If you've used a camera log app before, the data entry will feel familiar. Start with Install and Offline Sync.
CamLog is a web app, not an App Store download. It runs in a browser tab, but functions best when it is installed as an app on your home screen.
iPhone / iPad: open app.camlog.app in Safari, tap the Share button , then tap Add to Home Screen. Chrome and Firefox on iOS can't do this. It has to be Safari.
Android: open app.camlog.app in Chrome, tap the menu (⋮), then tap Add to Home Screen or Install app.
Desktop: Chrome or Edge show an install icon in the address bar.
An installed CamLog launches full screen with no address bar, and is far better protected from the browser housekeeping described below. Phone browsers clear the local data of sites you only visit occasionally; an installed app is treated as an app, not as just a stale tab open in a browser.
On iPhone and iPad it goes further: the installed app gets storage of its own, separate from Safari's. That's why you sign in again after installing, and why clearing Safari leaves it alone. Deleting the home-screen icon deletes that storage with it, so don't remove and re-add the icon to fix something. Sync first if you do.
Creating your account and the very first load need a connection. After that, CamLog opens and works with no service at all. Do this at the hotel, not at the location.
New versions are automatically pushed to your phone whenever you have connection. When a new version has arrived you'll see a small banner. Tap it, or tap the Synced pill, and the app reloads onto the new version, no connection required. The version number is at the bottom of the projects screen if you ever need to report a bug.
CamLog was built for stages with no bars. Everything you type is saved locally before it's synced to the cloud.
There is no Save button, and there is no spinner to wait out. What you type is written to the device immediately, and a background process pushes it to the server whenever a connection exists. Losing signal mid-take changes nothing about how the app behaves.
The small pill at the bottom of the screen tells you exactly where your work stands:
The one habit worth building: at the end of the day, once you're back in coverage, open CamLog and wait for the pill to read Synced. That's your confirmation the day is fully uploaded to the server.
Signing out clears the local copy on that device. If anything hasn't synced yet, CamLog will stop and tell you how many changes are at risk. Read that dialog rather than tapping through it. Wait for the Synced pill, then sign out.
Everything you log goes up to the server as soon as you have a connection, free projects and Pro projects alike. When your phone is offline the data you enter is saved locally. When browser data is cleared, you are deleting that locally saved data. Once signed back in, all project data saved to the cloud returns, but data that was only saved locally will not.
| If you… | iPhone or iPad, installed | Android installed, or any browser tab |
|---|---|---|
| Clear your browsing history | Nothing happens | When you select “Delete browsing data”, Chrome's default option deletes cookies and site data along with your browsing history. Only “More options” allows you to separate them and exclude CamLog data. |
| Clear website data / cookies and site data | Nothing happens. An installed app keeps its own storage, which Safari's clear doesn't reach. | Wipes it. Cookies and site data is where your local CamLog data is stored. Deleting it signs you out and purges the app's offline files along with any work that hadn't yet reached the server. That work can't be recovered. Everything already synced comes back when you sign in again with a connection. |
| Delete the app icon | Everything on the phone goes. | Everything on the phone goes. |
Two helpful habits:
Some actions are gestures rather than buttons to keep the log screen clear.
Above the take list sit three small buttons: a pencil, a circle, and a trash can. The trash can switches the list into delete mode: every take gets an × on the right, and the fields go read-only. Tap an ×, confirm, and that take is deleted. Tap the pencil to go back to editing.
If you'd rather not switch modes, drag a take row to the left and the same Delete confirmation screen appears. It's a shortcut for people who like gestures.
Every scene card has an × in its bottom right corner. Tap it, confirm, and the scene is removed. You then get a few seconds to Undo before it's committed. A deleted scene can be restored in Recovery mode.
Press and hold anywhere on a scene card for about half a second and it lifts. The grid icon in the top right corner grabs it immediately with no wait. Tapping the card opens the scene.
Any panel that slides up from the bottom can be swiped back down, or dismissed by tapping outside it. On Android, the back gesture does the same thing without leaving the app.
This is the single most reassuring thing to know about CamLog.
The archive icon in the header of the Productions, Cameras, and Scene lists toggles Recovery mode. Turn it on and everything you've deleted from that list appears alongside what's live, ready to restore. Turn it off and you're back to the working view.
A deleted production, camera, or scene isn't erased. It's set aside. There's no countdown and no automatic purge, so a scene you removed on day one is still restorable on day forty. Recovery mode works offline too: the archived copies live on your device as well.
Hide Production removes a show from your list only. It's the right move for a job that wrapped and is cluttering your screen. It's also reversible from Recovery mode.
Leave Production is different: it gives up your access, and you'd need a fresh invite to get back in.
You can't delete a camera that still has active scenes on it. Delete or move the scenes first. It's a guardrail against wiping a day's work with one tap, and the camera stays restorable afterwards either way.
The parts that pay off once you're moving at set speed.
The wand button copies from your last scene in two stages. The first tap fills the settings that rarely change between setups: stop, ISO, fps, shutter, color temp, filters, format. Tap it again and it fills everything else, scene number included. It only ever writes into empty fields, and an Undo appears for a few seconds after each tap.
Toggle the take list into circle mode and each take becomes a single button: one tap to circle, one tap to un-circle. It's built for calling circle takes at the end of a setup, without the risk of editing anything else on the screen.
On a camera marked as film, each take row gains a footage-dial field, and CamLog shows the difference from the previous take next to it. Log the raw dial reading and let it do the subtraction.
If a duplicate take number appears highlighted, it usually means two people edited the same scene while one was offline and both entries survived. CamLog flags it rather than silently merging, because only the person holding the camera report should decide which is right.
Come back to a scene that's been untouched for a while and CamLog asks before letting you type. It's there to stop the classic mistake of logging a new setup into yesterday's scene.
Long scene lists have a search that can be narrowed to a specific field, and scenes group under their roll so a day reads the way the camera report does.
Single-user projects are free and unlimited. Live multi-user sync is the one thing that costs anything: $8 once, per project, paid by whoever set it up.
The admin generates an invite from the team menu and shares it as a link or holds up a QR code for people to scan. Nobody else pays. Your 2nd ACs, loader, and script supervisor join free, on their own accounts. You can cap how many people a single invite lets in, and revoke it at any time.
Invite someone as an editor and they can log; invite them as a viewer and they get a live read-only window on the day, the right setting for a producer or a post supervisor who should see the log but never change it. Roles can be changed later, and the admin can be handed to someone else.
On a shared project, changes from other people show up as they happen. A scene someone else touched recently is marked so you know at a glance that it moved.
Do this when you join. Without it your crew sees an email address in the team list instead of a name.
Three formats, different purposes.
The one you send to production and post. Export a whole camera, or use the custom export to pick specific days, cameras, or rolls when you only need part of the show.
A spreadsheet of the log, for editorial or for anyone who wants the data rather than the document.
A complete copy of the production that you can re-import later, hand to another crew member, or just keep on a drive.
Visualizing your show's data
At the end of a show, send a camera's log straight to Wrapped for a set of shareable stats about the job: lenses, stops, take counts. Purely for fun, and a good way to explain the app, whether it's to the rest of the crew or your friends.
CamLog is built and answered by one working camera assistant. Email [email protected] with any questions or concerns and include the version number of your app from the bottom of the projects screen. It makes almost every problem faster to solve.