Press kit
Citus Camera is a camera for iPhone with a film look that is there before you press the shutter. The Film Stock looks are measured from real scanned rolls, the other sets are graded by hand, and all of them render live in the viewfinder, entirely on the device. One-time purchases, no subscription. It releases on 20 October.
Everything here is free to publish alongside coverage of Citus Camera. Photographs may be cropped for layout, not edited, graded or retouched; the recipe in each caption travels with the image. Subjects who appear have signed releases and are credited in the captions.
Facts
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App: Citus Camera One line: Film Stock looks measured from real rolls, every look live in the viewfinder. Developer: Leon Yakobov, Citus Studio, Tel Aviv, Israel (one person) Launch: Tuesday 20 October 2026, 07:00 ET / 14:00 Israel. Embargo lifts 09:00 ET. Category: Photo and Video Platform: iPhone only, iOS 16.6 or later. 48 MP and ProRAW capture on iPhones that support them (iPhone 14 Pro and later). Language: English Price (USD, as of 20 Oct 2026): free download with three looks and the full camera. Citus Pro $14.99 one-time. FILM STOCK, CINEMA, MONO packs $4.99 each, one-time. No subscription, no ads, no trial needed: every look previews live before purchase. Looks: 28 across four sets (Citus 10, Film Stock 6, Cinema 6, Mono 6). Output: JPEG with the full recipe in EXIF; Apple ProRAW DNG on supported iPhones; EXIF kept. Processing: no generative or AI processing of the image; the looks are rendered live on the device; the Film Stock set is measured from scanned film. Privacy: no account, no sign-up; photographs never leave the phone. Anonymous feature-usage events only, no personal data, and that can be switched off in Settings. Coming later as a free update: a film lab (diffusion, halation, depth of field). App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6789524977 Website: https://citus.studio Method: https://citus.studio/science Press kit: https://citus.studio/press Press contact: Leon Yakobov, hello@citus.studio Photo credit line: Photograph by Leon Yakobov / Citus Camera
The photographs · twelve to lead
Straight out of camera. The file name carries the look; the full recipe is inside each file. Full size: in the downloads below.
Twenty more, Tel Aviv
Before and after
Same shutter press. Citus saves the Apple ProRAW file beside its photograph; here that file is rendered flat on the left and the Citus frame is on the right. Nothing is edited.
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Press release
Third person, ready to paste. Plain text.
FOR RELEASE: Tuesday 20 October 2026, 07:00 ET (14:00 Israel)
Citus Camera brings film looks measured from real rolls 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 Stock 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 in five months, from the first line of code on 4 May 2026 to the App Store in October. Each Film Stock 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 Film Stock 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
The maker, in his own words
First person, by Leon Yakobov. Quote freely; link: citus.studio/press#founder
I never trusted the photos my phone gave me. They were sharp, clean and correct, and they felt like nothing. My film cameras gave me the opposite: images with weight, warmth, a character I could not name but always recognised. The problem was everything around film: the cost per frame, the days of waiting, the scanning, the not-knowing until it was too late to reshoot.
So I spent five months, from the first line of code on 4 May, trying to close that gap honestly. Not with a filter that guesses at "vintage", but with measurement. I scanned real rolls and studied how each stock actually behaves: its colour, how it renders skin, where its highlights roll off, how its grain sits differently in shadow than in light. Those measurements, not my nostalgia, became the looks in Citus.
The result is a camera where the film look is already there when you raise the phone. Shooting through the look changes what you shoot. The photo that lands in your library is finished. Nothing leaves the phone, there is no account, and there is no subscription: you buy the looks once and they are yours.
I built it alone, as a working photographer, because it was the camera I wanted to carry and could not buy. I am not replacing film. I am giving its eye to the frames film could never afford.
Leon Yakobov, Citus Camera
Pull quotes
The film look is already there when you raise the phone.
For the Film Stock looks I measured real film instead of faking its mood.
You can argue with a measurement. You cannot argue with a mood.
Photographers should own their tools. You buy a lens once. You should buy this once.
A look you cannot share is a secret. A recipe in the file is a conversation between photographers.
The looks
Citus ships with 28 looks in four sets. The Citus set, ten original looks graded by hand (FROST, EMBER, AMBER, LINEN, CORAL, DUNE, CEDAR, SLATE, FOG and TERRA), of which FROST, AMBER and LINEN are free. FILM STOCK: six looks made from real film rolls, scanned and measured (P400, E100, EC100, G200, T800 and S400). CINEMA: six colour grades built for the screen (K83, TEAL, ENR, BLUSH, STEEL and FABLE). MONO: six black and white looks (R25, PEARL, ASH, COAL, MATTE and ONYX). Every look previews live in the viewfinder before it is bought; strength is set by holding the look, and grain renders into the capture rather than over it.
The camera
Citus is a camera, not an editor. The look is applied while you shoot, and the photograph lands in the library finished. The camera offers exposure compensation, focus lock and face autofocus, manual white balance with a live Kelvin readout, a self-timer and burst, a grid, a level and an optional date stamp, and frames of 3:4, 4:5, 1:1 and 9:16. On supported iPhones it captures at 48 megapixels and in Apple ProRAW (DNG). 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. Recipes can be saved, named and reapplied with one tap, and shared as files. Everything runs on the device: no account, no sign-up.
The app
Citus Camera on iPhone 17 Pro, in Apple's product bezel. Two true pairs: the same frame through two films.
Downloads
- The press kit, PDFFacts, release, photographs with recipes, screens. 12 MB.PDF
- Everything, one ZIPRelease, 56 photographs, screens, brand, captions. 276 MB.ZIP
- Italy, October 2026Straight out of camera, full resolution, the recipe in every file. Shot on a pre-release build that includes the film lab, which comes later as a free update; the lab settings are not listed in those recipes.
- Rome14 photographs. 133 MB.ZIP
- Milano20 photographs. 180 MB.ZIP
- Lake Como18 photographs. 229 MB.ZIP
- The release, plain textThird person, ready to paste.TXT
- Captions, Tel AvivAll 56, with the recipe for each.Captions
- Captions, ItalyAll 52 from Rome, Milano and Lake Como.Captions
Brand
Use only the five above. Do not rotate, recolour or outline the mark. "Citus Camera" in text; "Citus" after first mention is fine. The two greyed renders are the earlier icon, shown so the mark reads correctly: a lens mount, the sensor, the shutter release. Do not publish them.
Captions and credit
- SINGLE IMAGE
[Subject, place]. Citus Camera, [LOOK] [strength]%. Photograph by Leon Yakobov / Citus Camera.
- GALLERY
Photographs taken with Citus Camera in Tel Aviv, Rome, Milano and on Lake Como, straight out of camera; the look and settings are written into every file. Photographs by Leon Yakobov / Citus Camera.
- BEFORE AND AFTER
Left: the same frame, the ProRAW file rendered flat. Right: Citus Camera, [LOOK].
- SCREENS
Citus Camera on iPhone 17 Pro. Image: Citus Camera.
Photographs may be cropped for layout; do not edit, grade or retouch them. Subjects who appear have signed releases and are credited in the captions.
How the looks are made
The method is public: citus.studio/science.
Contact
hello@citus.studio · Instagram @citus.camera. A working photographer answers; expect replies within a day.