The CineStill 800T look on iPhone.

CineStill 800T is a color negative film rated at ISO 800 and balanced for tungsten light at 3200 K. CineStill launched it in 2012 and says it was originally based on a 500-speed motion picture film. Unlike that cinema stock, it goes to any lab that develops C-41, and it can be pushed up to ISO 3200.

Its best-known trait comes from a layer that is missing. Motion picture film carries rem-jet, a black backing of carbon, wax and adhesive that works as an anti-halation layer. CineStill makes its color films without it. Overexposed highlights then get a glow on the red-sensitive layer: the red halo around street lights and neon signs that people look for in 800T photos.

Sources: CineStill’s 800T product page, its FAQ and its post on 800T as a tungsten-balanced film (March 17, 2024), checked in October 2026.

Balanced for 3200 K, the film renders warm bulbs close to neutral. Daylight sits much higher on the Kelvin scale, so it turns blue. That is why the look belongs to the night:

• Street lights, headlights and wet asphalt
• Neon signs and lit shop windows
• Bars, kitchens and rooms lit by warm bulbs
• Fog or rain, which spread the light even further

Point lights matter most, because a glow needs something bright to grow around. In daylight, CineStill recommends an 85 filter on the lens or rating the film at ISO 400 to 500. On a phone, the same lesson means: by day, use the look at a lower intensity, or pick one made for daylight.

IIWII is a film simulation camera for iPhone by the developer of masoc, and CineStill 800T is one of its looks. The viewfinder shows the photo with the look already on, and the look adds a touch of grain as you shoot. More about IIWII, or visit iiwii.info.

1. Swipe up from the bottom of the viewfinder to open the looks, and pick CineStill 800T.
2. Swipe down for the manual controls (on iOS 18 and later), turn off auto white balance with the A button and set 3200 K. Now the camera sees light the way the film does: warm bulbs come out neutral, everything else turns cool.
3. Keep Soft Light on under Settings › Processing & Export › Effects. It adds a subtle glow to every look except Standard.
4. Turn on RAW+ to save a DNG alongside the finished photo, for a second pass later.

masoc ships the same Cinestill 800T profile as IIWII, built on the same color table. It works on a JPEG or HEIC, on Apple ProRAW and on the DNG from IIWII. These values are a starting point for a night photo.

1. Look. Pick Cinestill 800T under Looks › Profiles. Keep the intensity at 100 percent at night, 60 to 80 by day.
2. White balance. Under Color, set Temp to about 3200 K on a RAW photo, as if the film were loaded. On a JPEG or HEIC, pull Temperature to around −15 instead.
3. Glow. Under Effects › Atmosphere, set Glow to 25 to 35.
4. Grain. Under Effects › Grain, try Grain 25, Size 35 and Roughness 55. An 800-speed film is not clean.
5. Red in the lights. If you want more red, open Color › Grading, choose Highlights, and set Hue to 15° and Saturation to 15.
6. Save it all as a preset, ready for the next night out.

A note on halation: a look is a 3D color table. It changes colors, not where light falls, so no color table can paint a halo. masoc has no separate halation tool. Glow does that part instead: it softens and brightens the light around bright areas and keeps its color, so under the look, street lights glow warm. The profile works on video too. Effects such as Glow and Grain are for photos.

All 22 profiles side by side are on film simulations. How looks, your own LUTs and presets work in masoc is on film looks.

IIWII is available now on the App Store. masoc is being prepared for the App Store. Sign up for the newsletter to hear first when it lands.