The vintage camera look on iPhone: 70s, 80s and 90s film, decade by decade

26 October 2026 · By Abu Ashraf Masnun

"Vintage" is doing a lot of work in that search box. A photo from 1974 and a photo from 1997 are both vintage now, and they look about as alike as flares and cargo shorts. Get the decade right and the look clicks. Get it wrong and it just looks like someone spilt tea on the photo.

To get a vintage camera look on iPhone, choose a decade, shoot RAW, and develop it with a film from that era: warm faded prints for the 70s, soft gentle colour for the 80s, punchy consumer negative for the 90s. Then finish with a little fade, grain that fits the film, and a frame, rather than a filter that does all three badly at once.

The 1970s look: amber prints and slide shows

The 70s were the decade colour photography moved into every home. Kodak's Kodacolor II arrived in 1972 and Kodacolor 400 in 1977, and prints from that era are well known for fading. What you see in the family album today is half the film and half fifty years in a drawer: warm, amber, a bit low in contrast, with the blacks lifted to brown.

The other 70s is the slide show. Kodachrome 64 arrived in 1974 and those slides kept their colour remarkably well: rich, contrasty, with that famous red. A 70s holiday is either faded prints or vivid slides, depending on whose dad you had.

• Nostalgia: amber highlights and rich shadows, like 1970s colour prints. The obvious one.
• Vintage: old print colour, deep and warm, with heavy grain and soft detail.
• Heritage: modelled on the datasheets of Kodachrome 64, for the slide-show side of the decade.
• Sepia: warm brown monochrome, for when you want to go back further than the 70s.

The 1980s look: soft portraits and the first disposables

The 80s were gentler than their hair. Kodacolor VR came out in 1983, the same year as Kodak's Vericolor III portrait film, and studio portraits were soft and warm. In 1986 Fujifilm brought out the QuickSnap, the modern disposable camera, and Kodak's Gold brand followed in 1988. The look: warm skin, soft contrast, colour that's pleasant rather than loud.

• Eighties: old portrait negative, warm with gentle contrast and soft colour. Modelled on the datasheets of Kodak Vericolor III, a professional portrait film of the period.
• Soft Portrait: low contrast, muted colour and open shadows, for the studio-portrait version.
• Gold: golden warmth and punchy yellows, the start of the consumer-negative look that ran into the 90s.

The 1990s look: punchy snapshots and flash

The 90s were the peak of the snapshot. Disposables sold in enormous numbers (more than 89 million in Japan alone in 1997), one-hour labs were on every high street, and prints came back with strong contrast and bright, saturated colour. Add a direct flash, and you have every party photo of the decade.

• Holiday: warm shadows, firm contrast and rosy reds, modelled on Kodak Gold 200's datasheets.
• Snapshot: green-leaning colour with cool, clean highlights, from Fuji Superia X-TRA 400's datasheets. The Fuji side of the shoebox.
• Everyday: punchy contrast, warm shadows and bright reds, from Kodak UltraMax 400's.
• Cool: budget negative with cool, clean colour, from Fuji C200's.
• Negative: consumer negative with hard contrast, teal greens and warm highlights. Pair it with the flash.

How to shoot a vintage look in Chobial

1. Load the film. Swipe across the picture, or tap the badge beside the island for the row of films. Its name and what it suits show for a moment over the picture.
2. Use the flash for the 90s. Tap flash left of the shutter until it's on. A film can't fake a flash, so Chobial uses the iPhone's real one. The full recipe is in the disposable camera look.
3. Shoot RAW. Old film looks have strong colour shifts and lifted shadows, and RAW holds up to them without banding.
4. Fade it. Open the photo, tap Edit, choose the Film tool and slide Fade to lift the blacks, the single most "old print" move there is. Grain and Strength are on the same panel.
5. Frame it. Tap Export, then Frame: Instant has a deep bottom edge and a handwritten caption and date, Label and Border put it on a paper mat, and Negative on a strip of 35 mm film. See frames.

Vintage, not ruined

The trap with a retro look is stacking everything: fade, heavy grain, light leaks, dust, vignette and a date in the corner. Real photos from those decades usually have one or two of those, not all of them at once. Pick the film for the decade, add one finishing touch, and stop. If you want to go further, start a film of your own from one of these in the film editor and tune its colour and grain until it looks like your family album rather than everyone's: make your own film.

And because Chobial develops from the original, you can try the same frame as 1974, 1986 and 1997 without a time machine. Open the photo, tap Edit › Film and tap through the decades.

Kodak, Kodacolor, Kodachrome, Gold, UltraMax and Vericolor are trademarks of Eastman Kodak Company. Fujifilm, Fuji, QuickSnap and Superia are trademarks of FUJIFILM Corporation. Huji Cam and Dazz Cam are other makers' apps. Chobial is not affiliated with any of them.

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