SmartLog Under the Hood: How It Reads, Syncs, Stores and Exports
under the hood · for the ones who check
The full detail. Nothing hidden.
How SmartLog reads, syncs, stores and exports, written for DITs and ACs who need to trust a tool before it goes on a paying job. No marketing on this page.
03 · data and privacy
03. What's stored, what never leaves
- AccountNone. There is no sign-up and no login.
- AnalyticsNone. No trackers, no telemetry, no ads.
- Your logLives on your device. Nothing leaves it unless you turn on sync.
- Jam by cameraReads the picture on this device and sends nothing anywhere.
- Sync, when onWrites to a file in your own Google Drive. Your account, your file, your delete button.
- StorageThe log lives in the browser's own storage on this device. Stills and diagrams live beside it in IndexedDB, as pixels, not uploads.
- The Drive fileOne JSON file, smartlog-backup.json, in your own Google Drive: takes, production setup, stills and diagrams. Open it, download it, delete it whenever you like.
- TokensYour Google sign-in token stays in the app's storage on this device. There is no SmartLog server for it to go to.
- UninstallClearing the app clears the local log. Your Drive copy stays yours until you delete it.
- The one tallyThe site counts downloads and launches as a single anonymous number, once per day per device, no identifier. That is the entire telemetry.
04 · file formats
04. What comes out the other end
Everything SmartLog exports is a file the rest of the pipeline already understands.
- Camera reportPDF · circled takes, contact sheets, lighting diagrams
- Editor markersResolve, Premiere, Final Cut · slate, lens and notes on each marker
- DIT handoffSilverstack-ready take data
- Camera reportPDF, A4 landscape, columns auto-fitted to your field setup. Circled good takes, struck false takes, contact sheets, lighting diagram pages.
- CSVYour columns, in your order, from the report designer. Round-trips back into SmartLog with nothing lost.
- SilverstackA CSV shaped for Silverstack's own import, matching by timecode, clip and camera. Whole log or one shooting day at a time.
- DaVinci ResolveA marker EDL. Timelines > Import > Timeline Markers from EDL. Circled takes arrive green, false takes red, each marker carrying slate, clip, lens, stop, filters and your note.
- Premiere ProSequence markers as XML, importable straight from File > Import. The sequence starts at the hour your day started, so markers sit at the camera's own timecode.
- Final Cut ProFCPXML with exact rational times, drop-frame aware. Circled takes arrive as completed to-dos, green; false takes red.
- JSON backupThe full-fidelity copy: everything, including hidden fields, stills and diagrams.
05 · the whole box
05. Every feature, every switch
The seven screens on the product page show the headliners. This is the full inventory, grouped the way the app is.
LOG
- One-tap logginga new take starts from your last one, you type what changed
- Same againduplicate and save with the take bumped, one tap
- Marksgood and false, cycled on the row, on the report as circles and strikes
- Multi-cameraup to 10 cameras, each keeping its own roll, clip and glass
- All rollingone save logs A+B together, clips stepped per camera
- Reference stillsa strip of frames per take, from camera or library
- Lighting diagramsper card and per take, labelled, printed in the report
- Slate modethe phone becomes the board: clap freezes TC, flashes, logs the take
- Notesper take, pinnable so a note rides every following take
- Search and filtersscene, lens, note text, good/false, camera, roll, day
- Camera positionheight, tilt and dutch for the VFX plates, off unless you want it
- ND in stopsthe filter stack totalled in stops, density and ND numbers both read
REPORT
- Report designer26 fields, drag the order, hide what you never use; the form, report, PDF and CSV all follow
- PDF anywherethe report is its own button on every platform, no print dialog needed
- Editor markersResolve, Premiere and Final Cut, one button each
- Silverstack CSVfor the whole log or scoped to the day on screen
- Email reportbuilds the PDF and hands it to your share sheet
CARDS AND BATTERIES
- Record timehow long a card lasts at your codec and frame rate, from manufacturer figures, never invented; sources cited on screen
- Cards neededfor the day you are actually shooting, spares included
- Batteries85 sourced packs: runtime, packs per day, and a warning when a pack cannot deliver what the rig draws
- Your own gearcustom batteries and accessories, saved on the device
- Every bodyengine figures for 18 bodies, an 80-body picker, and a manual data-rate mode in Mb/s or MB/s for everything else
SYNC
- Jam by camerapoint the phone at the timecode display, measured accuracy on screen
- LTC by cableframe-perfect jam from any timecode box via the audio input
- Team syncone shared log through your own Google Drive: backup, team, or read only
- Snapshotsa dated copy per shoot day, restorable
- QR handoffdevice to device with no internet at all, two QR codes and done
- CSV and JSONexport and import both ways, no lock-in
SETUP
- Camera kitsnamed, colour-coded, recallable onto any camera letter
- Your own lens setsname a set once, its focals become chips on the take form
- Native ISOthe camera's own rated ISOs marked gold on the form
- US and UK slatingfield order, log layout and report columns follow the convention
- Two languagesEnglish and Spanish, end to end, printed report included
- Appearancelight and dark, three typefaces, text size, button size
06 · the record
06. How we got here
The changelog is public back to day one, and the people who asked for each feature are credited on it by name. The full record is one tap away.
- Build 2026-08-11bjam by camera + editor markers · asked for by Harry Charnock
- Build 2026-08-11stills strips + multiple diagrams · asked for by Yudhatama
- Every build beforedated, public, and credited by name, back to day one
07 · support
07. Where it runs
- iPhone / iPadInstalls from Safari via Add to Home Screen
- AndroidInstalls from Chrome
- DesktopEvery modern browser
- OfflineFully functional with no signal. It is a single-file app.
- The log and reportany phone, tablet or desktop browser from the last few years
- Jam by cameraneeds camera access over a secure connection; most accurate on browsers that timestamp camera frames (iOS 15.4 and newer, Chrome 83 and newer). Where they do not, the app says so on screen.
- LTC jamany device with a microphone input and an attenuated 3.5mm cable
- InstallAdd to Home Screen from Safari or Chrome; it runs full screen and offline like any app
- Bench honestyjam by camera is bench-proven against synthesised displays at 24, 25 and 30 fps; reports from your camera are welcome and credited
08 · the critical questions
08. Asked by people who know their gear
- Can a teammate overwrite my work?No. Deletes never travel, adds merge, and your typed detail survives a sync. The log is deliberately hard to destroy from one phone.
- Is the jam frame-accurate?By camera: inside a frame, and it prints its measured accuracy every time. By cable: frame-perfect.
- No internet on set?Everything works offline. Sync catches up when you do; the QR handoff never needs internet at all.
- Do my stills go to the cloud?Only if you turn sync on. They ride inside your own Drive file, nowhere else.
- What is the catch?There is none to find: no account, no analytics, no paid tier. The only thing counted is an anonymous download tally.
- Can I leave?Any time, with everything: CSV, JSON and PDF export are all one tap.