Many photo apps today make users one of two promises: to create kitschy images that are popular on social media sites or to create filtered images that claim to be film-like, but instead just look like muddy cellphone photos. The Horika App goes a bit further than a half-baked promise of “film-like” photos and instead tries to recreate the whimsy and feeling of shooting with a Holga or Diana F, except on your phone. After trying out the free version of the app for a month, how well does Horika capture the magic of analog?
The Big Picture: Horika App Comes Close, but it’s not Quite a Digital Holga
One of the things that the Horika app does well is make the user slow down when using the camera app. Whether it’s when you first install the app, to having to “wind” your “film” to advance to the next frame, to having to “develop” your shots before saving to your camera roll or sharing to social media – it turns smartphone photography into a far more intentional medium. In my experience, using my phone for photography transformed from a mindless exercise of snapping the shutter button to a more deliberate process of thinking about the image I wanted to capture.
That said, the images themselves still appear and feel like digital images with a filter applied to them. The app publisher notes that each image should have randomized light leaks, grain, and other effects. In practice, many of the images didn’t seem to really have the character that was promised. While I wish the images looked more like the scratchy, moody images that I get from my Diana F, overall, I enjoyed the process of using the app.
We’re giving the Horika App three out of five stars. Check it out for yourselves – it’s available for free with in-app purchases on the Apple App Store.
- Pro: Intuitive user interface makes it easy to get started
- Pro: Provides a slower, more thoughtful capture experience
- Pro: Makes multiple exposure photography very accessible
- Con: Images are still smartphone images with a filter over them
- Con: “Imperfections” are not nearly as random or pronounced
The Horika App Experience
After I initially installed the app, I was pleasantly surprised to be met with a first decision – selecting my frame size: Square or 645. From there, you’ll be asked to choose the “roll of film” that I would be using for the next 12 frames. Like the Holga that inspired this app, you’re given a choice of film to “load” and then you commit to 12 frames with that roll. If you’ve decided that you no longer want to shoot in your selected style, you’re forced to either finish using your film or advance it until it’s empty. This is the kind of friction that subconsciously makes the photographer consider each shot – am I ready to hit the shutter? Is this really what I want to use frame 11 for? And although the stakes are not nearly as high as the actual cost of film, it was a refreshing feeling to have on my phone – one that I hadn’t experienced before.
In terms of shooting, the app offers additional options to help you push your creativity. For one, the frame-advance slider allows the user to take multiple exposures, all without having to merge images in a separate app. There’s also the ability to change the color of the camera’s flash (a filter, not a physical change). This will add a tint to your photos that is meant to mimic the use of gelled flash strobes – something that I’ve done and enjoyed with my Diana F.
Another interesting consequence of requiring the user to advance the “film” is that you cannot preview the image you just took without advancing the film. This means there are no do-overs or chimping without having to interact with the camera’s frame-advance lever. All of this comes together to create a unique experience when using your phone’s camera – it’s deliberately slow, and for some, makes the process thoughtful and intentional.
Image Quality
The app has several rolls of film available to the user, including a seasonal roll, but these are locked behind a paywall. Again, having only committed to the free version of the app, you’ll get access to the seasonal roll (Aki for the months of October – December), a “Gold” color option, and “BW”, which, as you can probably guess, is a black and white filter. After spending time with the app, I found that the black-and-white filter is easily my favorite.
When I first came across this app on Reddit, the app developer stated:
Horika embraces imperfection — each photo may come with light leaks, grain, blur, or color shifts. It’s not a bug; it’s the point. Every shutter press is a small act of chance, like shooting real film.
To say I was intrigued is an understatement. I went into this review with high expectations – specifically, an app that could scratch my film itch without the associated costs of analog photography. Here, I found that the images weren’t as random as the developer had stated, and many of the images, while decent, were still clearly digital images with a filter applied to them.
Below are some sample images taken with the Horika App:
Is This for You
At the end of the day, the Horika App does offer something different to mobile photographers. Instead of trying to slap a simple filter over an image and calling it a day, the Horika app goes one step further and forces you to interact with the app in a way that’s reminiscent of analog photography. In that sense, it’s a joy to pick up the camera that’s almost always with me – my phone and use it like I would an actual camera. It’s not perfect, but it does many things right. I’m not sure if I would purchase the “Pro” version, nor would I necessarily recommend it for most, but it is a lot of fun if you lean into the imperfections.
Declaration of Journalistic Intent
The Phoblographer is one of the last standing dedicated photography publications that speaks to both art and tech in our articles. We put declarations up front in our reviews to adhere to journalistic standards that several publications abide by. These help you understand a lot more about what we do:
- At the time of publishing this review, Horika App ISN’T running direct-sold advertising with the Phoblographer. This doesn’t affect our reviews anyway and it never has in our 15 years of publishing our articles. This article is in no way sponsored.
- Note that this isn’t necessarily our final review of the unit. It will be updated, and it’s more of an in-progress review than anything. In fact, almost all our reviews are like this.
- None of the reviews on the Phoblographer are sponsored. That’s against FTC laws and we adhere to them just the same way that newspapers, magazines, and corporate publications do.
- Horika App was purchased by the Phoblographer for review . There was no exchange of money between us or our third-party partners and the Phoblographer for this to happen. Manufacturers trust the Phoblographer’s reviews, as they are incredibly blunt.
- Horika App knows that it cannot influence the site’s reviews. If we don’t like something or if we have issues with it, we’ll let our readers know.
- The Phoblographer’s standards for reviewing products have become much stricter. After having the world’s largest database of real-world lens reviews, we choose not to review anything we don’t find innovative or unique, and in many cases, products that lack weather resistance. Unless something is very unique, we probably won’t touch it.
- In recent years, brands have withheld NDA information from us or stopped working with us because they feel they cannot control our coverage. These days, many brands will not give products to the press unless they get favorable coverage. In other situations, we’ve stopped working with several brands for ethical issues. Either way, we report as honestly and rawly as humanity allows.
- At the time of publishing, the Phoblographer is the only photography publication that is a member of Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative. We champion human-made art and are frank with our audience. We are also the only photography publication that labels when an image is edited or not.
More can be found on our Disclaimers page.