FAQ

You have questions, we have answers.

How much does Kino cost?

Kino is $19,99. That's $19,99 once — not per month, or per year, no subscriptions — just once and you're done. We pack in about $30-$50 worth of presets alone, so that's a pretty good deal.

Why isn’t Kino free?

Kino is made by two dads who love photography and design, and we make these apps for a living.  While some apps use ads or sell your data to make money, we do it the old fashioned way: we make something nice and sell it. After that, we’re happy and we hope you are too — we don’t track or gather any data from you whatsoever. We feel strongly like that’s the way a camera should work!

As we keep working on Kino, we’ll probably raise the price. So it’s a good time to grab it. Our other app, Halide, has been going strong for 7 years now, and people who bought it for $2,99 when we launched are still able to use it and got tons of free upgrades in the mean time! (for more on that, see the question on the bottom of this document)

Where's my presets? I only see a smaller set in the Grades view.

Kino separates Grade presets depending on your color space. So if you are on an iPhone 15 Pro, some presets are only for Apple Log. To prevent them from being applied to the wrong kind of footage, we show only compatible presets. You can find them if you switch to Apple Log by tapping the format at the top right above your viewfinder.

If you are on an iPhone prior to iPhone 15 Pro, you get a smaller set of non-Log compatible presets, but there's more coming in future updates!

Why can’t I zoom in Kino? I want to zoom! 

We get that! We’d also like to offer a nice, smooth zoom like Apple’s camera. Unfortunately, as a developer, we cannot both offer top quality video capture with pro tools while keeping that smooth zooming effect. We have to choose one.

We chose the best quality and controls like manual white balance, so you can focus on good shots in Kino and do an occasional zoom in the Apple Camera. And if you want to import that footage to put one of our grades on it, you can! 

What do all these abbreviations like “HDR” and “LOG” mean?

IKR? WTF. No, seriously — we include a set of free lessons to help you get on board and get started with video and filmmaking on your iPhone. It’ll help a lot, since it’s pretty technical at times. You can enroll here!

For a quick answer: HDR means 'High Dynamic Range'. HDR for video on iPhone refers to High Dynamic Range video recording, which captures a wider range of colors and light levels, producing videos with enhanced detail in both shadows and highlights.

'Log' stands for 'Logarithmic'. The latest iPhones (15 Pro) can record video in Apple Log which gives you a lot more color information, which is great for Kino's Instant Grade feature or editing your shots later.

Which iPhones are supported by Kino? 

Any iPhone that supports iOS 17, which are (from new to older:)
iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max;
iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max;
iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max,
iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max,
iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone SE (2nd Generation, 3rd Generation)
iPhone XR
iPhone XS and XS Max

We recommend an iPhone 15 Pro for the best experience, as it supports capturing in Apple Log. Our minimum recommended device is an iPhone 12. We do support older devices, but we cannot offer as smooth or great an experience as on newer phones — video is highly demanding on an iPhone and we do our best!

What version of iOS can run Kino?

Kino only runs on iOS 17 or newer.

What is a LUT? 

A LUT — in Kino’s case, a 3D LUT — is a file that stores information on how to adjust color. Kino refers to these files as 'Grades' or Grade presets. You can import LUT files (in .cube format, up to 33×33) into Kino as well.  

Where can I get more presets? 

Check out our “Presets” page here.

Your other app, Halide, is a subscription product now. Will that happen to Kino, too?

Good question! The honest answer is that we don't know. If that does happen, you will always have gotten the best deal and we'll never require you to upgrade to a subscription.

What we think is important to answer is what it would mean to you if we make Kino free with an optional subscription or one-time purchase in the future, like we did with Halide.

Let's look at Halide: the app launched seven years ago, and started at $2,99. When we rolled out the second version of Halide three years later, we decided to give this update to everyone who had bought the app for free — and give years of updates on top of that, also for free!

All Halide users who ever bought the app can use it for life, along with all the features they paid for and over two years of updates on top of that*. That's true to this day. The same would go for Kino if that ever happens.

* last year, we started offering an option for those users to upgrade to get new updates with extra features. But that's completely optional. The app, and all its features will always keep working, will still get compatibility updates for new iPhones, etc.

We try to do the best for our users at all times, and part of that is honoring the people that supported us from the beginning. In all of our apps' history for the last 7 years in business, we've always taken care of our users first.

My question isn’t answered here, now what? 

We recommend these steps:

- Check out our
Quick Start guides, for doing cool things in Kino;
- Read our
Manual, for info on everything in the app;
- or lastly, get in touch with us
here for any questions or feedback! 

Creators & Press

We believe in making things easy for you! We have a set of lessons on this website to get started quickly, and you can apply for or Creator Kit program to get extra resources for your next video.

Regardless, if you ever need assistance or have questions while working with the template, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're here to help!

You can download our press kit
here.