So, you got new iPhone for Christmas…. You’ve already downloaded Angry Birds and have asked all of the “Siri-ous” questions (my personal favorite is “Open the pod bay doors, please, Siri.”)

Your new iPhone comes with a pretty serious camera and with the small investment of a few inexpensive photo apps, you can take and share some really cool photos.

But navigating the App Store can be intimidating without a little help. Here’s Life In LoFi’s guide to the best starter photo apps.

If you have a friend or family member who recently got a new iPhone, this is a great list to share with them. There’s a quick and easy email button at the end of this post. >>>

One of the great features of the iPhone camera is the availability of thousands of photo apps in the App Store. For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you can buy an app that gives your photos an entirely new look than just the basic snap and share — in essence, buying a new “camera.”

Not all photo apps are created equal. Some highly rated photo apps are pretty powerful, but have steep learning curves. Others may have a lot of five star ratings because of what’s called App Store “shill reviews.”

Here’s our short list of the best starter apps. While there are many great photo apps available ready for you to discover, these apps will not only give you the most bang for your buck (or two), but are also super easy to learn and get up to speed quickly with.

1. Camera+

There are a lot of apps with “Camera+” in the name. The one you want is the one by tap tap tap. Fortunately, this one is always at or near the top of the App Store rankings and deservedly so. Camera+ is a powerful iPhone camera replacement app and built-in photo studio app. It’s easily the best all-in-one camera app available.

Camera+ has great additional tools to help you capture better pictures that the iPhone’s Camera app lacks, such as anti-shake camera stabilizing, self-timer countdown, and separate focus and exposure targets.

The app’s built-in photo studio has more tools to help you crop and adjust the brightness, contrast and color of your image. Camera+ also has dozens of built-in frames, effects and filters to stylize your photos with the look of everything from faded film to toy cameras to overall color changes. All of the filters are one-click easy and they all look great. Save or share from within the app.

There are other great camera replacement apps, but for starting out it’s tough to beat Camera+ for quickly and easily taking great photos.

Camera+ is normally $1.99 in the App Store. |

2. Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic is the wonderful iPhone-only photo app that many people think of first when they think of arty iPhone photography. It recreates the look of stressed, vintage, analog film complete with noise, digital light leaks, smears and vignettes. It really does a great job recreating the imperfections of a toy camera. Hipstamatic’s effects are unique, gorgeous, and well-rendered. There are no other photo apps that create these great effects.

Hipstamatic is a fun camera to shoot with. It feels analog. It’s the experience of an old camera shooting within an iPhone and along the way, it creates some stunning photographs. Like an old real camera, Hipstamatic makes you play with lens, and film combinations to get your results. To dive right in, try the app’s great “shake to randomize” feature to discover surprising lens and film combinations.

Spend the buck or two for the original Hipstamatic app (and be ready to feed your new photo addiction with the several add on HipstaPak lens and film purchases). The new Hipstamatic Disposable may be free but it lacks most of the filters, functionality, charm, and fun of the original.

Hipstamatic is normally $1.99 in the App Store and comes with several standard “films” and “lenses”. |

3. FX Photo Studio

In the latest version of FX Photo Studio, there are about 200 different effects that you can apply and combine. There is such a broad range of effects in this photo app, there is something for everyone’s taste, ranging from grungy film overlays all the way to a selection of “cute” photo frames.

Each effect is one-click easy, but there’s also a slider that allows you to adjust the intensity of each effect. There’s also a hideaway toolbar with even more control over each effect. Favorite presets can be saved for easy access and your favorite filter combinations can easily be added as presets.

It’s a powerful, extensive set of filters but it’s also super easy to use if you just want fast, one-click filters. And there are a ton of filters and looks.

FX Photo Studio easily shares your photos straight to Instagram. What is an Instagram, you may ask…?

(By the way, FX Photo Studio usually sells for $1.99 in the App Store. | )

4. Instagram

Instagram is the insanely popular square format social photo sharing app. It makes it super easy to shoot and share photos not only on Instagram’s own photo sharing network, but one click also shares your images with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and others. While Instagram may not be the best social photo app in terms of how good the app itself is, it is the most popular. Over 15 million users currently connect and share their photos over Instagram’s network — and that’s even before the new Android version of the app comes out opening up the network to millions more users.

It doesn’t get much easier than Instagram. Shoot. Choose one of Instagram’s 17 one-click filters. Decide whether you want a border. Share. You can also add a tilt-shift effect to change the look of the focus. The price is right — Instagram is free and there are no in-app purchases.

Instagram is easy and fun. There are a very wide variety of photographers or “Instagrammers” sharing their pictures on the network.

Instagram is FREE in the App Store. |

5. Simply B&W

Converting a photo to black and white changes the mood and feel of the image. Many photo apps can convert your photo to black & white, but few make a black and white photo convert well. Simply B&W is one of the apps that does a great job of converting color to black and white. It’s also super fast and easy to use.

Getting a good black & white photo is usually more involved than simply removing all the color from an image. Often, doing that (it’s called “desaturating” a photo) creates a gray photo that’s pretty lifeless and lacks punch. By using the digital equivalent of an old photographer’s trick, Simply B&W is an excellent tool to create great-looking black & white images with punch, richness and contrast.

Simply B&W has a clean interface and is easy to use. Even if you don’t know photographic color theory, Simply B&W makes it one-click easy to convert your images into some great-looking black & white photos.

Simply B&W is normally $0.99 in the App Store. |

6. PhotoToaster

Phototoaster is an image editing app for users who need more than the built-in tools of an all-in-one camera app, but might not need all the tools of one of the big “Photoshop for the iPhone” photo editors. PhotoToaster is a good, lightweight image editing app for cropping and rotating, making fast and easy color and brightness tweaks as well as quickly applying effects from a selection of presets.

I like that PhotoToaster’s interface is easy to use, but keeps most of the tools out of the way until you need them. I like the selection of one-click adjustments that tweak lightness, color saturation, exposure and contrast all with the click of one preset. PhotoToaster gives you the flexibility of switching to a precision adjustment with one convenient push of a button.The app also has a bunch of filter and effect presets, as well as a selection of several frames and borders.

It’s a deceptively powerful but easy to use photo editor. It’s also got great sharing support, including built-in Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Instagram sharing as well as built in email and text messaging sharing.

The full version of PhotoToaster is $1.99 in the App Store. |

7. 360 Panorama

360 Panorama lets you easily capture immersive panoramas in seconds and instantly share them. Simply pan the camera and watch as images are stitched seamlessly. The app uses the built-in gyro of your iPhone 4 or 4S to position and capture each panel of the pano in real time. The end result is an interactive image that’s just like clicking around streetview of Google Maps.

Easily share or email your creation online. 360 Panorama has built-in share support for Facebook, Twitter  and others.

I often recommend AutoStitch Panorama here on the blog. While AutoStitch gives you different options in creating panos, in doing so it adds a layer of complexity to creating panos. Nothing beats the speed, ease and stability of 360 Panorama for making quick and easy panos with your iPhone.

360 Panorama is currently $0.99 in the App Store. |

…

All of the above apps work great with the iPhone 4 and new iPhone 4S. These apps were chosen because of the quality of the effects and the ease of use. You’ll notice most of these apps are “one-click” easy. They are all great starter apps for a new iPhoneographer.

The iPhone is a great device that can do a lot of cool things. It’s a camera that’s almost always with you to record and share moments. All of the apps above cost less than $20 combined — a lot less if you can find them on sale (we often post app sales and freebies here and on Life In LoFi’s Facebook page). A small investment will get you a good start to your iPhone photography toolbox or to simply help you add a bit of style to your snapshots.

=M=

~~~~

Since the release of iOS 5 and the addition of the Volume Button Shutter in Apple’s Camera, many third party developers have followed suit and implemented the feature in their own apps. Jeff McMorris from CodeGoo, creators of Camera Genius tells Life In LoFi that Apple has approved these apps “by mistake.”

Several third party camera replacement apps now have what has become known as “VolumeSnap”, including Camera Genius, Pro Camera and as of yesterday Camera+.

Jeff McMorris says:

“Apple required us to remove it as they said they approved us by mistake and said third party developers are not allowed to use this feature even though Apple’s own camera application now has it. Unfortunately, I doubt we will be able to add this feature back again unless Apple allows it.

“It’s strange that they approved Camera+ today with the same feature. So it will be interesting to see if they are allowed to keep it.”

Once again, VolumeSnap looks to be in jeopardy. If you like the feature in your third-party photo apps, you might have to stick with the current versions of Camera+ (version 2.4 VS), Pro Camera (version 3.3), or downgrade to the previous version of Camera Genius (version 4.0.0).

I think it’s a great feature to have, especially when it doesn’t also jack with the iPhone’s volume. iOS 5 is that good and users won’t be flocking away from it in droves just because they can get VolumeSnap elsewhere. I hope Apple reverses this decision soon.

=M=

~~~~

Consistently top-selling camera replacement app, Camera+ was updated today to version 2.4VS.

Its one new feature: the return of VolumeSnap.

VolumeSnap allows you to use one of your iPhone’s hardware volume buttons as a shutter release. It’s a feature that was forbidden by Apple prior to iOS 5.

The feature has a bit of a history with Camera+. The app originally had the feature hidden in an old build. The hack spread, Apple got word and Camera+ went away for a while.

Use of the volume button as a shutter release is now built into iOS 5 and its native Camera app and is a strong reason to upgrade if you haven’t already. Now, VolumeSnap has been returned to Camera+.

Several other photo apps have already implemented a similar feature, including ProCamera and Camera Genius . Almost as quickly as it appeared,  however, Camera Genius released an update today removing the feature “at the request of Apple.” No word yet as to why.

Using the volume shutter release with many other photo apps also caused the iPhone’s volume to change as well — causing your iPhone’s volume to “go to eleven” after only a few shots. This may be the reason Apple is recalling the feature on some apps (pure speculation on my part). VolumeSnap in Camera+, though, works very nicely with the iPhone and doesn’t change the volume of the device at all.

With Apple reversing course on the new volume shutter feature with some apps, we’ll see how this plays out. For now, though, download or update it while you can.

Camera+ is on sale now for 99¢. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

=M=

~~~~

The iPhone 4S hits the street this week. For many iPhoneographers, though, Christmas comes early with this Wednesday’s release of iOS 5, Apple’s latest and greatest operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Over the weekend, I was able to use an iPhone 4 with a golden master — basically a release copy — of iOS 5. I didn’t have much hands on time with it, but here are my thoughts and a few screenshots of the greatly improved Apple Camera and Photos apps.

First, even with all of the new features of the OS, it’s fast on an iPhone 4. The test iPhone 4 I used felt as fast and responsive as iOS 4, even with all the new stuff it’s processing. No word on how the new features effects battery life, if at all. I only had the phone for about 15 minutes. The battery did not completely drain during that time….

Camera

Anyone who updates to iOS 5 will get the new Camera and Photos apps. The new Camera app gets a few new features, including a rule of thirds composition grid. Other new features include a much asked for Volume Shutter Button, greatly improved start-up time, and improved shot-to-shot time.

In my non-scientific tests, Apple Camera’s shot-to-shot time was already among the fastest available — averaging just under one shot per second until the cache filled up. Apple claims the new camera significantly decreases the time until the camera is ready to shoot again — to about half a second. And it does. While I didn’t have a stopwatch, the camera felt quicker and did seem to be ready to shoot again quicker, even on a 4. I’ll update this post with times on Wednesday when the iOS is released.

The HDR toggle is replaced by an options button, where the HDR and Composition toggles now live. This is an extra step to turn HDR off and on now. Some may be put off a little by this minor inconvenience. The Rule of Thirds grid is a welcome and long-overdue addition to Camera. Nearly every other third party camera app has this feature.

Back in the old days before the iPhone 4, the Home button could be programmed to access the camera when the phone was locked. It was a very convenient feature that helped reduce the likelihood of missing shots. This great feature returns sort of. iOS 5 now has a similar feature, where the Camera can be accessed directly from the Lock Screen, without the need to unlock the device. Until you’ve missed that perfect shot by a second, you really can’t understand fully how great a feature like this is. Thank you, Apple, for restoring this functionality.

In August of 2010, Camera+ was pulled from the App Store for a while because of the hidden VolumeSnap feature where you could use the iPhone’s Volume buttons as a physical shutter release. That feature is long gone from Camera+. In iOS 5, Apple adds this feature to Camera. The Volume Up button now serves as a shutter release when in Camera. It’s very convenient and very responsive. Having a physical shutter release helps the iPhone feel more like a camera and helps to reduce missed shots by not hitting the software shutter release onscreen. The Volume Up shutter release is implemented simply. All it does is take a photo — nothing else. Many iPhoneographers will find this feature alone worth the upgrade.

For a more full-featured shutter release button, look into the excellent Canopy Kapok iPhone 4 Case, which also features white-balance and exposure lock and a focus lock.

Photos

The Photos app gets a huge rebuild. In addition to it’s new organizing features, Photos now also gets basic editing tools which will probably cover at least half of your primary, pre-apping photo editing.

Photos now has basic auto image enhancement. It performs minor color balance and normalization along the lines of the free “Flash” apps. Not much. In my test it didn’t visibly reduce noise or fill in shadows like a full DRC app such as Perfectly Clear would. For well-lit photos, though, the new Auto-Enhance should do a decent job of white and color balance. In Photos edit mode, it toggles on and off easily and an onscreen indicator shows clearly when the photo is enhanced. It’s easy to figure out and very easy to use — once you find the Edit mode. I’m still keeping Perfectly Clear by Athentech Imaging and Photoshop Express on my iPhone for more dynamic range correction and images that just need more work.

The new Crop tool is basic but does as much as or more than many of the crop apps available in the App Store. The handles are responsive. There’s a constrain lock to keep a 4:3 aspect ratio, but there are not any other preset aspect ratios that many of the dedicated crop apps have. UPDATE: As a reader pointed out, Crop does have other preset constraints.

The Crop tool has an easy to use straighten function. Using a two-finger gesture in the Crop screen, you can rotate the image to straighten. Guidelines as you rotate help you align the image. The straighten function does not resample images up to their original resolution like Crop Suey does. It simply cuts the image off where needed.

The Crop tool is basic but good. It’s not even close to full-featured, though, and I’ll still use Crop Suey for much of my cropping and straightening.

Be careful when editing in Photos, though! Edits are destructive! Edited images save over your original image in your camera roll and there is no option for “Save As.” While there is an Undo, once you save your edited, cropped image, there’s no going back. It’s one thing I really don’t like about the new Photos app.

Both Camera and Photos are vastly improved over previous versions. The new tools and features enhance and improve a basic workflow. Even with the new improvements in Photos, there’s still a need for more advanced editing tools, but quick, basic and easy tweaks can now be done right in the app.

The improvements to Camera, while basic are big ones. With the grid lines, volume button shutter, and speed improvements, Camera will probably be my goto camera app.

iOS 5 is an insanely great update and thankfully Apple did not short-change iPhoneographers this time around.

iOS 5 will be available for download Wednesday, October 12, 2011. It’s compatible with iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S, as well as iPad, iPad 2, iPod Touch 3rd Gen, and iPod Touch 4th gen. Be sure to read our post “iOS 5 – Should You Upgrade Right Away?” before upgrading.

=M=

~~~~

Big thanks to Devin Pike for letting me grab his iPhone 4 with iOS 5 away from him for a few minutes the other night.

Disclosure: We are an Amazon.com partner and get a small commission if you purchase a Canopy Kapok case through this link. That’s not why I singled out this case in this preview, though. The case has some awesome features, including the additional external buttons and it absolutely rocks. It’s become my primary iPhone 4 case. =M=

While much fuss has been made in the Appleverse about today’s Let’s Talk iPhone event, most of the speculation has been focused on new iPhone devices. Among the announcements today are the official feature list of the next-generation iOS 5.

Significant upgrades to the Camera and Photos apps are included in the new OS. The full list of features is now posted to Apple’s website. Even if you’re not getting one of the new iPhones, click past the jump to read about the new features available if you choose to upgrade to the new iOS 5. >>>

Camera

One of the new features that I really like about the new iOS update is the ability to access your camera from the Lock screen without unlocking your iPhone. This is particularly convenient for those of us who password protect our iPhones. Camera used to be accessible from the Home button in previous versions of the operating system.

The Volume-Up button on the device now also functions as a hardware shutter release, not unlike the old VolumeSnap feature from Camera+ 1.2.1 from over a year ago.

Camera now also comes with Rule-of-thirds gridlines and focus and exposure locks — features that have been staples in third party camera replacement apps for years.

Here’s what Apple says about the new Camera app:

Capture the moment at a moment’s notice.
Since your iPhone is always with you, it’s often the best way to capture those unexpected moments. That’s why you’ll love the new camera features in iOS 5. You can open the Camera app right from the Lock screen. Use grid lines, pinch-to-zoom gestures, and single-tap focus and exposure locks to compose a picture on the fly. Then press the volume-up button to snap your photo in the nick of time. If you have Photo Stream enabled in iCloud, your photos automatically download to all your other devices.

New Edit and Crop features in iOS 5

Photos

Photos has also been enhanced. Basic editing features, including crop, rotate, and auto-enhance have been added. In particular, I can’t wait to get my hands on the auto-enhance feature. Lately, it seems, that the flow of Dynamic Range Correction apps has slowed to a trickle. There haven’t been any updates of DRC apps like Perfectly Clear or TruSight Pro in quite a while. The new auto-enhance tool of Photos looks pretty bare bones, but it looks like it can do much of the day to day image enhancement and color correction — but without all the cool additonal features, such as custom settings, adjustable parameters and noise reduction that Perfectly Clear offers.

Here’s what Apple says about the new Photos app:

Enhanced photo enhancements.
Turn your snapshots into frame-worthy photos in just a few taps. Crop, rotate, enhance, and remove red-eye without leaving the Photos app. Even organize your photos in albums — right on your device. With iCloud, you can push new photos to all your iOS devices. So if you’re taking photos on your iPhone, iCloud automatically sends copies to your iPad, where you can quickly touch them up before showing them off.

New Autoenhance features in iOS 5

Both apps got some good and badly needed updates. I really like the new features of Photos. This new version could reduce the need for one or two apps on your iPhone, clearing up valuable screen space. Camera got some good new and long overdue new features as well. Camera now stacks up favorably to the top photo apps of 2008. The return of Camera accesibilty to the Lock screen is probably my favorite new feature of the iOS 5 camera.

iOS 5 will be available on Wednesday, October 12. More info on Apple’s iOS 5 can be found here.

=M=

~~~~

Images in this post courtesy of Apple Computer.

Among the changes in the new Instagram 2.0 update are the disappearance of a few of the app’s filters, including the popular Gotham filter. Instagrammer @wilburtheant, along with @darren2112 and @dudettewalnuts, have been circulating a recipe to recreate the look of the Gotham filter using Camera+ ( ).

I’ve made a couple of tweaks to their recipe which helps improve the converted blues in the image and helps reduce the amount of purple in the shadows and 3/4 tones. You’ll also need either Simply B&W ( ) or MonoPhix ( ) for this technique. The tweaked recipe is after the jump. >>>

1. Using Simply B&W or MonoPhix, convert to black & white using the red filter.
2. Save to camera roll
3. Using Camera+, crop image square if desired.
4. Scenes > Darken
5. FX Effects > I (heart) Analog > apply Silver Gelatin at 50%. Done.
6. Hold down Save button and select “Commit Edits.”
7. FX Effects > Color > apply Vibrant at 30%. Done.
8. Hold down Save button and select “Commit Edits.”
9. FX Effects > Color > Cyanotype at 15%. Done.
10. Borders > Simple > Round Black or Styled > Viewfinder  (Also, try using PictureShow > Style > Convex Blur).
11. Save to camera roll.

It comes close to Gotham, but there are still some differences. There’s a little more shadow detail in the actual Gotham filter. And, I found that both wilburtheant’s original and this revised technique work better on some images than others. Your mileage may vary from image to image, but I think this recipe gets you close to the stark contrast and rich saturation of Gotham.

By the way, both techniques preserve the original image size of your photo.

As far as Gotham and the other missing filters making a comeback? Instagram recently said that they “hope to introduce improved versions that capture the essence of these filters.” With the changes in all of the filters in the new update, even if Gotham, Poprocket and Apollo return, they’ll almost certainly be different than the ones users love in Instagram version 1.

If you simply want to hang on to all of the old filters for a while longer, read Life In LoFi’s classic post on how to reinstall an older version of an iOS app.

=M=

Processed with Simply B&W, Camera+, and PictureShow

Processed with Instagram 1.8's Gotham filter

Processed with Simply B&W and Camera+

Processed with Instagram 1.8's Gotham filter

Processed with Simply B&W and Camera+

Processed with Instagram 1.8's Gotham filter

How did this work for you? Let us know in the comments below.

~~~~

CamCam
Version: 1.1
Price: $2.99

Bottom Line: Good, but not very good. Great looking filters for both stills and video. Supports full-res. Needs more frames. It’s not a fast app.

Camera+Camcorder = CamCam. I get it. Catchy name. And I like the icon.

CamCam is a new effects camera from CnC with 30 film, camera and color effects and 7 frames. See below for a list of all 30 effects. All effects preview in speedy realtime, which is pretty cool. The rest of the app doesn’t feel as snappy, but it’s still an interesting app.

CamCam has 30 different film and color effects. You can either swipe through them onscreen or choose them from a pop up menu — complete with a live preview. The live preview gives you a splitscreen-style look at several effects at once.

The effects are named after an impressive collection of retro analog cameras, including many that aren’t often found in photo apps, such as the SMENA Symbol, Luvitel 166+, as well as the standard Holga and Diana cameras. There are several vintage looks as well, as well as several other color tweaks. It’s a good collection of effects. Overall, effects are what you’d expect from a retro camera, but a few effects to me are less accurate than others in digitally recreating their analog counterparts. For instance, photographs I’ve seen from a real-world SMENA aren’t nearly as sepia-heavy…. Some of the filters aren’t accurate “recreations” per se, but more like “tributes.”

Colors are good, though. They’re rich and nicely saturated. Some of the filters even have really cool randomly applied dust, grain and scratches.

Frames are well rendered. Sadly, there are only seven of them. I hope future updates add a greater variety of frames to match the effects.

All effects and all frames are available on all three cameras — rear, front and video. Video, when using one of the filters, even has a retro 8mm style flickering frame which looks good, especially for video, but adds a little needed randomness to the stills as well.

CamCam is slow slow. It takes a few seconds longer to load than most photo apps. Refresh time is pretty long, too. On my iPhone 4, refresh time was about 5 seconds between snaps — despite the fact that CamCam buffers images to complete processing in the background. Also, the app was sometimes cranky, sometimes locking up while processing a large video.

The separate focus and exposure targets are a little crankier than other apps. I didn’t really figure it out so much as I got lucky when I was able to get a lock. Target locks don’t stick when you change filters.

Also, it’s a camera only. You can’t load images from your camera roll to take advantage of its great filters. CamCam saves to its own library, much in the same way Camera+ does. I like that particular workflow as it lets me thin out images and helps to reduce camera roll clutter.

CamCam supports full 5MP iPhone 4 resolution and saves a bunch of EXIF data. The onscreen controls adjust to any orientations, making CamCam compatible with any iPhone tripod available, including the left-handed Gymbl tripod.

It’s fun but flawed. The filters look good and I like the live preview. It’s not a fast shooter. I don’t think it was intended to be. Like many of the classic Lo-Fi and toy cameras it mimics. For some, it might not be worth the three dollars. For others, it’s a fun diversion.

We’ll keep an eye on this one and let you know if it goes on sale.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, and iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G. Requires iOS 4.1 or later.

=M=

———————————————-
CAMCAM STANDARD EQUIPMENT
———————————————-
•Scene
Normal
Baby Face effect
Darken effect
Color Dodge effect
Faded effect
Text effect
•Color
Cross Process effect
Redscale effect
Lomographic effect
Goth effect
Duo Sepia effect
Silver Gelatin effect
•Analog
Diana effect
Kieb 16a effect
Ronda effect
SMENA 35 effect
HOLGA effect
Luvitel 166+ effect
•Fashion
Aqua Sapphire effect
Nashville effect
Early Bird effect
Newage effect
Skyline effect
Cyanotype effect
•Retro
1920 effect
XPro effect
Super 8mm effect
‘70s effect
Golden Age effect
Pinhole effect

•Frame
Full Frame
Square frame
White frame
Date frame
Vignetting frame
Flickering frame

~~~~

11:52am (lunch time!) by Tosha. Shot with an iPhone 5? (photo courtesy of ars technica)

ars technica blog recently posted a photo of sushi allegedly shot with an iPhone by an Apple engineer and posted to his Flickr account. What’s special about this iPhone photo is that according to the photo’s EXIF data, it was cropped down from an original size of 3264 x 2448 pixels — 8 megapixels, the rumored resolution of the next generation iPhone camera.

An 8MP iPhone camera has been the subject of speculation for some time now. The news isn’t much of a surprise. The other goodies uncovered in the ars technica post are.

The ars technica post, “”Leaked” photo suggests the iPhone 5 camera won’t be much of an upgrade” by Chris Foresman does an excellent job of breaking down the EXIF data as well as analyzing the two possible sensor units that could have produced the image.

The EXIF data I found particularly interesting. If the data is genuine, the new camera will have a maximum aperture of f/2.4. The current iPhone 4 has a maximum aperture of f/2.8. Foresman suggests that the improvement in aperture was necessary to compensate for a decrease in the light sensitivity of the new sensor. The iPhone 4 currently has a nice dynamic range with good sensitivity in low light. Despite the improved aperture, the smaller pixels of the new sensor may mean slightly more noisier images than the iPhone 4. That’s good for digital lo-fi — a step back for iPhoneographers wanting to improve the quality of their images. I like the larger aperture. It means that the camera can capture more light. But it’s like shooting with slower film if the new, physically smaller sensors lack the sensitivity to record it.

The post also mentions that the new camera has a longer focal length. This means that iPhoneographers will no longer enjoy as wide a field of view as they currently do on an iPhone 4. You can read my previous post on the iPhone 4′s wider field of view here. If the post is accurate, the new camera will frame images a little tighter — closer to the tighter crop of the iPhone 2G and 3G cameras.

The post has much much more is an excellent and detailed read on the possible new camera. To me, Chris Foresman’s research is sound and I think this story is very solid speculation. We find out for certain in about a month.

Read the entire post, ““Leaked” photo suggests the iPhone 5 camera won’t be much of an upgrade” by Chris Foresman on the ars technica blog.

=M=

~~~~

AppleInsider has posted a story which gives a few clues as to the specs of the camera in the next-generation iPhone. According to a recent report on Taiwan Economic News, two Taiwan suppliers have been tapped to supply the lenses for the 8 MP camera in the upcoming “iPhone 5.”

The reports say that Largan Precision and Genius Electronic Optical are said to be supplying smartphone lenses for the iPhone. The TEN report also says that Omnivision — the current supplier of most of the iPhone 4 camera sensors. All three suppliers currently supply sensors and lenses for iPhone, iPads and iPTs.

If this report is true, the cameras in the new iPhones will probably behave close to the iPhone 4, with similar color specs and light sensitivity, but higher resolution. My concern with the 8 MP sensors from other suppliers used on other phone cameras was that the higher resolution would come at the expense of dynamic range. In fact, that was one of the reasons The Steve opted to go with a 5 MP camera in the iPhone 4 — quality over megapixels. It was the right choice, in my opinion.

I like the Omnivision sensors, though. Size-wise, the sensors in the current iPhone 4 can accommodate up to 14 MP, but at the expense of color and light sensitivity. I hope they’ve used the year to improve the performance of the chips.

Click here for the report on AppleInsider.

Click here for the original, very business-oriented report on Taiwan Economic News.

UPDATE 09.09.11 @09:15: Actually, now I have this filed under LoFi’s new “iPhone 5″ category.

=M=

~~~~

Orasis
Version 1.0

Bottom Line: I didn’t like it. Images look more like single-photo fake-HDR apps than images corrected to be more visually accurate.

Even with the superior phone camera of the iPhone 4 (and hopefully and even better camera coming in the new iPhones later this year), a Dynamic Range Correction app is an essential component of my toolbox. For years, that app has been Perfectly Clear by Athentech.

New photo app Orasis by Orasis Imaging claims to “[capture] reality, not just light.” It attempts to make photos more realistic by simulating the sensation of appearance formed by our Visual System. While the sample image in the App Store looks good, the real world images that I tested it with didn’t look like reality, but more like the results from a single-image HDR app.

Orasis is easy to use. Either load an image from your library or shoot from within the app. There are both Auto and Manual settings. The Manual settings control the intensity of the adjustments in both the dark and light areas, as well as a contrast adjustment. Manual Mode also has an auto color correct mode which may compensate for some color casts in an image.

I used a variety of real-world test images. Rather than making them look more realistic, Orasis added some overly sharp contrast to my eye, making images look banded and patchy. More often than not, its processing added an unacceptable amount of noise and blotches to photos as well. It’s almost as if the app does pixel-by-pixel processing calculations with little regard for the surrounding pixels.

In my mostly test dark images, Orasis washed out a lot of shadows and brought out noise that Perfectly Clear easily minimized, even without using its optional Noise Reduction. In normal mixed light images, Orasis performed better, but still flattened the look of the image a bit while introducing odd color banding and noise. In particular, the app didn’t do a good job handling and smoothing the subtleties of the all-important skin tones. Orasis did a great job of bringing out shadow details and did so while preserving highlights. But, the contrast is too harsh — both in auto and manual modes.

Orasis, before & after noise detail

Rather than compensating for the difference between what our eye sees and what the camera sees, the processing Orasis adds looks more like a single-image HDR app and adds unnatural contrast, color anomalies and unpleasant object halos.

I think its processing algorithms need a little tweaking. The developers really need to reduce the noise in post-processed images. The app needs to retain EXIF data — too many services take advantage of photo location tags.

It’s not the worst processing app out there, and at least it’s very easy to see the difference in the before and after pictures. There are other apps available that do what Orasis tries to do, but better.

Orasis supports full 5 MP resolution on an iPhone 4, but it strips out most EXIF data, including all camera and geo-tag data.

No matter what iDevice you have, I highly recommend a good DRC app. Despite its quirks, I still believe that Perfectly Clear by Athentech Imaging is the app to beat in this class. The Clarity filter in Camera+ by tap tap tap also does an excellent job of compensating for what the camera lens sees and does so without introducing nearly as much noise and banding as Orasis. While the science may be good, Orasis needs some tweaks before it’s useful out of the lab.

Orasis is free in the App Store until August 15th. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

=M=

~~~~

These sales are for a limited time and don’t last long. They could go back up to the normal price at any time. Grab ‘em now.

PhotoForge2 is on sale again for $0.99 right now for a very limited time. If you missed it for a dollar on launch day, this is a great opportunity to save a couple of dollars off it’s normal price. |

Camera+, the powerhouse camera replacement app, has just been updated and is on sale now for only $0.99 — a savings of $1.00 off recent prices for the app. |

Camera Genius, the revamped classic and another of the top camera replacement apps, is also on sale for only $0.99 — a savings of $1.00. |

King Camera, the new all-in-one camera replacement app that has the internets all ablaze, is on sale for $0.99 — that’s a savings of $2.00 off the normal price. We recently reviewed King Camera here. |

Magic Hour is another filter app that was recently updated to support full resolution. It’s oddly named, as it has nothing to do with photography’s “magic hour” (or golden and blue hours). One of its more unique features is the in-app free filter market. The app is on sale right now for only $0.99, a savings of $1.00. |

Did you know that misskiwi’s ClassicCAMERA series has a photo booth app? ClassicBooth is pretty good, too. It’s comparable to Incredibooth and PocketBooth. Right now, it’s only $0.99 — that’s $1.00 off its normal price. Hurry on this one. misskiwi apps normally don’t stay on sale for long. |

We just reviewed RetroCamera. The new update is out and it’s on sale now for only $0.99 — down $1.00 from the normal price of $1.99. |

NightCam+ is free right now in the App Store. I’ve got it on my iPhone, but I haven’t used it yet so I can’t vouch for it (or not). But, right now it’s free and might be worth your time to check out. |

Have you found any other great sales or freebies? Share them in the comments below….

=M=

~~~~

RetroCamera
Version 2.0
Price: $1.99

Bottom Line: It’s all that’s good about the original RetroCamera and much more. Now in greater than full resolution.

UPDATE 06.08.11 @ 10:45: Updated review with mention of bugs when working with square frame  images. Because of this bug,I’ve dropped my rating down half a star. My apologies for any inconvenience. =M=

Back in December, 2009, I reviewed RetroCamera, an analog photo app and at the time I said had “possibly the best set of filters I’ve seen in an app so far, but hampered by low-res output.” Output was an abysmal 320×480 pixels. Otherwise, the app was awesome. I was assured by the developer that an update was coming that would address the resolution issue.

When no update arrived, I, along with most of us, thought RetroCamera was a dead app. 18 months later, the developer CLBITZ Ubiquitous Communications Inc. has released the 2.0 RetroCamera update. It’s all that’s good about the original RetroCamera, plus a lot of the good from the dev’s other app, the excellent FILM LAB, and it supports more than the iPhone 4′s native resolution.

There’s a whole lot of new good in this update. There are now over 160 film styles instead of just 28. The new ones are the same film styles as in the excellent FILM LAB. Unfortunately, there aren’t nearly as many of them. The AGFA and Ilford film stocks in the older versions of RetroCamera are gone. The app now features film styles from Kodak, Polaroid, FUJIFILM and a few others. There’s a much greater variety of film styles in this version than in previous versions, but I hope we get to see more of the developer’s film styles in an update soon. They’ve already done a great job of recreating the looks and characteristics of hundreds of films in their other app.

All of the app’s original tools and more are in this update. The UI, toolset, and overall smoothness and functionality are improved significantly. The app is much more responsive than either its earlier version or the newer FILM LAB. A lot of the interface quirks in the older versions of the app are gone. The new UI is similar to the original (and takes just as long to figure out), but it’s more polished.

There’s a bit of a learning curve to familiarize yourself with this extensive toolset. The app has tooltips that pop up often. Once you’re familiar with the app, you can turn the tooltips off in the settings.

There are five classes of tools to apply effects — Film Simulation, Noise, Texture, Frame and a Move/Rotate/Resize tool. Tools now have intensity and transparency sliders. Some tools also have Brightness/Contrast and Color controls in the tools themselves, giving you excellent control over the effects.

Any effect can easily be applied and stacked – a great feature for an app like this. For instance, multiple types of noise can be applied to an image, such as film grain (noise), stains, then scratches — all are found in the noise tool.

I’m not usually a fan of texture overlays, but RetroCamera’s are really good and relevant to analog photography. Thankfully, there aren’t any palm leaves or stucco textures here, but there are great old stained paper textures, photo print damage, and light leaks.

The vignettes are found in the Textures tool. There are several basic vignette shapes to chose from and they are all highly customizable. Like many of the effects in RetroCamera, vignettes can be resized, moved, and rotated. It’s one of the more powerful vignette tools available in the App Store.

The app still has a full set of image editing tools — Brightness/Contrast, color, HSB (or HCV). There’s an adjustable new Bokeh tool as well, with two types of bokeh — circular apertures and octagonal apertures. The bokeh tool is good, but not as versatile or as realistic as the excellent interactive bokeh in the photo app LensLight by BrainFeverMedia. There’s a vignetting/blurring feature (not the vignette feature from the Textures tool) that’s poorly done and pretty useless. It should be usable to create a tiltshift effect, but the blur edge is very sharp, rendering it ugly and unusable.

It’s a lot of work to create an analog effect in RetroCamera, but the results are worth it. Version 2.0 not only comes with a bunch of presets, but you can easily save a series of edits as a preset. All effects are tagged, which comes in handy when searching for a particular effect.

Two of RetroCamera's many frames

Film styles are pretty true to the stocks they emulate. This developer has always been excellent at recreating the characteristics of analog film. Noise, frames, textures, light leaks, etc. are accurate looking and well rendered. They layer seamlessly with the image.

RetroCamera now saves at higher than iPhone 4 resolution. It will resample your photos up to 3210×2400 pixels — that’s 7.7 MBs. It also saves geotag and EXIF data. The app now shares directly to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and the growing Steply network.

Over the year and a half since it was released, the analog film app market has become much more crowded. Now, there are apps like Plastic Bullet, the ClassicCAMERA apps from misskiwi, PictureShow, Infinicam, lo-mob or any number of apps with retro analog features and the standard is now set very high because of these newer apps.

How does RetroCamera stack up now? While it’s not perfect, RetroCamera is one of the best apps to accurately recreate a wide variety of retro and classic film and photo styles. Although I love the number of film styles in FILM LAB, there are more things to play with in RetroCamera. FILM LAB makes your pics look like film — RetroCamera is more complete and makes them look like real, old photographs. I’d love to see more of the film stocks that the developer has already created. The AGFA and Ilford film stocks are among my faves and are missed in this version. A mash-up of RetroCamera and FILM LAB would make one outstanding app.

UPDATE: While I did spend a couple of hours with the app this morning, I only tested portrait and landscape images and overlooked square format prints during my tests. Several readers have correctly pointed out that RetroCamera has problems with square format prints — even ones that are cropped square within the app. The app does not size its standard frame borders to square format images — it simply adds unsightly blank space above and below the image. Taking this further, the app also has issues with landscape images rotated in the app before beginning work. Fortunately, the app defaults to working in fullscreen mode, regardless of rotation and asks you to correct the rotation of the image when saving. Also, the 120 square format frames have are not transparent outside of the frames (other square frames in the app are) and save with unsightly white lobes (which can easily be cropped off, but it’s an extra step and a pain. The app needs better square format compatibility. Thanks to readers smlombardi and obo78 for pointing this out. =M=

RetroCamera is not one-touch easy. It will make you work. But the end results are great looking images that look like they were taken with an analog camera. There are a few issues and this revised review reflects them. Overall, this is a very exciting update, especially for standard frame photography.

If you gave up on the app a while ago and deleted it from your iPhone, go back into iTunes and reinstall. If you deleted it from iTunes, redownload RetroCamera — it’s a standard update and you shouldn’t be charged again for it. If you never purchased RetroCamera and like the look of classic analog and lo-fi films, this update is highly recommended.

UPDATE 06.08.11 @ 12:00: I suggest reading through the comments before purchasing this app. See what other readers have said about it before deciding if it’s right for you. =M=

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.1 or later.

=M=

–

Here’s all that’s new in RetroCamera 2.0:

The brand-new “RetroCamera” has been finally released!
Now it supports high resolution images, the template function and upload to social networks.

As well as maintaining its great usability in the current version, it features 168 film simulations and 146 textures such as damaged texture, light leak, lens flare and adhesive tape. The effect sequences will be saved as a template, and you can quickly load the necessary effects with a single touch from the next time you use them.

Moreover the application features 21 different kinds of presets.
Photos can be shared to Facebook, Flickr, Steply and Twitter.

We added a circular bokeh effect that creates an artistic blur circle.
The mask function specifies the effect area, and you can create a tilt-shift photo that blurs the corner of the picture and simulates miniature scenes.

Main features:
- High resolution image (320×428 – 2400×3210)
- Template (21 presets)
- Save to the social networks (Facebook, Flickr, Steply and Twitter)
- 168 film simulations
- 18 noises
- 146 textures
- 64 frames
- Move, rotate or resize
- Brightness, contrast
- Coloring
- Hue, saturation, value
- Bokeh (circular bokeh)

* Some functions are limited on the 3G or the first generation iPod touch.

~~~~

The new 2.2.1 update is out now. While mostly a bux fix and performance tweak update, they still managed to add a cool new feature that none of the other major camera apps have. You can now share your photos by text message — SMS — from within the app.

Even though Apple Camera will use the Volume + button as a shutter release in the upcoming iOS 5 update, this Camera+ update does not include the VolumeSnap feature that infamously appeared in one of last year’s updates. It’ll be interesting to see now if Apple lets developers remap certain hardware functions, such as a hardware shutter release in third party photo apps.

It’s hard to believe that Camera+ is one year old. My first real use from the app came almost a year ago, when I wrote on June 21, 2010:

“We spent a day at the Milwaukee Zoo on Friday and I spent the day shooting with Camera+ by tap tap tap. It’s a really nice camera replacement app. I like “the skin” of the app. While it’s a little clicky to get through, the interface is easy to maneuver through and I thought it was fun. Reload times were a little long, though. I couldn’t shoot while the image was saving. I missed some great shots of the lions. That’s really my biggest complaint about the app and probably the one issue that really limits its usability for me. Otherwise, it’s a good app.

It wasn’t perfect, though and I held off reviewing the app until version 1.2.1. I think it’s interesting to go back and see how the app has evolved. Update after update, the app has just gotten better.

To celebrate the app’s first anniversary, it’s on sale for a limited time for only $0.99 — that’s a dollar off the regular price. This is a great price on this excellent camera replacement app.

Requirements: It’s still old iPhone friendly and compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later.

=M=

–

~~~~

Photo courtesy of Engadget.com

UPDATED 06.06.11 @ 13:45: Now with screenshots from Engadget coverage and my thoughts on additional features, as well as hardware requirements. =M=

Today was the Apple keynote at WWDC. In addition to previews of the Mac OS X Lion and iOS5, we got a sneak peek at the updated Apple Camera in iOS5.

iOS5 has over 200 new features and TUAW posted a great recap of them, including the very cool updates to the Camera app.

Camera: The Camera app got a refresh with a new Camera shortcut on the lock screen (yay!). Double-click the home button and the camera app will launch. Will let you take a new picture even if you have a passcode set. You can use the volume up button as a snap for the camera and grid lines to help frame your photos. You can even pinch-to-zoom and set AE/AF lock without losing your previous settings. Built-in editor will let you crop, rotate, reduce red-eye and more.

While Camera finally gets some more features that have been in third-party apps for years, this is still a huge upgrade. I can’t wait for the new Camera, especially the ability to access it without unlocking my iPhone. Many users will be thrilled at the integrated VolumeSnap feature built into Camera. And, finally, Camera gets separate Auto-Exposure and Auto-Focus lock. The built-in photo editor is bare-bones, but should be decent for quick tweaks. The Auto-Enhance “magic button” will be a quick way to balance color and normalize the image, but users of the magic button in other photo apps know that this is a hit-or-miss feature. Still, it’s very nice to have when it works.

iOS5 supports the same hardware as iOS4 — iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2, third- and fourth-generation iPod touch. It ships this Fall.

Read their entire early preview “iOS 5 previewed at WWDC” by Kelly Hodgkins here on The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

UPDATE 01: Read Engadget’s excellent liveblog coverage of the keynote here.

This is a breaking story. Check back for more info and screenshots as we get them.

=M=

~~~~

We were unable to make it to WWDC, so big thanks to TUAW.com and Engadget for information in this post. =M=

Camera+ is one of the best all-in-one iPhone camera replacement apps available. It’s fast, full-featured, and recently added the very cool “Clarity” filter which adds HDR-like color and contrast to single exposure images.

To be eligible to win, you need to head over to Life In LoFi’s Facebook page and request a code in the comments of our Camera+ Giveaway post.

You can comment as many times as you like, but only your first comment will count. Cut-off time to enter is 9:00 PM Central Time tonight, Saturday, April 16, 2011. Winners will be determined by random selection. One code per reader, please. If you’re one of the winners, be sure I can email, message or DM you somehow.

Good luck and happy shooting!

=M=

~~~~

QuikCam (formerly QuickCam) by Two Teeth Technologies is a fast camera replacement app. While it now has some pretty cool advanced features, it was designed with simplicity in mind. But it’s also fast — very fast.

It’s been updated recently and I’ve got some free promo codes to give away. Click past the jump to find out how to get one.

QuikCam shoots both still photos and video and is designed to get you shooting quickly. It’s been recently updated and renamed. We recently reviewed the first release of the app. It’s a lean camera replacement app that is very, very fast. It gets you up shooting faster than any other camera app available, according to the developer’s numbers (My test numbers were within theirs within a margin of error).

The update features an improved interface and a bunch of new advanced features, including user-selectable rule-of-thirds composition grid, new QuickPic mode to optionally shoot a photo by launching the app, an updated UI, in-app photo preview, separate focus lock/exposure lock/white balance lock, and several other new goodies. As with the original release, the controls are accessible, but kept out of sight for simplicity.

Here’s what’s new in version 1.1:

Improved User Interface — The brushed aluminum border has been removed, the still/record buttons have been enhanced, and the zoom slider was moved to the right right side and turned vertical for easier one-handed operation. A new “settings” icon appears in the top right corner to access many of the new features in this release.

Settings — A number of new and advanced features are now available by tapping on the new “settings” icon on the top right. The settings menu is organized into 3 categories. “Special Modes”, “Camera” and “Interface”.

Advanced Camera Settings — The auto-flash button has been moved to this menu, along with several user-requested features. The ability to lock focus, exposure and white balance are easily turned on and off from this menu.

User Interface Settings — One of the more useful features of the “pro” camera apps out there is the “rule of thirds” grid that overlays the viewfinder, this feature is easily toggled on and off in the “Interface” settings menu.

And in version 1.1.1 just released, the ability to customize button icons.

Free promo codes!

Right now, I’ve got free QuikCam promo codes to give away to five random readers. To win, request a code in the comments below. You can comment as many times as you like, but only your first comment will count. Cut-off time to enter is 11:00 PM Central Time tonight, Tuesday, April 12, 2011. Winners will be determined by random selection. This is for the full version of QuikCam. One code per reader, please. If you’re one of the winners, be sure I can email or DM you somehow.

QuikCam is $1.99, but is on sale now for only 99¢. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.1 or later.

=M=

~~~~

Big thanks to Two Teeth’s Josh Patterick for providing the free QuikCam promo codes!

CNN and Mashable are reporting that Sony will be supplying the image sensors for the next generation iPhone, currently known as the iPhone 5 in the rumor mills. I think the device will still have a 4 designation, especially if the device is 4G network compatible. My money says iPhone 4G.

This is supported by an analyst’s report from February of this year saying that OmniVision might lose out on supplying cameras for the iPhone 5 because OmniVision’s 8-megapixel sensor won’t be ready for the iPhone 5′s rumored mid-summer launch.

I do not have any hands-on experience with new Sony image sensors, although when I remember from my first digital camera years ago that the Sony image sensors were far and away better than most other sensors in their class.

I really like the Omnivision sensors in the iPhone 4. They are a significant improvement over previous iPhone cameras and approach or exceed the quality from many point and shoot cameras. If true, these new Sony sensors should continue the trend of significant camera improvement in the iPhone series.

More and more, the iPhone becomes less and less lo-fi.

Here’s the link to the full story on CNN.com.

=M=

~~~~

Photo by Noriko Ohba/tea-room.net

A camera doesn’t need a lens. You can use a light-proof box with a tiny hole at one end. Congratulations! You’ve got a pinhole camera.

Pinhole camera effects are popular in lo-fi and retro iPhone photo apps. Camera+ has even tried to perfect it in the last two app updates.

Click past the jump for Smashing Magazine’s gallery of analog pinhole photography. >>>

A pinhole camera (also known as “camera obscura”) uses a tiny hole to focus light on a piece of film, CCD, or in ancient times a wall. Because the image follows the shape of the pinhole, photos sometimes have the rounded vignetting often reproduced in iPhone photo apps. Images tend to have a softer, more ethereal look. Another characteristic of pinhole photography is an infinite depth of field, giving all objects in frame equal sharpness.

A while back, Smashing Magazine ran a gallery of some pretty cool analog pinhole photography.

Camera is a remarkable piece of innovation. However, it is people — professionals and newbies alike — who make it truly remarkable. It’s the photographer behind the camera. It’s his imagination, passion and talent and knowledge of the medium. You don’t need a high-end costly equipment to get beautiful results. Just your talent and a way of looking at things differently is together more than enough for a great shot. It’s also the ability to envision the final result in your mind which is also important.

Click here to see Smashing Magazine’s “The Showcase of Beautiful Pinhole Photography” by Vailancio Rodrigues and several talented photographers. Be sure to check out the links at the end of the gallery. There are some cool pinhole photography resources there.

~~~~

Camera+ 2.2, Clarity scene

One of the things I love about the excellent camera replacement app Camera+ is that the development team at tap tap tap are always improving the app and the user experience. It seems that nearly every update of the app has a Wow! feature that we didn’t even know we wanted.

The new 2.2 update is scheduled to street today, Tuesday, March 29 and it is no exception.

The big new feature of this Camera+ update is a scene mode called “Clarity.” When I received my preview copy of the app last week, I was told that “it’s a 1-tap image enhancement that makes photos look stunning. It blows away just about anything Apple does with their HDR and doesn’t have the issues that go along with multi-exposure HDR like alignment, etc.” That sums it up perfectly.

The new Clarity scene mode is part of Camera+’ standard equipment and does an amazing job of balancing luminance, enhancing the colors of images, filling in shadows and balancing overall light. It intensifies colors in your photos, adding high-dynamic color range as good as or better than most other dedicated HDR, Pseudo-HDR and Dynamic Color Correction apps currently available. It fills in shadows and colors and still does a great job of keeping noise in check — a big problem with some “HDR” and DRC apps. Details are visibly and nicely enhanced.

Here are some samples:

Original

Camera+, Clarity mode

Original

Camera+, Clarity mode

Original

Camera+, Clarity mode

The new Clarity mode isn’t adjustable like dedicated DRC apps, but even with its 1-button ease, it does some great adjustments on nearly every image I tested it with. On a few images, though, I found occasional Pro HDR-like halos around some of the edges.

The viewfinder has been significantly improved in this update. It’s now clearer when the camera is autofocusing. In fact, the auto-focus target now says “Autofocus” until it fades out. A ‘+’ button has been added to the touch focus control to enable you to easily split it into focus and exposure controls — much easier and more intuitive than the split two finger drag (although you can still use the two finger tap to split focus and exposure).

There are no other new filters in this update, but the Pinhole effect in the optional “I ♥ Analog” in app upgrade has been improved again. The vignette seems to have been improved and looks more rounded and uniform, although I liked the unevenness of the 2.1 version.

Left, Camera+ 2.1.1 Pinhole effect. Right, the new Pinhole effect in 2.2

Here’s a list of the other changes, bug fixes, and improvements in this update:

✓ multiple photos are now saved to your Camera Roll according to the order they were selected
✓ improved Vintage border
✓ fixed a bug where photos could’ve been saved to your Camera Roll with an incorrect date/time taken
✓ fixed a bug where the timer countdown time could get stuck on the screen
✓ fixed a bug where the Cancel buttons in sharing sometimes wouldn’t work
✓ various minor bug fixes and enhancements

The new “Clarity” scene mode is an excellent new feature on its own. It definitely improves the value of Camera+ as an all-in-one. Many iPhoneographers may find themselves importing images from their photo library just to use this feature to add HDR color to their photos.

Camera+ is $1.99 in the App Store. It’s currently on sale for only $0.99. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later.

=M=

~~~~

QuickCam
Version 1.0.1
Price: $0.99

Bottom Line: A simple, easy to use default Camera replacement app. One of the absolute fastest camera apps available.

One of my biggest complaints about many camera apps, including many camera replacement apps, is the lack of speed. When a camera app is slow, it greatly increases the risk of not being ready for that once-in-a-lifetime shot, whether it’s the most awesome fleeting, street photograph or a snapshot of your child blowing out the candles at a birthday party.

QuickCam by Two Teeth Technologies is a new camera replacement app. It’s very basic. It was designed with simplicity in mind. But it’s also fast — very fast. It was also designed with speed in mind and it has some great features to help ensure that your iPhone’s camera is always ready to shoot.

Apple’s Camera app is designed to be a basic, simple camera app and QuickCam was created to be an improved version of this. QuickCam has “default camera simplicity”. It’s very easy to use and loads faster and shoots faster than just about all other iPhone camera apps. In fact, I can think of only one or two which may be close.

QuickCam shoots both still photos and video and is designed to get you shooting quickly. Version 1.0.1 has a basic feature set with a few more advanced goodies hidden out of sight.

- Rapid capture
- Take photos while shooting video
- Zoom, flashlight, auto-flash, front-facing camera support
- Saves directly to the camera roll

The excellent rapid capture feature is very fast and captures full-resolution images, something which very few iPhone app burst modes are able to do. It’s by far my favorite of QuickCam’s features. Simply hold the shutter release down and shoot as fast as up to two full-resolution images per second on an iPhone 4. It’s the fastest full-res burst mode I’ve found on the iPhone. It’s easily as fast as Gorillacam’s plus QuickCam is fully iOS 4 compliant.

QuickCam also features separate focus and exposure settings found in the more advanced, full-featured camera apps. Setting the separate exposure takes a little getting used to, but it’s very easy after a few tries. Single tap to set both focus and exposure; double tap to set exposure separately. Not only do I like this feature, but like the rest of QuickCam’s few advanced features, it’s there if you need it but not in the way if you don’t.

QuickCam is one of the fastest camera replacements currently in the App Store. In tests, it’s even faster than Apple’s Camera app.

App startup time:
Stock Camera: ~2.5sec
QuickCam: < 1 sec

Minimum time between pictures (recovery time):
Stock Camera: > 1 sec
QuickCam: ~0.6 sec

These stats were sent to me by the developer, but in using the app, these times feel correct. QuickCam feels snappier. Also, in my tests, I found that QuickCam also has a much shorter ready time than Apple Camera when bringing it back to the front from its background resting state. It seems faster by a second or so.

QuickCam also saves most EXIF data, including important geo-tag information.

QuickCam is not perfect and not for everyone. It’s not for iPhonegraphers looking for a full-featured, all-in-one camera replacement. It doesn’t have anti-shake stabilization or composition grids, both basic features of camera replacement apps, although I can see that anti-shake may slow down picture taking. Composition grids are planned for a future update and my rating reflects these additional features which will be added soon to the app. The zoom lens is not full-resolution. Unlike Apple’s Camera, it doesn’t resample zoomed images and is more like in-camera cropping. The shutter and video buttons are nicely sized, especially for larger fingers, but obscure corners of the viewfinder.

QuickCam was developed by Josh Patterick who is one of my favorite devs to work with. Josh is responsible for saving the excellent photo app ClearCam by Occipital from oblivion and for its many updates and improvements.

QuickCam was not designed to compete with a full-featured camera replacement like ProCamera, Camera+ and Camera Genius. It doesn’t have effects or built-in tools. Again, it’s designed to take pictures fast. It’s simple, lightweight and rock solid. For users who want the simplicity of Apple’s Camera app except more lightweight and faster, QuickCam is one of the absolute fastest camera apps available.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.1 or later.

=M=

~~~~