Shift Notes

Shift Notes keeps track of each frame you shoot on a technical camera: the shift, orientation, camera, lens, aperture, focus distance, and a note, matched to the camera's image number you enter. You can add a reference photo too. Set up your cameras and lenses once in Options, then log frames as you shoot.

Logging a frame

Tap + Tech Cam Frame when the camera's movements do the shifting, or + Tilt Shift Frame when the lens's own shift does. A tilt-shift lens mounted on a technical camera and shifted with the camera is a Tech Cam frame. Each frame keeps the kind it was logged as. The log opens as five short steps (four for a tilt shift frame). Tap Next and Back to move between them. ✕ closes it without logging.

1. Camera, lens, aperture, focus. Pick the camera and lens, and enter the aperture if useful. Set the focus distance: Infinity, or Other with a distance in meters or feet. All four carry forward, so when nothing has changed just tap Next. When shooting frames for a lens profile, keep the focus distance the same on every frame.

   

2. Shift and orientation. For a Tech Cam frame, enter the shift you set on the camera. X is the lateral move, Y is rise or fall, in millimeters. Use the − and + steppers or type the number; the +/− buttons set the direction. Camera Right and Camera Rise are positive, Camera Left and Camera Fall are negative. Then set Landscape or Portrait. For a Tilt Shift frame, the step shows the lens on a scope instead: drag it, or tap where it went, as you see it from behind the camera. It moves in 15° steps and 0.5 mm, up to the lens’s max shift, and the lines under the scope say where the lens is, for example “Lens shifted up and to the right” and “60° · 9.5 mm”. The degrees around the scope mark the lens direction as you see it: 0° right, 90° up, 180° left, 270° down, the same in landscape and portrait. The ↻ and ↺ buttons turn it 15°, and − and + change the distance by 0.5 mm.

   

   

3. Movement scope (Tech Cam frames only). A visual check that what you entered matches the camera. If it doesn't, tap Back and fix it.

   

4. Image number. The file number the camera shows when you review the frame. It links the entry to its image file, so it is required. Type it the way the camera shows it, for example B0011011 or DSC01234. On the first frame you type it; after that the next number is filled in for you. Use + to skip a number (a frame you didn't log), − to step back, or type over it. Shooting many frames with the same settings? Choose Frame group (see below).

   

5. Note and reference photo. Both optional. Check the summary of the frame, then tap Add to session. Your movement and gear stay set for the next frame; the note and photo clear.

   

The movement scope

The dial is a quick visual check of the movement you entered. The rings mark 10, 20, 30, and 40mm from center, and the marker sits where your shift places it: right or left along the horizontal axis, up or down the vertical. If a movement goes past the 40mm edge, the marker becomes an arrow pointing that way, and the exact figures always stay in the readouts below.

For a Tilt Shift frame the scope is where you enter the shift, and it shows the lens rather than the camera, because the lens is what moves. Its outer ring is the lens’s max shift, shown under the scope with the lens name, with rings every 5 mm. Built-in lenses use the maker’s spec; for your own lens, set it in Options (without it the scope goes to 15 mm). The frame is saved with the camera’s movement, the opposite of the lens, which is what the desktop apps expect.

Reference photos

A reference photo is optional and most useful when the scene changes rather than on every frame. Add one in the last step while logging, or from an entry later. Frames with a photo show a thumbnail you can tap to view full size; frames without one show a faint add-photo button. Photos are stored on your device and stay with their frame. They are included in the PDF file, but not the JSON data file, and deleting a frame removes its photo.

Frame groups and Duplicate

When you shoot many frames with the same shift and gear, for example several exposures to pick passing cars and people from later, log them once as a frame group. In the image number step, choose Frame group and enter the first and last image numbers. Every frame in between gets the same shift and gear. Still shooting? Leave the last number blank and add it later with the pencil; the group shows Last not set until you do, and the session can't be exported until it's set. In the exported data file a group becomes one entry per frame, so the desktop apps treat each frame as usual.

Duplicate, under the two Add buttons, logs the next image number with the same settings in one tap, with no steps. If the last entry is a frame group, it adds the next frame to that group instead. The button shows the number it will log. The note and reference photo aren't copied.

Editing and deleting

Every logged frame can be changed. Tap the pencil to open the entry and edit any field, including the movement and image number (or turn a single frame into a frame group), then Save, or Cancel to discard. The ✕ deletes a frame: it turns into a red Delete?, and a second tap removes it. Tap anywhere else to keep the frame.

Exporting a session

Give the session a name in the Session card if you like; it becomes part of the exported file names. When you are done, export in either or both of two formats:

1. Choose what you need. The PDF summary is a clean one-row-per-frame sheet with the image number, movement, camera, lens, note, and thumbnail, made to read, print, or keep. The data file (JSON) is the structured data the Tech Cam Tools desktop apps read: the Profiler uses it to build lens profiles, and the Corrector uses it to correct a whole session and write the lens and shift into your files. It does not include the photos.
2. Tap that format's button in the Session card.
3. On a computer it downloads the file. On a phone it opens the share sheet, so you can send it or save it to Files.

Sessions

Keep one session per building, location, or whatever makes your lists easier to work with later. Tap New session at the bottom of the Session card, or the list button next to the light/dark switch, type a name such as the building, and tap Start new session. The session you were on is saved to the list with its frames and reference photos; nothing is cleared. Leave the name blank and the session is named by date, counting up through the day: 001-261007, 002-261007, and so on. Your movement and gear stay set.

The same list button shows the current session and every saved one with its date and frame count. Tap Open to go back to a saved session to add frames or export it again; the session you were on is saved first. The ✕ deletes a saved session after a second tap on Delete?.

Saved sessions are a working list, not a backup. They live on this device and go if you delete the home-screen app or the browser clears its data. When you finish a session, export its PDF and JSON and keep those files; they're your record.

Options

The Camera and Lens lists in the log are built from what you tick here, so your lists stay short. If yours is not listed, add it at the bottom of the Cameras or Lenses section and tap Add. It ticks itself, appears under Added by you, and can be removed with the ✕.

For a lens, Lens name is the label you see in the lists and on your logged frames. Make, model, and focal length are saved with each frame in the exported data file, so the Tech Cam Tools Corrector can write them into your corrected files. Shift Notes itself never modifies your photo files. If you leave make or model blank, make is recorded as Custom and model falls back to the lens name.

Ticked lenses also show a usable image circle box (diameter in mm). Manufacturers publish an image circle, but in practice a lens may cover more or less than that. This number is meant to be based on your own experience with the lens. It's optional.

For a camera, Camera name is the list label. Make, pixel pitch (in µm), pixel width, and pixel height are saved with each frame in the exported data file. The desktop apps use pixel pitch and the pixel dimensions to work out the sensor size, so if you shoot a body that isn't in the list, enter these from the manufacturer's specs. You can add just a name and fill in the sensor details later by removing the camera and re-adding it with the full information.

Because those fields can end up in your photo's metadata, best practice is to enter the manufacturer's published make and model rather than your own shorthand. It keeps the record accurate over time: if you come back to the file later, or you share it or someone else opens it, the gear carries the name its maker actually gave it, not a personal abbreviation only you would recognize.

Your gear file

Shift Notes saves your gear where you use it, and each place keeps its own list. Your phone and your computer have separate lists. So do the home-screen app and the same page opened in the browser, even on the same phone. The gear file is how you copy your gear from one to another.

Pick one place as your main one for setting up gear, usually the home-screen app on your phone. When you add or change gear there, export it, then import it wherever else you use Shift Notes.

To keep your gear list the same everywhere you use Shift Notes:

1. In Options, under Gear file, tap Export gear. On a phone, the share sheet opens: email the file to yourself, AirDrop it, or choose Save to Files. On a computer, it downloads.
2. Where you want the gear, open Shift Notes, go to Options, tap Import gear, and choose the file from your downloads, email, or Files.

Importing adds the gear in the file and ticks it. Gear already in the list is kept, and nothing is removed, so importing the same file twice is harmless. You can also import a session file; it brings in the cameras and lenses logged in it.

The same gear file is what Shift Notes Import, the Tech Cam Tools desktop app, reads to load your gear into the Corrector and Profiler.

Keep a copy of your gear file somewhere safe, such as your Files app or email. If your browser ever clears its saved data, or you delete the home-screen app, importing it puts your gear back in seconds. When your gear changes after your last export, a red dot appears on Options with a reminder at the top. Export to back up, or tap ✕ to dismiss it until the next change. Gear file shows the date of your last export.

Install for offline use

The tool runs in your browser and saves your data on the device: your camera and lens selections, any custom gear you've added, and the frames and reference photos you've logged but not yet exported. Browsers can clear saved website data after a while, especially on iPhone. Installing Shift Notes to your home screen keeps that data safe and lets the app open offline in the field. It takes a few seconds.

1. Open the tool in Safari.
2. Tap the Share button (the square with an up arrow).
3. Choose Add to Home Screen, then Add.
4. Launch it from the new home-screen icon from now on.

1. Open the tool in Chrome.
2. Tap the ⋮ menu, top right.
3. Choose Add to Home screen (or Install app), then confirm.
4. Launch it from the new icon from now on.

Questions

The app is slow to open on a weak signal. With one or two bars, your phone reports that it's online, so Shift Notes first checks for the latest version. If the connection doesn't answer within 5 seconds, it opens the copy saved on your phone instead. To skip the wait, turn on airplane mode, then open the app: with no connection at all it opens from the saved copy straight away. Your frames and gear are stored on the phone either way.

Free to use, provided as is

Shift Notes is free and provided as is, without any warranty. Your logs, gear, and reference photos are stored only on this device; Photohus never receives them. Export your sessions and your gear file regularly, so a cleared browser or a lost phone doesn't cost you a shoot.