Life in LoFi: iPhoneography

I was asked to post this email from Brad Malcolm, the President of Athentech, the developers of Perfectly Clear. I have posted it in its entirety, but first, I wanted to weigh in with my thoughts on this update.

Perfectly Clear has been one of my primary go-to apps for a while. It’s one of the apps that I recommend most to new iPhoneographers. It’s an essential app for the early iPhone 2G and 3G models and I still use it to improve images on my iPhone 4.

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[UPDATED 8.31.10 @ 18:00]

We’ve got more on the Perfectly Clear 2.0 update, including a fix of sorts.

The Perfectly Clear 2.0 update is in the app store now, but use caution in updating to this version of the app at this time. It’s not as unstable as I initially feared, but it still needs a lot more coddling than an iPhone app should require in order to work. 

This release  seems to be less stable than previous versions and crashes on saving with older iPhones. If you have an iPhone 2G or 3G, I recommend not updating the app and sticking with the older version for now.

The crashes are confirmed on a 2G, 3G, and iPhone 4. The bottom line is that unlike previous versions which were pretty rock solid, the 2.0 version can be buggy on any iPhone.

Click past the jump to read more, to find out how to reduce or eliminate problems on an iPhone 4, and to find a link to instructions on how to get your previous working version back in case you already updated the app.

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[UPDATED 8/27/10 4:19 PM]

Nearly everyone with an iPhone has used the camera to take snapshots — pictures of family, friends and moments to capture and share. Far fewer — but a growing and diverse number — have created art  for show, gallery or exhibition. But how many would consider using an iPhone for commercial work? How many of you already have?

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Photographed with an iPhone 4
Toolbox: Perfectly Clear, Best Camera

Dayton, Ohio
July 17, 2010

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Updated: 09.02.10

The new iPhone 4 brings a better, 5MP camera to iPhoneography. How do your favorite iPhone photo apps work with the new hardware and the new iOS 4? I found that many of them work surprisingly well on the iPhone 4.

Some apps have already been updated to take advantage of the auto-focus camera introduced with the iPhone 3GS and many apps have recently been updated for iOS 4 compatibility.

Life In LoFi has created this searchable chart which lists how many of the popular photo apps (and even a few obscure ones) work with the new iPhone 4 and the new OS. The table also lists the maximum output resolutions and if there are any other known issues with the app. This isn’t necessarily an indication of how the apps will perform in iOS 4 on an older device, but how they perform on the iPhone 4.

See how your favorites fared below, after the jump.

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Toolbox: Hipstamatic, Perfectly Clear, FilmLab

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Photomizer is a new Dynamic Range Correction app from Engelmann Media GmbH. It’s the iPhone/iPod Touch version of their DRC software for Windows, so they definitely have knowledge and experience in this area for creating an app that should do a good job of photo enhancement on an iPhone.

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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Trusight Pro
Version 1.2

Bottom Line: Now an excellent full-res app for all first-line exposure enhancements.

Trusight Pro

When shooting on my iPhone, I rely on exposure enhancing, Dynamic Range Correction (DRC) apps such as Perfectly Clear, SmartCam and AutoAdjust as a first step in nearly all of my iPhone photo processing. These apps help remove the gray cast sometimes found in raw iPhone photos, help improve shadow detail, and restore brilliant color, luminance and contrast to an image. A good DRC app does a superior job of bringing out the detail in 3/4-tones and shadows while not blowing out the details of the highlights in an image.

Trusight Pro by Trusight, Inc. is now one of the better DRC exposure fixing apps. On any iPhone, the app restores color and dynamic range to an image. The most recent update, version 1.2, fixes the app’s biggest flaw and now Trusight Pro saves photos in full resolution — up to 2048×1536 pixels.

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