Life in LoFi: iPhoneography

Camera One

Camera One
Version 1.6

Bottom line: Improved. A decent camera replacement for snapshots.

Back in October, we reviewed version 1.0 of CocoaTek’s Camera One, a full-featured camera replacement app. Since then, the app has been updated several times, the most recent is version 1.6. It’s currently in the Top 5 paid Photography apps in the U.S. App Store and for this new update, I have spotted a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews from many users who’ve written no other reviews. These look like shill reviews to me — a widespread practice in the App Store to boost app rankings and therefore sales.

I thought I’d revisit Camera One to see how it had improved since our first review and if it was worthy of the praise, either real or fabricated, that was being written about it.

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Recently, I wrote about The Best Free iPhoneography Apps: Camera Replacements. Now that you’ve shot your image, how are you going to process it? Here are nine great image editing apps and best of all, their price is free!

I realize that this list is not complete. There were several apps that I didn’t include for various reasons. In compiling this list, I found some apps that duplicated features of others. In those cases, I chose what I felt to be the app that did the job quickest, easiest and best. Also, there are great free apps being released all the time.

Some of these apps may be ad-supported, but none of them add a watermark to your images and all save at or really close to your iPhone’s full resolution, unlike many lite photo apps available. These are all full-featured apps and they produce good, if not outstanding effects. Again, for little more than bandwidth and real estate on your iPhone’s screen, there are some gems to be found in the photography section of the App Store. These apps should start you off with a well-rounded iPhoneography toolbox or enhance your existing iPhone “camera bag” — and all for free.

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ProCamera Basic

ProCamera Basic by Daemgen.net is available for free for a limited time — down from $1.99.

ProCamera Basic is an excellent camera replacement. I’ve been using the full-version, ProCamera, as my camera replacement app of choice for the the last couple of revisions. ProCamera Basic is a full-featured camera — anti-shake with three settings, composition gridlines, full-resolution 5X digital zoom, Big Button full-screen shutter, and adjustable timer are just some of the features in Basic. Some of the missing features that the full version has are 3G tap-to-focus, video capabilities and the virtual horizon.

The ProCamera apps have become some of the premier camera replacements in the App Store, becoming the standard to beat for price and features. This is a great chance to grab one of the better camera apps available while it’s free.

App Store link: ProCamera Basic

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Camera Genius

Camera Genius
Version 1.7

Bottom Line: Essential!

It’s been a while since I reviewed Camera Genius by CodeGoo. Since then, it is on its third big revision and I thought this would be a good opportunity to revisit my review.

Camera Genius 1.7 is the best camera replacement app available in the App Store. It adds great functionality and features to the iPhone’s camera, especially if you have an older 3G or 2G iPhone. It’s powerful yet easy to use. It works on all iPhone models and supports auto-focus on the 3GS. Importantly, all the features in Camera Genius work as advertised.

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Camera One

Camera One
Version 1.0

Bottom Line: Unimpressed

Camera One by CocoaTek is not a great camera replacement app. For the money, there are better ones out there. I like the feature set and if they worked as advertised this would be a pretty good app. But Camera One is just one of many average camera apps filled with features that either under-deliver or simply aren’t there.

I like the built-in “My Color” feature; the black & white conversion is good and there’s also a nice built-in Vintage effect. The app has a simulated “Flash” effect which is supposed to help lighten the exposure of your images. The Grid Lines are nice and help you compose and level your pictures. There is a good crosshair target in the center of the viewfinder. This app is solid; I was able to take several pictures in a row and the app never crashed. There is an switchable audible ping when you change your camera settings. Unfortunately, turning this off does not also mute the camera’s shutter sound.

There’s a lot here that needs improvement. The app doesn’t retain your settings after you close it. While the developer advertises a 4X Digital Zoom, the quality of the zoom is poor. As with many of the lower-quality digital zooms in the App Store, it’s just in-camera cropping and produces small-sized images. The  pan-and-zoom feature and Before-After view are non-existent — these features are just not there.

There is no live preview in the viewfinder for the color effects or for the flash-effect. You have to go to the camera roll after you shoot and the image saves to see the results of the effects. The flash-effect produces unacceptable halos. There are much better flash-effect applications, such as iFlashReady or even the free Zipix Lite. The developer promises image save times of 2 seconds, but on my 2G iPhone, it took over 11 seconds to save one picture and over 7 seconds before the camera was ready to take another shot.

This app may bill itself as an all-in-one replacement for “so many small iPhone Camera applications.” However, few of the features work as well as the apps they are supposed to replace.

There is already a free update in the works which should add new features to the app, including Anti-shake mode, GPS Tagging, Time Stamp, and a big button shutter. These additional features would be nice and would bring the app up to par with many of the other top camera replacements available now. Before they rush out a bunch of new features, though, I’d really like for them to get the current ones right.

Camera One is available for $0.99 USD for a limited time in the App Store.

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FTC Disclosure: I am not associated with this or any camera app creator. I paid for this app in the App Store.

In lieu of a tripod, anti-shake stabilization is great for helping you to shoot clearer pictures on your iPhone. Many apps have this feature, including Camera Genius and ProCamera. If you don’t use one of the iPhone camera apps with anti-shake stabilization, you can still get better results and clearer images.

On many iPhone apps including Apple’s Camera app, the shutter doesn’t trigger when you press the shutter button — it triggers when you release the shutter button. To help get clearer pictures, when shooting your picture press and hold the shutter button, wait for your shot (“Say cheese…”), then take your finger off the shutter button to snap your picture.

Simply pressing the shutter button can sometimes cause the phone to jiggle a little which could blur your image. Taking your shot by pulling off the shutter button helps to steady the camera as you shoot.

Other tips to try: hold your breath while you take your shot. Or try and steady yourself (and your camera) against a pretty solid object such as a wall or a tree.

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ProCamera

ProCamera
Version 2.0

Bottom Line: Unimpressed

When it comes to my iPhone camera apps, I’m pretty picky. After testing ProCamera by Daemgen during a recent LoFi shoot, I am pretty underwhelmed and disappointed.

The feature set seems very appealing — zoom lens, gridlines, self-timer, anti-shake feature among them. I like that there are prefs that adjust the sensitivity of many of these features. I like that the screen has two shutter release areas, the full-screen big button for instant shutter release and the smaller area at the base of the screen for anti-shake release.

An anti-shake feature is always nice to have, and I use it for nearly every image I shoot, day or night. For night photography, it helps minimize blurs. For day photography, it helps compensate for over-Starbucked hands. Both my day and night shots are much clearer using anti-shake. ProCamera’s is nicely implemented and has 3 adjustable settings. I’ve set mine to the highest sensitivity, which forces the longest wait to shutter release. You might have decent results with the middle setting, also.

My biggest disappointment is with the digital zoom. Because it took version 2.0 so long to get approved, I had assumed that ProCamera had one of the new enhanced digital zoom features that the OS 3.1 API allows — real digital zoom, image resampling and full-resolution. This is not the case. All ProCamera’s digital zoom does is simply crop your image in camera, giving you an image that’s only 25% of the size you are expecting, in my case 400 x 300 pixel images. These images may be fine for email, Facebook or MMS, but this app bills itself to have advanced features. The digital zoom feature is unusable for any iPhoneography. Full-size zoomed images are possible for iPhone and Zoom Lens by BitWink is still my go-to app for digital zoom. For a full-featured camera app with real digital zoom, Snapture is also available in the app store. Both apps achieve full-resolution, in camera digital zoom with full-size output.

The app has a tiltmeter to help you level your image to the horizon and it’s a nice addition not found in many camera apps of this class. Most of the time, I composed my images using the grid-guides. The grid-guides are a nice feature and fall in a 7 x 9 grid, helping you align your subject to the frame vertically and horizontally. If you use the the “Rule of Thirds” to compose your images, you may find ProCamera’s grid guides a little distracting.

I didn’t have much luck with ProCamera’s high-speed saving feature. I was only able to shoot 2 images before the cache filled up and I was forced to wait until the images had saved. Apple’s Camera app, of course, has no such limitation. Camera Genius lets you save 3 before the cache fills up.

I’m not fully understanding all the love currently being given this app in other reviews. ProCamera has the potential to be my default camera app has yet not replaced Apple’s Camera app or Camera Genius. I understand that the 2.1 update may address some of my criticisms here, and when it’s released, I’ll be happy to revisit this review at that time. For now, though, the lack of a real digital zoom as well as the few performance issues relegates this app to my back page. I’d give this app a “Recommend” because it is a decent camera app with a lot of well-implemented features, but I’m bumping it down because it’s pretty pricey for the performance and features you are paying for. For $2.99 USD, I feel ProCamera is overpriced and there are other apps in this class, notably Camera Genius and Snapture, that perform much better for a buck or two less.

ProCamera is $2.99 USD in the App Store.

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FTC Disclosure: I am not associated with Daemgen, CodeGoo, Snapture Labs or any camera app creator. I paid for this app in the App store.