Life in LoFi: iPhoneography

This is all you get. Full-size output from one of the recent super-low res camera apps (300x400 pixels)

Another day, another super-low-res monochrome camera is released in the App Store.

With the number of monochrome camera apps that save at the iPhone’s full resolution — Vint B&W, Spica SuperMonochrome, and others — and the number of apps that do an excellent job of converting images to monochrome — CameraBag, MonoPhix, CameraKit — I don’t understand why it’s suddenly become so difficult to produce apps that save to at least 1200×1600 resolution.

One of my biggest peeves in the App Store is the recent glut of super-low-res photo apps. These are the apps that save images at 320×480 pixels (or less) — the iPhone’s screen resolution. Seriously, that’s 0.154 megapixels. The original VGA resolution from the late 1980’s was 640×480 pixels.

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Sunlight Tracker

We just ran across this in the U.S. App Store. Sunlight Tracker by RLSP is a new app which displays a whole bunch of information about the sun, allowing you to plan your photo shoot around your light. This is similar to what BlueHour and CityTime do, except Sunlight Tracker seems to provide a lot more information geared specifically towards photographers.

Sunlight Tracker is free in the U.S. App Store for a limited time.

It features sunrise and sunset times, twilight times which are good for shooting in the Blue hours, angle and elevation of the sun and other information. Although we just grabbed it and haven’t tested it yet, it looks really comprehensive and if you find yourself planning around the good light, this is an excellent opportunity to grab this utility while it’s free!

Detailed information on the app’s features and functions can be found on the RLSP website.

App Store link: Sunlight Tracker

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Update Saturday, March 13, 2010. Well, that didn’t last long…. Looks like the limited time has passed. The app is now available for its regular price of $1.99 USD. Still, give it a look if you think you might need a sunlight tracker. For the extra dollar, this app does a lot more than give sunrise/sunset times.

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Related links: BlueHour review |   CityTime (App Store link)

ProCamera
Version 2.7

Bottom Line: Highly recommended!

ProCamera

A while back, I promised a full review of a previous update of ProCamera. I’m glad I waited until now.

In my idea box of articles I want to write is one for a “FrankenCam” app. For a long time, all of the features that I wanted in a camera app were spread out across several camera apps. I wanted to write an article — more like a wish list to developers — of the features that I wanted in one camera app.

I no longer need to write that article. The new 2.7 update of ProCamera by daemgen.net now includes every feature that I want that’s allowed by Apple in an iPhone camera app… and a whole lot more.

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Monochrome Camera
Version 1.0

Bottom line: Avoid

MonoCam

Monochrome Camera by TouchInside is a new app which saves images in monochrome. It has its own camera function or you can import images from your camera roll. I know it takes a lot of time, effort and coding skills to create any iPhone app, but with all that’s wrong with this one, I wonder how this ever got past beta stage.

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BlueHour
Version 1.2

Bottom Line: A good utility to help plan twilight photography.

BlueHour

There are two special types of twilight called blue hour and golden hour. Both create awesome light for photographers. Blue hour occurs before sunrise and after sunset. The sky turns deep blue during this period of time. The Golden hour occurs right after sunrise and just before sunset when everything has an golden-orange tint (In Texas, the Golden hour is really more like the Golden twelve minutes….).

Of course, these times change daily. Knowing when these times are gives you the opportunity to shoot in some great light. BlueHour by Baum Computer & Graphics is a simple utility that tells you the approximate times of the Golden hours and the Blue hours for the current day.

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ZCam Pro

For a limited time, ZCam Pro and BlueCam Pro by Mother Tucker are available free! Both apps recently sold in the App Store for $0.99 USD.

BlueCam Pro is a remote control camera with Live Camera Preview over Bluetooth. Packed with features such as Full-Screen Camera Preview, a Big Photo Button, Photo Timers, Zoom, Batch and Automatic Photo Uploading, Multi Photo Sharing, Reticles and a Twitter Client.

ZCam Pro is a full-featured camera that shares many of the same features as BlueCam Pro but also adds WiFi control and preview to the mix. It’s a full-featured camera as well.

Life In LoFi hasn’t reviewed or tested either app. If you have, feel free to let us know your thoughts about either or both in the comments below.

Both apps have feature-reduced free versions. These are the full versions being offered for free for a limited time. Grab ‘em quick!

App Store links: BlueCam Pro |  ZCam Pro

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Autofocus for 2G/3GCamera
Version 1.0

Bottom Line: Nice faux-DOF but hampered by less than full-res output

Autofocus

Autofocus for 2G/3G Camera by JFDP Labs brings sharp focus and gradual depth of field (DOF) to the iPhone 2G and 3G cameras. The app is optimized for the older generation iPhones which have no built-in focus features at all. It doesn’t modify the hardware on these devices. It does not add hardware autofocus to the devices. It achieves the focus effect by either automatically or allowing you to manually select and define a focus area and then reproducing a gradual depth of field focus blur from that point.

The focus effect is adjustable, subtle and nice, but the app has a few problems in this initial release.

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PhotoForge

PhotoForge by GhostBird Software is on sale right now and for a limited time, the price has been reduced to just $0.99 USD — the lowest price I’ve seen it in a while.

Several apps have tried to wear the namesake of “Photoshop for the iPhone” including Photogene and PerfectPhoto. PhotoForge truly is the image editing powerhouse for iPhone. I use both this and Photogene regularly to process my images. If you’re only using Photogene, you are missing out on so much that your iPhone is capable of.

Click here to read our recent review of PhotoForge. Recently, PhotoForge was selling for $2.99 USD. It’s a great app at three bucks and one that I use often. For $0.99, PhotoForge is an essential purchase if you don’t have it already. I’m not sure how long this sale will last, so grab it now before the price goes back up.

App Store link: PhotoForge

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Both Crop Suey and Straighten Image by appingo are free in the App Store right now. Both Life In LoFi and iPhoneography.com recently recommended Straighten Image. Glyn Evans also recommends Crop Suey as well (at this moment, we haven’t reviewed the app yet).

Straighten Image is a no frills, one trick pony app, that lets you quickly and easily realign the horizon, and straighten out any crooked photos. Besides its simplicity, what I like about the app is that it resamples images back to their original pixel dimensions even after it’s shaved a few pixels off the edges. Crop Suey is more full featured. In addition to straightening the image, you can also crop, flip and rotate images.

Recently, both apps sold for $0.99 USD. These are simple, but great utilities. Grab them both now while they’re free.

App Store links: Crop Suey |   Straighten Image

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HipstaMatic

I have much love for Hipstamatic. No other app (or Photoshop plug-in) creates such organic and analog-looking images so easily. The new Hipstamatic 150 update is available now in the App Store. From the list of features, it’s a terrific update to an already amazing app. The update adds a ton of new features and improvements, in-app file sharing to Flickr, as well as addresses several performance issues. Start-up time has been improved significantly. There’s also a new monthly photography contest accessible in-app. We’ll post more details as they become available.

As is the case with the previous Hipstamatic 110 update, there’s a new optional HipstaPak available as an additional in-app purchase, featuring two new films. I can’t wait to shoot with the new BlacKeys SuperGrain B+W Film!

The free update is live now or you can (and should) purchase the updated version if you don’t already own the app.

Here’s a list of what’s new and fixed in Hipstamatic 150:

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