Useful Cinematography Smartphone Apps

3D ST (Stereo Tools) provides depth of field, parallax and convergence calculations for stereoscopic 3D and a glossary of 3D terms. It’s a simple app perfect for quick input and easy data retrieving.

Calculate storage needs based on FPS, compression, resolution and more. Compatible with ProRes, ARRIRAW, REDCODE, DNxHD as well as NTSC, PAL, 720p, 1080i/p, 2K and 4K standards.

Artemis allows you to use your iPhone to take a picture and overlay an estimated field-of-view for different lens sizes. It’s essentially a quick Director’s Finder that allows you to “see” with different lenses all at once.

Just like the iPhone version of the app, Artemis HD is a quick Director’s Finder that allows you to “see” with different lenses all at once. This version is exclusive to the iPad and requires a separate purchase.

Cine TimeLapse is helps calculate how long you need to run the camera for your desired length of footage. This is the perfect app for when you’re on set and unsure of what the best timelapse settings are.

An app to help with expected stereography calculations. It has some unique features like real-time depth simulation which supposedly helps you “see the consequences of your choices for the viewer.”

Log talent releases, shotlists, crew contracts, and other film production paperwork with this app. Various in-app purchases help turn an iPhone or iPad into a digital archive for film docs.

You’ll find that Clinometer pulls no punches on its specificity and usefulness. It strives to be the ONLY level/clinometer app that you want to use. It calibrates seamlessly, launches quickly and works effectively.

Designed with AC’s in mind to replace traditional paper camera reports. The app boasts some features over pen + paper with geolocation and using the iPhone’s gyroscope to measure angle and orientation.

Though the name implies only DSLR shooters can utilize the app, the DSLR Filmmaker Toolkit is actually a large collection of cinematography tools including a slate, shot log, and DoF calculator.

One of the cooler features of the Sony F65 is the ability to control the camera wirelessly via iPad with this app. You’re given access to nearly everything from the main settings to the nitty gritty menus and sub-menus.

Among some of the highlights, FilmCalc can calculate split focus, sunrise, sunset and sun position, HMI flicker, and lens matching along with traditional depth-of-field, field-of-view, and film footage/data storage.

The app is it’s own timecode slate, letting you set the timecode to time of day or manual jam-sync it. Flick your wrist or simply tap them to slap the sticks. You can also email log notes with timecode notation.

The Filmmaker’s Dictionary, renamed to “Gobo,” is an app that organizes production slang into an easy-to-read glossary. Perfect if you’re new to the industry and don’t want to be caught not knowing the lingo.

Using your tablet’s camera, this app strips an image of color variables and shows you the bands in the image that correlate to different levels of light. All of this to help light a green screen evenly. Innovative and useful.

A 3D calculator for inter-ocular distance, “roundness” factor, and foreground + background divergences. Can be used with film and digital cameras, still or motion picture work, making it more versatile.

KeeMe displays a chosen color on an iPhone alongside tracking markers to later overlay whatever you want onto the phone’s screen. Worth downloading to make your After Effects session a bit shorter.

Kodak’s app may leave digital out of the equation, but this app is essential for those working on film. Beyond simple DoF, the app also is a film footage calculator with a highly comprehensive glossary of terms.

If lighting is your weakness, this app could be a nice crutch until you grow your legs. Or if you’re a new gaffer still feeling your way around setups, you could benefit from having this as backup in your pocket.

Many cinematographers (and gaffers) like to make lighting diagrams — maps of a location with characters loosely blocked and equipment labeled on it. Lighting Designer enables that in the digital age.

The biggest feature in this app is its gathering of digital camera manuals. From RED to Alexa to 7D, the app puts the PDF’s into your hands without having to load them manually.

MatchLens assists you in matching the same field of view between two different camera systems and lenses. The app covers pro cameras from IMAX to Super 16 to digital cinema like RED and Alexa.

A simple app with one purpose: turn your iPhone into a tracking marker. The menu is spartan: one button, “Select a Marker,” and the choice of 9 different tracking marks. Selecting one expands the image fullscreen.

What OnSet does is allow you to compile, review, and aggregate clips, camera data, and script data into a digestible form. In plain English: watch dailies with all the important information about them at your fingertips.

Panascout snaps pictures of locations with a “Panaframe” that of different aspect ratios, geotags the picture, and records metadata for sun position and sunrise/sunset. This is the full-featured paid version.

Panascout snaps pictures of locations with a “Panaframe” that of different aspect ratios, geotags the picture, and records metadata for sun position and sunrise/sunset. The lite version, however, is limited in features.

pCam isn’t simply a DoF calculator. It does much more including field of view, exposure, HMI safe speeds, and helps with filters and lighting illumination. In terms of versatility and usefulness, nothing compares.

Moviola’s Pro Camera Guide is standard faire: an app that offers technical information on a variety of cameras. That stuff is useful, but its territory already covered by other apps that cost less or nothing at all.

Solve issues of parallax, lens choice, camera setup, and 3D workflows. Most useful is the “Stereo Rig Solver mode,” a walkthrough that “gives you the exact settings needed to accomplish any shot.”

Created by Affonso Beato, ASC, BSC, this 3D stereography calculator has a robust set of options. Self-described as an app that helps produce “stereo 3D images that don’t cause visual stress when presented.”

The best reference for electricians, best boys, and gaffers. It provides tons of info on types of lights, bulbs, scrims, as well as diagrams of common setups, power equations, and other reference material.

Shot Designer might be the only app you need to build lighting, camera, and blocking diagrams. It features a fluid, no-nonsense interface and, while it looks simple, is incredibly powerful.

As AD Reza Lackey says, “There is no doubt that Shot Lister will help film crews of all sizes and experience levels make the most of their days on set.” Described as the “only professional shot listing app.”

An app for scheduling on the production end, but contains one feature that DP’s and AC’s would enjoy having: the ability to cross off shots and storyboards as you go with a red “X” on shots that are long done.

You can do about as much with Storyboard Composer as you can with physical boards — even the ability to hone your pace and audio pitch and export it as a movie file to send to investors.

With pictures, diagrams, and specs, this app teaches you what things are and how they’re used in the grip department. The list of equipment is divided into four categories: dollies, cranes, hardware, and rigs.

This app goes much further than a simple DoF calculator. It can calculate stops you lose to filters, varispeed and shutter angles and even takes into account lenses, film stock and format.

See the effect your exposure has on depth of field in a highly visual format. You input format, distance, focal length and see a rundown of depth of field at various stops of exposure from f/1.0 to f/22.

Making money and getting paid are all results of working in this industry. Keeping track of that can get confusing, but with this app, it makes calculating your day rate and the amount of work hours a lot easier.