After the debacle that was Stuck In Customs’ quickly deleted app The Light Camera, Stuck In Customs has released a pretty solid update to it’s flagship app, 100 Cameras In One. Finally, a good update is released for this app. It addresses many of the problems and long-standing incompatibilities with the iPhone 5 and even the iPhone 4S, which has been available for well over a year now.
Better late to the game than never. Read on for the details about this update. >>>
I’ve reviewed 100 Cameras and updates several times since its release. It’s the Zen, square format camera app. You can find some of my earlier posts here.
I really want to like photographer Trey Ratcliff’s photo apps. His big camera HDR photography is lush and stunning. He’s a fellow Texan and his company really tries to put together some neat photo apps.
But for every update like today’s good 100 Cameras in One update that gets it right, it seems that Stuck In Customs stumbles several times over in some pretty big ways, using up valuable goodwill in the iPhoneography blogosphere and community. It makes it difficult to really care about these apps, so it’s good when I get to say something nice about one of his apps.
The new 3.2 update of 100 Cameras was released today. It’s not a huge update, but it finally brings the app on par with most other premium photo apps.
What’s New in 100 Cameras Version 3.2
• EXIF location data now saved with images.
• Support for iPhone 5
• Fixed issues with Resolution Selection
• Misc. Bug fixes
I believe the location data was added in a previous update. Either way, more and more, Geotags are an important feature. I use them often now simply to help me remember where a photo was taken.
The big new feature in this update is support for the big iPhones — iPhone 4S and 5. The app now finally supports full square resolution of 2448×2448. You can also adjust it to other, lower resolutions to save space and bandwidth if your only needs are sharing online. Textures look a little rezzed-up and soft to me when viewed in close, but they’re texture overlays and not meant to be the focus of the image.
100 Cameras now is optimized for iPhone 5, meaning it takes advantage of the device’s larger screen. The UI has simply been expanded to fill the space. Otherwise, it’s the same visual and functional aesthetics as older versions. It still saves a square, cropped version of your original image as well — a good feature.
One new feature not mentioned in the App Store description is that it looks to me like 100 Cameras also supports the high-ISO Low Light Mode of the iPhone 5. That’s a great feature which let’s you get usable photos with the device that you previously might not have been able to without a flash.
I normally don’t keep this app on my iPhone, but out of its 100 filters, there are some nice color and texture effects. The effect names are still the most obscure in the App Store, with filters such as “when I was dirty and you laughed”, “coffee in the morning and the smell of comfort”, and “when the soft boughs touched my shoulders.” Okay.
The update is free to previous owners. If you’ve already purchased the app, this is a good enough update to revisit it with. I wish this update had been released about 14 months ago. But it’s here now, so enjoy it and “be happy.”
If you don’t have this app and have been watching it, this new update really is the best update of this app to come along in a while. For a buck, it might be worth trying out over the free, “lite” version of the app.
100 Cameras in One is $0.99. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
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