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

Over a year ago, I wrote two stories about The Best Free iPhoneography Apps: Camera Replacements and Image Editors. Since those two stories were first posted, a lot has changed in iPhonegraphy. The iPhone is now on iOS 4.2 (soon to be iOS 4.3). Two versions of the iPhone 4 have been released and these devices have much greater resolution and a much better camera than those of a year ago. The iPod Touch 4th Generation now comes with a camera. Several of the apps originally listed are no longer available or break in the latest versions of the iOS.

Currently, many free versions of the apps are try-before-you-buy versions of their commercial siblings. Many are very feature limited or save at unusably low resolutions.

However, there are still some great free photo apps in the App Store. Some of these apps are ad-supported. Some save in usable but not full resolution. None of these apps add an obstructing watermark. All of these apps are very usable and are normally free. Apps whose price is temporarily reduced to free are not included here.

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ProCamera screenshot

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Apple’s Camera app is fast and easy to use. The latest version of Camera has an excellent zoom and HDR in addition to the geo-tagging it’s had for a while. With the improvements in the iOS 4 camera, there are fewer and fewer compelling reasons to purchase and use a camera replacement app. By camera replacement app, I don’t mean a camera app that applies specialized filters. I mean a camera app with additional, specialized tools and features that give you greater options than the stock Camera when capturing your photos.

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I’m still surprised at how many photo apps still are not fully iOS4 compatible. I’m even more surprised at the number of camera apps that still don’t fully work with the iPhone 4. There have been a lot of slow days on the App Store updates page. That said, yesterday was not one of them and there were some really cool updates released, including updates to Color Splash, Camera Plus Pro (the Camera Plus with video), GorillaCam, and Tiffen’s Photo fx.

We’re still tracking and updating iPhone 4 compatibility in our iPhone 4 Photo App Compatibility Feature.

Read on for more details about yesterday’s updates.

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The iPhone 4 Black Screen bug, shown in Camera+

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I love my new iPhone 4. The device itself is fast and solid. Upgrading from my old 2G was amazingly easy and nearly all of my apps play nice with the new phone. However, I’ve been experiencing an issue when using some non-Apple camera apps on the iPhone 4. The screen locks up on the black closed shutter if the app uses the built-in flash. See the above image for the “Shutter Bug”.

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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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San Francisco, California
January, 2010

Blue Train to the G Stop

The F Train

Powell Street Station

Toolbox: Gorillacam, CameraKit, Format126, Vint B&W

Three trains in San Francisco.

People going somewhere. People going nowhere. People moving or waiting to move.

=M=

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Gorillacam

Check the App Store for the great new update of Gorillacam by Joby Inc. The update adds a few great new features to this camera replacement app that we recently reviewed in our Best Free iPhone Camera Replacements article. Best of all, the app is still free.

The version 1.1 update adds anti-shake image stabilization, tap-to-focus for 3GS iPhones, selectable image sizes and a very nice full resolution 4X digital zoom. It’s a great update to an already excellent camera replacement app.

If you don’t already have a camera replacement app, Gorillacam is worth a serious look — even more so after this update.

Gorillacam is still free in the App Store. [link]

=M=

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Updated 01.05.2010

UPDATE 03.10.11: We’ve updated this list for 2011. Be sure to check out our new post “The Ten Best FREE iPhone Photo Apps” featuring both free camera replacements and some great free iPhone photo apps.

iPhone photography doesn’t have to bust your budget. I’ve scoured the Photography section and found four great, FREE camera apps to help you step up your iPhoneography.

This list is not complete, but these are some of the best camera replacement apps I’ve found. Granted, these apps are not as feature-rich as their paid-app siblings. Some of these apps are ad-supported, but none of them add a watermark to your images, all of them save at the iPhone’s full resolution and best of all, the price is free! For no investment other than bandwidth and download time, you can improve your iPhone’s camera and get some impressive looking photographs.

These are apps that are normally free. Apps whose price has been temporarily reduced to free are not included here.

Free iPhone Camera Apps: Camera Plus, Ultimate Camera Free, Gorillacam

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