Photo App Review: Light Leaks by ONE APPS

Light Leaks by ONE APPS
Version Reviewed: 1.0

I like light leak apps. They’re a great way to add analog-style lo-fi photo effects. There are several good ones available. New photo app Light Leaks by ONE APPS is not one of them.

I dropped the two bucks so you don’t have to. Keep reading to find out why I think this app is that bad.

In addition to its lousy, low-res output, one of the things that bothered me the most about this app is how deceptive its descriptions are throughout the app. The App Store description bills it as “a collection of more than 220 kinds of leaky filters.” Except most of those 220 filters are only available as an additional, separate in-app purchase.

The light leaks effects are fine — what you’d expect from a light leak app. Nothing special or unique. There appears to be a tool to randomize the position of the light leak overlay, but it seems to be broken. Tapping on it does absolutely nothing but frustrate.

There is a separate section for other photo effects. They range from visually interesting ones all the way to some pretty ugly filler. The app’s low resolution output really negates the usability of most of these effects.

The effect preview image only shows the middle square of the image, leaving you to guess how the effect will look on the sides or top of the image.

The app’s three output sizes are 307 x 230 pixels, 614 x 460 pixels, and 920 x 690 pixels, even though the save button says “Original Image.” Not even close.

The app comes with 40 standard light leak effects and a comparable number of completely static, non-editable image effects, but then wants to charge an additional $2.99 to unlock a lot more of these low-res effects? I don’t think so….

Anyone who’s going to want to use a light leak app isn’t going to want a lousy, broken, low res one. Light Leaks isn’t even a good low-res front end for Instagram. Save your money and avoid this app. There are much better light leak apps with effects that are just as good or better, such as Osmo Leaker, LightLeaker by Shota Nakagami, and AfterLight by Simon Filip. They’re all less expensive than Light Leaks and they work correctly. I recommend one of those instead.

Light Leaks is $1.99. This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

=M=

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