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The best vintage camera apps for iPhone in 2026

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The vintage camera category is crowded and genuinely good — the differences are less about quality and more about shape: how many cameras you get, whether video is first-class, and whether you shoot one camera or two.

The short list

Dazz Cam — the category king. The biggest catalogue of vintage cameras, lenses and accessory effects, with detailed film emulation. If browsing a huge camera bag is the joy, this is it. Shoots one camera at a time.

OldRoll — the film ritual. Skeuomorphic film cameras with a develop-the-roll feel and a broad collection. The most "analog" experience of the list.

1998 Cam — quick date-stamped nostalgia. The 90s point-and-shoot look — timestamp, light leaks, grain — with minimal fuss.

Huji Cam — the original. Started the disposable-cam wave in 2018. It hasn't changed much, which is either a bug or the entire point. Effectively free.

ism — editorial retro digital. Polished retro-digicam looks by MWM, subscription-first, strong defaults.

Selfie — vintage + both cameras at once. 50+ presets across 35mm film, medium format, instant, and fun categories (VHS, CCTV, thermal, fisheye), rendered live in the viewfinder — with the one feature no vintage-first app has: simultaneous front-and-back photos and videos. The film look, applied to the scene and your reaction, in one exposure. Free to try; iOS 17+.

How to choose

  • Maximum camera variety to explore: Dazz Cam, then OldRoll.
  • Fast and free: Huji Cam or 1998 Cam.
  • You're in the photos too — travel, couples, group shots, reactions: Selfie is the only one that shoots both cameras simultaneously. (Why that matters.)
  • Video with the vintage look: Selfie (including dual video) and Dazz Cam both do filtered video; the stills-first apps mostly don't.

What makes a vintage filter good

Worth knowing when you compare: convincing film emulation is per-camera, not one-size — real grain structure (applied at capture, so it survives export), halation around highlights, stock-specific color bias, and imperfections that vary shot to shot. Apps that model individual cameras (Dazz, OldRoll, Selfie) pass this test; generic "vintage filter" overlays don't. More in how to make iPhone photos look like film.

Common questions

Do these apps reduce photo quality? The look is a quality reduction, deliberately — grain, softness, color shifts. The underlying capture is a normal iPhone photo; nothing is lost beyond what the aesthetic asks for. (Longer answer.)

Which is best for Instagram stories? Any of them — the disposable/party look (Huji, 1998, Selfie's Disposable preset) is the most story-native aesthetic right now.

Is there one app that covers everything? No single app wins every column. The honest summary: Dazz for catalogue depth, Selfie for dual capture + video, Huji for free simplicity.

Check these for yourself

Features and pricing change. These are the primary sources for every app named above, so you can verify what is written here rather than take our word for it:

Selfie: front and back camera at once, with vintage filters.

Selfie is developed by Engcraft, LLC, the team behind several AI and camera apps on the App Store. Contact: useselfieapp@gmail.com