Photomizer is in the same class of apps as Perfectly Clear, imphoto, and TruSight Pro.

However, the description that accompanies this newly released app in the US Store is in German with no English translation. I don’t speak German myself, but Google does. Below is the Google translation of Photomizer’s App Store description.

I won’t be reviewing the app here. Although it’s attractively priced at $0.99 USD, it also does its magic off the iPhone and on the Photomizer’s servers. An internet connection is required to use the app. Although the fast 3G network speeds may minimize the delays in transfer time, I prefer all of my processing to be done on my iPhone. This app would not be usable in Airplane mode and I do a lot of my post-travel image processing while in flight. Your workflow may vary and the connectivity requirement may not be an issue for you.

Until an English version of the description is posted, read on for the translated version:

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Photomizer are now available for iPhone & iPod Touch!

The advantage of the iPhone is shown traveling very fast: As a user you always have a camera. The drawback: the camera of the iPhone has no flash, low resolution and only a simple autofocus. As a result, the images often turn out too dark, not color fast and are a little more sharpness could be tolerated.

These disadvantages are, no one need accept. Still on the iPhone allows you to optimize the newly shot photos. To this end, no one needs a complete training as an image processor. Instead, it is sufficient to use the new Photomizer for the iPhone. The mobile brother of the famous and award-winning Windows program by the press can be operated by each child’s users.

With Photomizer you distribute the levels increase again, the contrast, sharpness bring a little here and there into matte shots and get detailed, colorful images – automatically! With Photomizer from giving away shots that would otherwise be lost forever as moments, attractive and natural images without the impression of an artificial post-processing.

Some of the most important program functions:

• Automatic object identification: manipulates only those parts of an image that will help optimize the overall impression!
• Automatic redistribution of tonality!
• Fully automatic sharpening!
• Automatic contrast optimization!
• Refresh of images through higher definition!
• Colour-intensive images by refreshing the matte colors!
• Manipulation of colors to make images seem fresh and alive!
• Fully automatic system for hue and saturation!
• Fully automatic system for correcting the white balance.
• Fully automatic system for light / dark correction.
• elimination of fog and other weather influences.
• Elimination of unwanted color casts.
• The Photomizer works basically non-destructive: The original images are not altered, but saved only new files!
• Selectable JPEG compression.
• Manual adjustment of the strength of the optimization possible. Please note: If you file the appropriate slider to the middle position, the software computes the technically best image enhancement.
• Automatic color matching can be selectively activated.
• Photos may be scaled on demand.
• It can be optimized: New pictures with the camera, available recordings, and any pictures from the photo albums.
• Simple before-after comparison by tapping the screen possible.

System requirements:
Is required to connect to the Internet! All images are uploaded to optimize over an existing Internet connection on the Photomizer server on the Internet. Here the optimization takes place and is sent back to the iPhone. You should enable JPEG compression to reduce the required volume of data. We recommend a compression of 80%. Smaller values can affect the quality of optimization.

Privacy:
There are no images stored on our servers, the images remain the property of the user and are not used by us.

Press valuations are (on the Windows version of the software):

“The automatic object recognition, only the parts of an image can be manipulated to optimize the overall impression.”
Color Photo

“Photomizer takes a lot out of images, which seem hopelessly at first glance. Shadows can be lightened, color optimization, dim to bright areas and the focus tightened where necessary. The results are sometimes startling.”
WDR Fernsehen

App Store link: Photomizer

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Bottom line: Requires a pricey upgrade to save at full-res or remove copyright mark.

imphoto for iPhone is an exposure enhancement app from imsense. Although the Standard version normally sells for $1.99 USD, from reading the App Store reviews, it’s often on sale (or free) and I picked it up for $0.99. The standard version has too many annoyances and disabled features to be really useful. It feels like a try-before-you-buy demo app and should be priced for free or at least allow the option of removing the annoying copyright mark.

imphoto compared to Perfectly Clear (Click to enlarge)

Like Perfectly Clear and SmartCam, imphoto is a Dynamic Range Correction (DRC) app which compensates for the limitations of the iPhone’s camera. Where many other “flash fix” apps simply crank up the brightness of an image leaving them flat and blown out, DRC apps use a number of algorithms to bring out the details in shadows without blowing out the highlights or color saturation. These apps quickly and easily improve the look of your photos.

imphoto has three, non-adjustable settings in the Standard version — Low, Optimal, and Strong. Once the filter is applied, you can easily toggle between your original image and the optimized version.

Looking past the limitations of the Standard version, how well does it work? imphoto is good, but not great. It did a decent job of correcting the gray cast and underexposure that the iPhone’s camera sometimes produces. It did a good job of restoring shadow detail — among the best in apps of this class. In some test images, the app revealed noise in some shadow areas especially using the Strong setting; in others shadow detail looked good. Highlights didn’t blow out and midtowns held up. I ran some images which were processed by other DRC apps through — images that I thought looked fine — and imphoto did little or nothing to those images. I like that it’s intelligent with its corrections.

In all of my test images, though, the enhanced contrast and optimized color seemed flat, especially compared to Perfectly Clear. Though improved over the originals, the optimized images were still a little foggy. At times, imphoto accentuated noise in the highlights that other apps didn’t bring out as much. It’s not bad, I just think it’s not great and I think there are apps that do an overall better job.

However, the limitations of the Standard version are what really make me regret this purchase. This version is feature-limited like a free demo app should be. And all of the features are unlocked by an in-app upgrade to the Pro version — an additional $4.99 purchase.

The Standard version saves at 853×640 pixels on my iPhone 2G. The Standard version doesn’t allow you to modify or fine tune any of the processing levels (The Pro upgrade supports 2G, 3G and 3GS resolutions, as well as allowing you to fine-tune exposure enhancements).

The standard version also adds an annoying copyright watermark at the bottom of the images. The only way to remove the watermark is to upgrade to the Pro version. This is common practice in free, lite demo versions of apps, but I think it’s inexcusable for an app that normally sells for $1.99. In order to justify the limited feature set and the non-removable watermark, imphoto Standard should be a free demo app. In order to justify a $1-$2 price tag, at the very least, the watermark should be removed.

For a total cost of $4.99-$6.99 (depending on which version of imphoto you purchased and how much the Standard version cost at the time of download), you can have the full-featured Pro version. That’s expensive compared to other apps in this class. imphoto does improve the contrast, luminance and color of your images. If imphoto performed significantly better than the other apps, I’d recommend the upgrade to the Pro version. At this time, I can’t recommend either version based on the combination of cost, performance, and image quality that is less than eye-popping incredible. I think there are other apps available which do a better job and cost less.

App Store link: imphoto

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Related links: imphoto Pro |   Perfectly Clear |   SmartCam