Field Manual
Read once. Then just shoot.AERA is not a filter. It is a whole camera from 2007 rebuilt in software — a small sensor, a soft lens, a grainy finish, and a memory card you have to manage.
The sensor
Every frame is cropped to 4:3 and processed at its own low working resolution before it is scaled back up. That is why an AERA shot looks softer and rounder than your phone's — the detail was never captured, the same way it was never captured in 2007.
The finish
On top of the sensor sits a full optical pipeline: film grain that responds to light, veiling glare, chromatic aberration, vignetting, a gentle bloom, and lens softness. In the free tier the core of that is fixed. Pro opens every stage as a slider — highlights, shadow crush and lift, chroma noise, denoise, sharpen, JPEG blockiness — so you can tune your own era.
The memory card
The free tier holds a simulated 24 MB card. Each shot weighs against it, sized by the quality it was taken at — just like a real JPEG. When the card is full the shutter stops.
- Format the card — watch a short ad, the counter resets, you keep shooting. Your photos are already on your phone; formatting deletes nothing.
- Go Pro — there is no card. Storage is your phone's.
Capture, then keep
After the shutter, AERA shows you the frame. Nothing is written anywhere until you choose Save — then it lands in your iOS photo library and in AERA's own in-app library at once. Discard, and it never existed.
The mark
Free-tier photos that leave the app carry the AERA wordmark and “Capture another era.” in the corner. Your own library always keeps the clean original. On the review screen you can watch a short video to drop the mark from a single export. Pro never marks anything.
AERA Pro
- No memory card, no ads, no watermark.
- Every resolution up to 1080p.
- Every processing control unlocked.
Sold as monthly, 3-month, and yearly plans through the App Store. Manage or cancel anytime from iOS Settings.