Life in LoFi: iPhoneography | iPhone Photo News, Showcases, App Reviews

UPDATE 02.03.12: After about a day in the App Store, Instagrunge has disappeared. No reasons were given in the dev’s Twitter stream and the app’s Facebook page is offline as well. There is a short explanation at the bottom of the Instagrunge website:

“But the app isn’t quite finished yet, so you will have to wait a little longer before you can start dirtying up your images. Stay tuned…”

New iPhone photo app Instagrunge recently hit the App Store. As the name implies, Instagrunge quickly and easily scuffs, fades, scratches, damages and stains your photo quickly and easily.

Currently, it’s free through February, making it fairly easy to download and try out. Even while free, though, it’s got a lot of problems, though, before it finds a place on my iPhone. >>>

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A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed new iPhone photo app AnalogColor. The app has a new update that addresses a couple of the issues I had with the 1.0 release. The new 1.1 update makes it a better app — definitely more usable for iPhoneographers — and also indicates that the developer will be pushing out more of these incremental updates which address user requests.

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The lineage of Photogene2 is one of the oldest photo apps on the iPhone. Photogene was probably one of the first apps many early iPhoneographers had in their camera bag.

Photogene2, the app’s successor, recently received a big update with several new features, including several new tools and the ability to order photo products in-app.

One of the more compelling features for me is the new “Clarity” tool, made popular by all-in-one camera app Camera+. I thought I’d compare the two side by side. See how Photogene2 fared after the jump.

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misskiwi’s Squara photo app is another very good square format app that integrates nicely with Instagram, but also makes a great shooter on its own. Squara is on sale now for a limited time for only $0.99 — a savings of $1.00.

Click past the jump for info on Squara and my thoughts on the app. >>>

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Hipstamatic’s 235 update hit the App Store this afternoon and they delivered on not one but two highly sought after features: tap-to-focus (only in the zoomed-in view) and the ability to save fave combos of lens/film/flash.

With the update you’ll note that the zoomed-in (aka fullscreen) view now features a textured overlay reminiscent of looking through a dirty plastic lens. Don’t worry, this won’t show up on your photos. When you tap and hold on a spot to focus the overlay rotates, simulating the experience of manually focusing through a physical lens. Traditionalist fans argued against the idea of selective focus, pointing out it wasn’t available in the original Hipstamatic. But Synthetic’s implementation feels in line with the spirit of the plastic Hipstamatic, if not the real limitations.

Adding a favorite combination is as simple as tapping the little star underneath the viewfinder while using the setup you want to preserve. Accessing stored faves is done through the same star icon, which allows you to scroll between visual representations of your various setups.

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Fisheye Camera
Version reviewed: 2.8
Price: $0.99

Bottom Line: The image quality — or lack of — is reason enough to avoid Fisheye Camera.

The only reason I’m reviewing Fisheye Camera by Zhong is because it’s now number 23 in the Top Paid iPhone Photo apps. This is a horrible photo app that I wouldn’t ordinarily want to draw attention to, even negative. This is one of the worst apps I’ve ever reviewed and is only as high as it is on the charts because of possible App Store shill reviews.

I recommend that you avoid this app. Read past the jump to find out why. >>>

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AnalogColor is the new iPhone version to Pentacom’s popular desktop app for Mac and Windows, ToyCamera AnalogColor. It creates analog-like photos and simulates cross-processing.

The new iPhone version has hit the App Store with a resounding “meh.” It’s difficult for me to get excited about this app because of all that’s missing from it — basic features that are in the desktop version (and other iPhone photo apps) but not in the iPhone version. Even the developer hints that this 1.0 release was rushed out before it was really ready.

That’s too bad. The app has potential and could be pretty good in a few updates.

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It eventually happens to all of us. We’ll take a great shot, but when viewing later, we realize that it’s cropped just a little too tight. “If I only had a little more sky, this photo would be perfect,” we lament. Previously, on the iPhone, that involved using one or two (lesser) crop apps to add canvas and then cloning back in image. Some would call it a detailed process. I call it a PITA.

AntiCrop is a new photo app from Adva-Soft, the makers of the very good content-fill app TouchRetouch. In addition to standard crops, AntiCrop allows you to crop outside the edge of your photos, using fairly intelligent content fill to add image where there is none.

I like the app, but it’s not perfect. Read past the jump to find out how well it works.

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Mattebox
Version reviewed: 1.3
Price: $3.99

Bottom Line: I like the app. It’s like shooting with a traditional high-end point and shoot.

(UPDATED 01.19.12.)

Mattebox is a deceptively simple camera app which gives you advanced control over your image and helps you get the best photo possible in camera. It’s billed as “the Photographer’s mobile camera.” The interface is gorgeous. It’s modeled after the Konica Hexar, a classic and powerful point-and-shoot camera. It’s sleek and functional.

It’s pretty pricey for a camera app, but it has some very well-implemented features. I bought the app at its full initial price of $4.99. I don’t regret the purchase. It’s now $3.99. Mattebox is a very traditional camera-like app in a market of camera apps designed for the iPhone. It’s a simple yet powerful camera app.

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ClassicInstant film and Modern Border

One of the earliest and one of the premier fauxlaroid apps in the App Store is misskiwi’s ClassicINSTA, part of their ClassicCAMERA series which also include the excellent ClassicTOY, ClassicPAN, and Squara apps.

The ClassicINSTA 7.0.0 update was just released. In it, the app gets a makeover and a few new features. I’ll walk you through them after the jump. >>>

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