LAM Guides · Film stock & bodies

What a "camera body" means in a film app

~5 min read

Plenty of apps call their look presets "cameras," but they're really just filters with a costume name. A real camera body bundles several physical things that change together — not one colour overlay dropped on top.

What actually changes when you switch bodies

Picking a different body in LAM changes at least four things at once: lens character (sharpness, edge distortion, vignette falloff), the default film stock's own colour response, the default grain structure (a fast film stock shows different grain than a slow one), and sometimes other physical behaviour like a built-in flash or a default light leak. Switching bodies is closer to swapping an actual physical camera than swapping a colour preset.

LAM's nine bodies — each one a real reference

BodyReference
LAM ClassicSwiss rangefinder · 1960s
DisposablePlastic-lens single-use camera · 1990s USA
CCD DigicamAsian CCD compact · 2003
16mm CineCine film, Vietnamese arthouse era
Y2K PinkAsian pink instant film · 1999
Portia StudioMedium-format pro camera · 1995
Instant MiniSquare instant film · Japan, 2010s
SaigonSaigon tropical film · 1990s
SeoulKorean indie compact · 2005

Why nine, and not thirty? Every body in LAM is tuned individually against a real reference for that camera or film stock — not just renamed and nudged with a few sliders. Adding a new body means redoing that whole process, not copying a preset.

How to pick the right body for what you're shooting

There's no single "best" body — only the one that fits the scene. A CCD compact suits everyday daylight shots. A 16mm cine body suits scenes with motion and a nostalgic mood. An instant-film body suits moments you want to feel finished the instant you shoot them, no further adjustment needed. The fastest way to feel the difference is to shoot the exact same scene through a few different bodies — the colour, the grain, even the mood, change noticeably, not just the tint.