FilmBox by Photomyne 4+

I tried 4 negative scanning apps and this was by far the best! It easily crops and recognizes photos. Easy to export. Quick turn over between scans.

A few tips. Follow their directions. Hold the negative at least 2 inches away from the white screen otherwise it will look pixelated. Hold the phone as close to the negative as you can. Use the voice control feature. Practice. Try a few different angles and a few different distances until you get the best look. Once I had my chosen method I was able to scan 5 rolls of film in an hour or less.

(I had a tiny bit of trouble finding a good solid white background but eventually I opened a blank note and turned my brightness all the way up.)

I hooked clothes pins over my laptop screen with a flexible wire to hold the negative still and away from the screen. Then I was able to easily steady my iPhone near the negative to get a good shot. Another option would be to steady your phone with a tripod or kick-stand. My scans were not as good as the originals were, but these were pictures that were lost to me. It was wonderful to see them again.

Thank you for these comments! Just one thing, the camera needs to see the side holes in order to have the best automatic cropping ;) If you'd like to suggest a feature or an improvement to the app, please write in to us at support@photomyne.com. We'll do our best to incorporate the same and earn a five star rating from you. 

This app is quite awful to say the least. The so called “auto cropping” feature only seemed to work once out of my several dozen tries. The colours are supremely off compared to scans I have done with the exact same negatives using even amateur equipment, which for me is the biggest issue. Also the scans from the app seem as though they are altered to be more grainy and have more noise in the images than there should be, almost like those vintage Super 8 emulator apps. Even just taking a photo and reversing the negative in photoshop myself is significantly better and only takes marginally more time and effort. Would not recommend unless you don’t have any other options to scan negatives.

edit:

After receiving a response from the developer with their typical “negative has to be two inches from computer screen and the camera needs to see the side holes” response that every review gets, I have a bit more to say.

It isn’t a problem with the distance from the backlight or the framing of the negative. I read the instructions before trying to scan my negatives and when I had poor results I read the reviews. Holding the negative the supposed proper distance, or closer or further, has little to no effect on the grainy results and even less on the washed out and dull colours.

Upon further consideration, would give zero stars to the app if I could, and negative stars to the copied and pasted response nearly every review gets from the developer.

The negative has be 2 inches (5 cm) away from the computer screen in order not to have the image pixelated. The camera needs to see the side holes. Please try again and let us know how it goes.