For vintage camera collectors
Catalogue every body. Track every CLA. Keep it off the cloud.
ClearBench is a native desktop app for collectors of film and early-digital cameras. Make, model, format, serial, lens, shutter, condition, service history: every field a serious cataloguer would expect, on your computer alone.
[ Detail view of a vintage Leica + display label ]
Three things, done well.
Camera collecting has its own questions: does it work, when did it last go in, what does the meter read. ClearBench treats each as a first-class field.
A real catalogue
Make, model, serial, type (rangefinder / SLR / TLR / large format / etc.), format (35mm / 120 / 4×5 / 8×10 / digital), year, country, lens, shutter type, shutter-speed range, light-meter functional, cosmetic condition, fully-functional flag, service history.
Display + shelf labels
Six bundled templates at 50×40mm, which works for shelf displays, exhibition cards, and per-camera document labels. Make, model, year, your collection number. Print exact-size PDFs on your own printer.
Off the cloud
Serial-number lists with photos and acquisition prices don't belong on a third party's server. ClearBench keeps everything on your computer. No cloud catalogue, no marketplace integration, no telemetry.
Built for vintage cameras, not generic cataloguing.
The fields are the ones a serious camera record carries, drawn from how collectors and technicians actually describe a body.
Your serials never leave your computer.
A list of high-value cameras with serial numbers, photos, and acquisition prices is exactly the kind of data you don't want on a third party's server.
Stored on your device only
Every camera, photo, serial, and price sits on your computer. No upload, no copy on any server, no third-party access, including ours.
No analytics on your records
We don't track which makers you collect, which serials you record, or which technicians you use.
Insurance schedules stay yours
The PDF schedule lives on your hard drive until you choose to email it to your insurer.
Backups stay yours
Full-catalogue backups are plain .clearbench JSON files you save where you want: your hard drive, an encrypted external, your own cloud. For day-to-day work, export any collection straight out to CSV, Excel, plain text, or a vCard for contacts, then round-trip back in after a bulk edit. The format is documented and stable.
No lock-in
If we vanish tomorrow, your collection is still yours, in a format you can re-import into other tools. The .clearbench backup file is plain JSON that opens in any text editor; the CSV, Excel, and plain-text exports open in tools you already have.
One price when it launches. Everything in.
No tiers, no upsells, no monthly billing. Every paying user gets every feature.
all in, no upsells
Pay in your local currency at checkout — we'll convert automatically.
- Six professional label templates, fully editable on a free-positioning canvas
- Build a catalogue around any collection: pick a starter or design your own field set
- Drag-and-drop photo gallery, plus add photos from your phone over local WiFi
- Type-aware fields with smart defaults per collection type
- Sharp, exact-size PDFs for printing
- Real macOS and Windows app with fast launch, native menus and keyboard shortcuts, dark mode that follows your OS, and no browser tab eating your RAM
- Local backups you control: export and restore the whole catalogue as one file
- All updates free for the licence year
30-day money-back guarantee · macOS and Windows · Your data stays on your device
First launch walks you through setting up your first collection in three short steps.
Common questions from camera collectors.
Does it record working condition properly?
+
Yes. Cosmetic condition and fully-functional are separate fields, because a mint-shelf-queen is not the same as a user-grade-but-shoots-perfectly. Light meter functional is its own checkbox so you can filter the catalogue to the working ones at a glance. Shutter type and shutter-speed range are both there for body identification.
How does it handle formats: 35mm, medium, large?
+
Format is a dropdown: 35mm, 120 (medium format), 4×5", 8×10", APS, 110, instant, digital sensor. Camera type is separate and lists rangefinder, SLR, TLR, medium format, large format, compact / point & shoot, folding, instant, digital. Combined, that's enough to disambiguate any classic body from any other.
Can I track the lens that came with the body?
+
Lens is a dedicated free-text field on the camera record. For collectors who carry multiple lenses, treat each lens as its own item (same starter shape) and link them via the catalogue's relations system.
Service history and CLA records?
+
Service history is a long-text field that takes the running log most camera collectors keep: what was done, by which technician, what it cost. Last-service date is its own date field so you can see at a glance which bodies are coming up for a CLA.
Selling, not just collecting?
ClearBench has a full dealer side: a stock list kept separate from your collection, show mode that tracks every sale from setup to pack-up, sales and ROI reports, and price-tag sheets from the same label engine. Same app, same privacy, no extra purchase.
See the dealer toolsAlso built for
ClearBench works the same way for every collection type.
For mineral collectors
IMA species names, Mindat locality + minID, crystal data
For coin collectors
Mints, grades, slab numbers
For stamp collectors
Scott / Michel / SG, condition
For fossil collectors
Ages, formations, prep history
For dealers
Show mode, stock, sales reports, label sheets
For watch collectors
References, calibres, service history
For vinyl collectors
Pressings, matrix, Goldmine grading
For trading card collectors
Sets, parallels, PSA/BGS grades
For antiquarian book collectors
Editions, bindings, provenance
For meteorite collectors
Classification, fall vs find, weight
For antique map collectors
Cartographer, region, medium, colour
For whisky collectors
Distillery, age, cask, fill level
For LEGO collectors
Set number lookup, build state, box + manual condition
For households
Belongings for insurance, room by room