Bellows No. 1
A folding camera you open half way. No meter: in Manual you guess the distance and set it from the sunny-day card. Prints like postcards, deckled, the month in the margin.
Private beta now · Coming soon to the App Store
Photos worth waiting for
Not another camera roll of thousands you never look at. Old cameras, one roll at a time, and every film photo comes back as a real print, printed by a real lab and posted to your door.
Phold is a shelf of old cameras for your iPhone. Pick one, buy a roll of film in a photo shop of its day, shoot it, hand it in. Then wait for the envelope.
Plastique 120 · Funfair 400
How it works
Pick a camera · Buy film · Shoot · Develop
The four steps along the top of the app, the same as they always were.
Pick a camera
A shelf of cameras from a 1950s folding camera to the late 90s. Each prints its own way.
Buy film
Buy a roll in a photo shop of that camera's day, with Apple Pay. The price covers developing, printing and posting.
Shoot
Shoot in Auto, or Manual if you want to set it all yourself. No screen on the back, no peeking.
Develop
Hand the roll in at the shop. Develop 120 film yourself in the darkroom. Digital cameras copy onto a late-90s laptop.
After you hand it in
A real lab prints your roll and posts it to your door, usually one to two weeks after you hand it in.
Then the best bit: opening the envelope. Every photo on the roll, on real photo paper, with the camera's own look.
Scan the card inside and your digital copies open in the app, ready to share. If the card goes astray, you can type its code instead.
Opening a roll takes 10% off your next one.
The cameras
Every camera, its own look
Six film cameras, always on the shelf, and two digital cameras at a time, changing every few days. These are real prints from the app's own cameras. Tap one to see it bigger.
Reflex Twin 6×6
Look down into the hood at the dim, mirrored ground glass. You develop this one yourself, in the darkroom. Warm-tone paper, deckled edge.
FunSnap 27
The disposable from every holiday. Glossy 6×4s, an orange date in the corner, harsh flash and murky nights.
Kompakt LC
A little automatic you shoot from the hip. In the dark its shutter stays open. Saturated colour, deep vignette, a red date.
Plastique 120
All plastic, and the back lets the light in unless you tape it. Heavy vignette, soft corners, leaks, the odd double exposure.
Phold-75
Each print slides out and develops in front of you, then goes off to the lab to be printed for real. Deluxe packs print at true instant size.
The digital cameras · two at a time
Pocket Cam PK-1
A camera that plugs into a grey handheld. Turn the eye round for a selfie.
Snapper 100 Zoom
The lens pushes out when it wakes up, and it makes you wait while it writes to the card.
Daisy 200 Zoom
Sharp, fast and contrasty, for its day.
Twister 330
The lens half twists round for odd angles. On the iPhone Duo, the hinge is the swivel.
Digital cameras are different. They need no film. Copy their pictures to your phone on the old laptop and see them straight away. They aren't printed by the lab.
No peeking
You won't know until you open it
No screen on the back. Light leaks, a missed focus, an expired roll's odd colours: you only find out how they turned out when the prints arrive. Just like a real camera.
Your film pictures aren't shown anywhere in the app until they're on paper and in your hands. Scan the card in the envelope and they open.
Made for the iPhone Duo
The fold works the camera
On the iPhone Duo, the hinge is part of the camera. Works on any iPhone too: where there's no hinge, a button does it.
- The Reflex Twin shoots half open, like a laptop: the camera's two lenses above the fold, and below it you look down into the hood.
- The Phold-75 unfolds with the hinge, and each print slides out onto the lower half to develop.
- The Bellows No. 1 opens half way, its lens on a bed below the finder.
- The Twister 330's lens swivels with the hinge: ahead when closed, up when half open, at you when flat.
- Open the phone flat to open the camera's back and take the film out.
Prices
The film pays for the prints
One price a roll. It covers developing, printing and posting the prints to you. No subscription, no account.
Phold photo lab · 120 roll
120 film
£14.99
8 prints in the Bellows No. 1, 12 squares in the Reflex Twin and Plastique 120.
Developing · printing · posting to you
Phold photo lab · 35 mm
35 mm film
£19.99
27 prints from the FunSnap 27, 24 from the Kompakt LC, all 6×4.
Developing · printing · posting to you
Phold photo lab · instant
Instant pack
£16.99
8 prints from the Phold-75. Instant Deluxe, printed at true instant size: £37.99 (not in Australia or New Zealand).
Developing · printing · posting to you
Prices in the UK, including VAT. In the US a 120 roll is $17.99, 35 mm $24.99, instant $19.99 (Deluxe $39.99), plus any sales tax, shown before you pay. Prices in the EU, Canada and Australia are in euros and local dollars. Expired film in the shop's reduced bin starts at £13.99. Digital cameras are free to use.
Questions
FAQ
When do my prints arrive?
Usually one to two weeks after you hand the roll in. The lab prints it, then it goes in the post. The envelope in the app shows where it's got to, with tracking when the lab gives it.
Which countries do you post to?
The UK, the US, the EU, Canada, and Australia and New Zealand. You pay in your own currency, and the delivery address is chosen in Apple Pay.
What does the price cover?
Everything to get the prints to you: developing, printing on real photo paper, the lab's packaging and posting. The card in the envelope opens your digital copies at no extra cost.
How do I get the digital copies?
Scan the card inside the envelope with Phold, or type the code printed on it. Your roll opens in the app, ready to share. If the card never comes, the roll opens by itself a little while after it was posted.
What about the digital cameras?
They don't use film and aren't printed. Two are out at a time, changing every few days. Copy their pictures to your phone on the late-90s laptop and you see them straight away.
Can I get a refund?
An unused roll (not loaded into a camera) can be refunded within 14 days of buying it. Prints are made from your own photos, so once a roll is handed in it can't be returned. If your prints arrive damaged or don't arrive, tell us and we'll put it right. See the terms of sale.
Which iPhones does it work on?
It's made for the iPhone Duo, where the fold drives the cameras, and works on any iPhone running iOS 26 or later.
Do you keep my photos?
Your pictures stay on your phone. Only the print files of a roll you hand in go to the lab. Read the privacy policy.
Coming soon to the App Store
Private beta now
Phold is in a private beta. If you'd like to try it, or just want to know when it's out, write to us.