll finishes and goes to the lab; a fresh roll loads itself. The drum keeps count (chapter 5).

Developing is the only wait in the camera: a beat per frame, the way it should feel. Watch the finder go quiet while it happens.

Tap to focus. The reticle confirms with a tick. Long-press latches AF·L + AE·L: recompose freely; badges show what's held. Drive EV afterwards and exposure hands back to you.

The EV rail. Drag beside the finder, sun-ward or moon-ward. The meter keeps the look honest; you keep the mood.

MF. The wheel pulls focus by hand; red peaking crowns whatever is sharp. SNAP presets the lens to a distance (0.2–50 m): zero-delay street frames.

The level. Two wings pin the frame's nearest level axis; the centre line is the true horizon, sliding with pitch, counter-rolling with tilt. At level the pieces merge, snap green, tick once. Aim straight down and it becomes a bullseye for flat-lay.

MX. Multiple exposure: frames layer on one negative, and the ghost of the last frame haunts the finder so you can place the next one.

Movements. Settings → Camera → Level Verticals: converging verticals straighten at develop, like a view camera's rise. Deliberate angles stay yours.

Flip for the front camera; selfies can mirror or not (Settings). SIMPLE mode strips the deck to shutter + roll, for lending the camera.

Every real lens is a stop on the band. Tap a stop and you're on that glass; the band always tells you which one you're looking through.

Past the last glass a fine ruler counts the digital reach. It's honest about it. Spend pixels knowingly.

The rocker rate-drags: deflection is speed, like a camcorder's W–T. Pinch works too, everywhere.

In video, crossings are allowed mid-take. The lens-switch click can land on the microphone. The mic chip mutes a take when silence matters (chapter 6).

The shutter is instant. No lag. The frame is yours at the press. Hold for a burst of up to 4.

The roll drum spins as you spend; frames left peek through its window, and it never lies.

Flash OFF / ON / AUTO, and the icon reports its own status: orange while the exposure is in flight (hold the frame!), green when it's safe to move. A failed frame hands it straight back.

Rear-sync. In the dark the shutter drags, light streaks, and the flash pops last. Your subject lands sharp on top of the trails.

Off-board flash. The LED fires clean, with no pre-flash, so it can trigger slave strobes without wasting their pop.

Timer 3 s / 10 s with a countdown. The drawer keeps the occasional tools, timer, flash, level, DATE, grain, out of the way until needed.

Flip the gate to video: a landscape 4:3 gate opens inside the upright finder. Turn the phone sideways and the finder fills. Landscape shoots landscape.

A can holds 100 ft, 2 minutes 46. The counter spends feet and seconds in real time; the reels spin while you roll. At zero, the can is full.

Video records clean and develops when the can seals. Grade, grain and leaks print onto the clip the moment you stop. What you framed is what develops.

Pause between takes. One can, many takes, joined in camera.

The effects button is a door. Hold it mid-roll and light floods in for exactly as long as you hold. You won't see it in the finder. It lands when the can develops.

Zoom crossings are allowed mid-take. The lens click can land in the audio; the mic chip mutes a take for silent films.

Sealed cans land in the lab's CANS room, developed and playable, and become the film maker's raw stock (chapter 8).

Two rooms: ROLLS for photos, CANS for films. Cover-first; tap for the viewer, long-press for batch select.

The viewer: pinch to inspect grain at 1:1, share, save out, or tear up. Films play right there.

The calendar drills the archive by day. Every roll remembers when it was shot.

Import develops outsiders. Old clips and photos pass through the cube and come out on FVLM stock, re-exposed, not filtered.

Wigglegram: a 3D photo from a tiny hand sweep, bound in the lab into a frame that wobbles alive.

Where things save: photos to your photo library's FVLM album, films to Movies/FVLM. Nothing ever leaves the phone on its own.

Both makers are wizards with the same three acts across the top: COLLECT → ARRANGE → EXPORT. Walk forward, step back, park any time. The wizard writes its draft and reopens exactly where you left. Nothing commits until you bind.

The zine wizard · Collect: pick a roll's best. The wizard pulls from every roll you've shot.

Arrange: spreads laid like a printer's dummy. The dice re-roll a spread's layout; drag to reorder; blanks belong. They're the book breathing.

Style & 3D pages: styles skin the covers, margins and plates. A spread can go 3D: a cross-eye stereo pair, or a Magic Eye page hiding the frame in noise.

Export a zine three ways: read it on screen as an A5 booklet; export a print-ready PDF laid for A4 saddle-stitch: fold, staple, done; or order it printed: pick the paper (matte 130 gsm · recycled 110 · silk 170), the press runs it and posts the bound copy anywhere.

The film wizard · Collect: pick clips from your cans. Arrange is the timeline: drag to scrub, pull ends to trim, SPLIT at the playhead, duplicate, fill, delete, long-press to reorder, + inserts at the playhead. A magnet catches the seams, toggle it for free scrub. Undo/redo cover every cut; fullscreen lifts the preview.

Export a film: name it, then Keep on Shelf or Bind out to Movies. Six gates deliver it: 4:3 CLASSIC (native) · 3:4 PAPER · 16:9 WIDE · 4:5 FEED · 9:16 STORY · 1:1 SQUARE. The shelf keeps the full 4:3 master; export crops your gate.

Editing an old film asks: update this film, or save as new. The shelf is the bindery's library: zines and films, cover-first, reprint any time. Tear-up is forever.