A couple of people have asked me how and why Format126 came to be, so here is my story behind the idea for the app and how we got to where we are today.

Above: The camera that started it all, the Kodak Instamatic 33The story kind of starts about 28 years ago when my parents gave me their Kodak Instamatic 33 126 format camera, which used 126 cartridge film, after they had upgraded to a new 110 format camera!! Whist I could not afford to take many photos with my new toy (my pocket money barely covered the cost of the films and processing), the photos I did take I loved them for their square format with white borders.

It was this camera, and this camera alone that sparked my interest in photography, and when I got my first summer job at the age of 14, I upgraded to/bought a Russian made Zenith E 35mm SLR camera, and from then on photography became my passion.

Jump forward about 10 years (early 1990's) and I bought myself another Russian made camera, but this time it was a medium format Lubitel 166B twin lens reflex camera that used 120 film and produced square 6cm x 6cm format negatives, and square photos were back in my life.

Fast forward to February 2009, and after buying CameraBag, my favourite photo format had arrived on my iPhone in the form of their Lolo and Helga filters, but overall CameraBag for me lacked the range of square format effects I wanted, and I was sure others felt the same.

Now lets hop forward to the present day, well actually to October 2009, where as one of the LOFI beta testers, I asked Chris Comair (the app developer) if he would be interested in developing an app that I wanted to create called Format126, that would produce square format photos with a white border. We set up a Skype call one Saturday in early October, and after a brief exchange of ideas for the app, Format126 was born.

Over the next month I came up with the filter ideas, whilst Chris created and tweaked them.

Initially there were 3 effects...

• ColorPlus - A punchy colour effect
• PolaColor - A Polaroid effect
• MonoHigh - A high contrast B&W effect

...but as the app evolved, so came 2 more B&W effects.

• Mono - that gives your photos that good old Black and White look
• MonoPlus - that gives your photos that Black and White look with added contrast

We then added my favourite effect from Chris' LOFI app, LOFI, and then came the effect I am really pleased with, and that was a filter that would almost bleach out all but the strongest of colours, and so ColorHint was born.

No retro toy camera app would be with out a vignette effect, and Format126 is no exception, so a subtle vignette was added. Now whilst I may like my square format photos with a white border this may not be to everybody's taste, and so the option to turn on/off the white border was also added.

Now for anyone who has tried the app, you will have noticed it is not 100% true to the 126 format, as there is an option to turn off the square format all together and create regular format photos with or without the white border. This option was suggested by Chris, as he felt that not all photos would suit the square format, and so this option was added.

Once the app had been created it was time to shoot the photo for the apps home screen (Chris did this) and then invite a small number of people to beta test it, and then in November when the app was ready it was submitted to Apple for approval, and so the then familiar waiting game began.

It had been hoped that the app would be ready for my blogs 1st Birthday, but sadly due to some minor UI problems the app was rejected and some minor tweaks were needed. Sadly due to Chris catching Swine flu, the required tweaks were delayed and so the app was resubmitted just before Christmas, and finally approved on the 28th December 2009.

So that's how an idea inspired by my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic 33, became a real app for the iPhone, but this is just the start of the journey, and in my next post I will reveal some planned features for the next and future updates to this fun retro app.