Changelog

XMP Sidecar Export & EXIF Metadata

This update introduces the ability to export your film rolls as XMP sidecar files, making your data fully compatible with desktop photo editors like Lightroom and Capture One. Each frame exports as an individual file packed with complete EXIF data, ensuring your camera, lens, and precise exposure settings are perfectly logged and ready to sync with your film scans.

XMP Sidecar Export with Full Metadata

You can now export your film rolls as standard XMP sidecar files, providing direct compatibility with desktop editors like Adobe Lightroom and Capture One. Every frame generates an individual file containing an exact EXIF record of your shot. This includes your camera model, lens, focal length, focus distance, and frame number. It also records precise exposure details like shutter speed, aperture, ISO, exposure compensation, metering mode, exposure program, and flash settings. Finally, it logs your specific film stock, any filters used, plus the exact date, time, and geolocation. This ensures your analog shooting data translates perfectly into your digital library.

Notes and Details in User Comments

To make sure no detail gets left behind, the export process writes your personal frame notes directly into the UserComment field. While standard technical data is mapped to specific EXIF tags, this comment field guarantees that the extra context you write down while shooting remains attached to the image file and is easily readable in your desktop editor.

Choose Your Metadata Workflow

This new export method works alongside our macOS app, which writes metadata directly into JPEG, TIFF, and DNG files. Offering XMP sidecars provides an alternative for those who prefer a non-destructive approach or work with proprietary file formats. Once you receive your scans, simply place the exported XMP files in the same folder as your images. Your software will read the data automatically, allowing you to choose the workflow that best fits your post-processing routine.

Gallery View and Toolbar Customization

This release gives you more control over how you browse and interact with your films. Switch between List and Gallery layouts to navigate your library visually or in detail, and customize your recorder toolbar to fit your workflow. Quickly access your most-used settings and manage your film rolls more smoothly and intuitively.

Gallery View

You can now browse your films in a Gallery layout, making it easier to visually scan your rolls. Switch seamlessly between List and Gallery views depending on how you prefer to navigate your library.

Customizable Recorder Toolbar

Choose which controls appear in your recorder toolbar and arrange them in the order that suits your workflow. You can now add shortcuts for key shooting parameters including Compensation, Flash, Exposure Program, Metering Mode, Focus Distance, and Lens. Your most-used tools are always at your fingertips, making recording your shots faster and more intuitive than ever.

Refinements and Fixes

Minor interface improvements ensure smooth switching between views and consistent behavior when customizing the toolbar. Overall responsiveness and visual feedback have been polished for a more intuitive experience.

Major Performance Improvements

This release focuses on speed, stability, and everyday workflow refinements. The app runs faster, especially on older devices, moving films and folders is clearer and more flexible, and several interface issues have been resolved to make interactions feel more consistent.

Faster and More Stable

Major speed and stability improvements have been implemented across the app. Library navigation, film editing, and general interactions are noticeably more responsive, particularly on older iPhone models. The goal is simple: less waiting, more focus on your work.

Improved Move Workflow

The Move screen now includes a contextual header that clearly shows what you are moving and where it will go. Films can now be moved, edited, and exported without dismissing the recorder toolbar, making it easier to manage rolls without interrupting your flow.

Refinements and Fixes

Purchase restoration is now more reliable when switching devices. The Welcome screen has been clarified for iOS 26 to avoid confusion during first launch. Animation issues when deleting films or folders with a swipe gesture in lists have also been fixed, resulting in more predictable behavior throughout the app.

JPEG XL Support & Metadata Export

This update adds support for JPEG XL to the Mac app. You can now embed your capture data directly into .jxl files when exporting scans, alongside JPEG, TIFF, and DNG. The release also includes minor UI improvements.

JPEG XL & Metadata

Frames for Mac now supports JPEG XL. When exporting your scans, you can embed data captured via the iPhone app directly into .jxl files, just as you can with JPEG, TIFF, and DNG. This ensures your images remain fully documented across modern file formats while keeping your film photography workflow consistent.

Embedded metadata includes image number, date and time, GPS coordinates, aperture, shutter speed, exposure program, exposure mode, exposure compensation, flash, metering mode, focal length, focus distance, subject distance range, lens make and model, lens serial number, lens specification, camera make and model, camera serial number, ISO speed rating, sensitivity type, and additional notes such as film stock, filters, and personal remarks.

Focus Distance in Sidebar and EXIF

This update brings focus distance support to the Mac app. If you record focus distance in Frames for iOS, that data now appears in the sidebar and gets written into the EXIF metadata when you export your scans. The update also improves how certain metadata values are handled and includes visual refinements for macOS Sequoia.

Focus Distance and Subject Distance Range

Focus distance is now visible in the sidebar alongside your other shooting data. When you export to DNG, JPG, or TIFF, this value is written to the Subject Distance field in the EXIF metadata. The app also calculates a Subject Distance Range by combining the focus distance with the focal length you used for the frame, giving image viewers and cataloging software more context about your shot.

This feature works with focus distance data recorded in Frames for iOS (version 1.21.0 and later). If you've been logging focus distance on your phone, that information now carries through to your exported files on Mac.