FOR RELEASE: Tuesday 20 October 2026, 07:00 ET (14:00 Israel)

Citus Camera brings measured film to the iPhone viewfinder, with no subscription

TEL AVIV, 20 October 2026. Citus Camera, a new iPhone camera app built by a working photographer, is available today on the App Store. Its film looks are measured from real scanned rolls rather than styled by eye, and they render live in the viewfinder, so the photograph is finished at the moment of the shutter instead of edited afterwards.

The app is the work of Leon Yakobov, a commercial photographer based in Tel Aviv, who built it alone over a year. Each look began with a real roll of film: scanned, then measured for how the stock renders colour and skin, where its highlights roll off, and how its grain sits differently in shadow than in light. Those measurements, not a designer's impression of "vintage", are what the app renders. The measurement method is published at citus.studio/science.

Grain renders into the capture rather than over it. Every photograph carries its complete recipe, the look and every setting used, inside the file's EXIF, so a look can be handed from one photographer to another and read back in any tool. Everything runs on the device: no image ever leaves the phone, there is no account, and the only data collected is anonymous feature usage, which can be switched off.

Citus Camera is free to download. Citus Pro and three look packs, Film Stock, Cinema and Mono, are one-time purchases. There is no subscription.

"I never trusted the photos my phone gave me," Yakobov said. "They were sharp and correct and they felt like nothing. I wanted the character of my film cameras with the convenience of my phone, and I refused to fake it. So I measured it."

"Every look in Citus started as a real roll," he said. "You can argue with a measurement. You cannot argue with a mood. That is why the method is public: I would rather be checked than believed."

On why the look lives in the viewfinder: "When the look is there while you compose, you shoot differently. You are making a photograph, not a file to fix later."

On pricing: "Photographers should own their tools. You buy a lens once. You should buy this once."

On the recipe in the file: "A look you cannot share is a secret. A recipe in the file is a conversation between photographers."

What ships at launch
- 28 film looks across the free Citus set and three packs: Film Stock, Cinema, Mono
- Looks rendered live in the viewfinder, before the shutter
- Grain rendered into the capture
- Tones, clarity, structure, saturation, vignette, fringe and black-and-white controls, all live
- Up to 48 MP and ProRAW capture
- The full recipe written into every photograph's EXIF; recipes can be saved, named and shared
- Runs entirely on the device; no account

Availability
Citus Camera is available on the App Store from 20 October 2026 for iPhone. Free to download; Citus Pro and the three look packs are one-time purchases, priced locally in each store.

Background
Citus Camera is made by Citus Studio, the one-person studio of Leon Yakobov in Tel Aviv, Israel. Yakobov has worked as a commercial photographer for the past nine years, photographed weddings before that, and has shot film throughout. Citus Camera is the studio's first app, self-funded, and was built over twelve months. Its measurement work on film stocks is published openly at citus.studio/science.

Press assets
- 108 photographs taken with the app, straight out of camera, full resolution, recipe in each file: 56 from Tel Aviv and 52 from Rome, Milano and Lake Como: citus.studio/press
- Screens of the app on iPhone 17 Pro, the mark and the app icon
- Everything in one download: https://pub-b9e0cb55a05e4606a2b92bc6c57f290d.r2.dev/Citus-Camera-Press-Kit.zip
- App Store: live on 20 October 2026

Contact
Leon Yakobov, developer and photographer
hello@citus.studio
citus.studio · Instagram @citus.camera
