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

September 26-29, 2009

While I didn’t take a ton of photos — I think I took about 175 which included safety shots — I was very pleased with the shots I got and my ability to work with them on my iPhone. I’ve narrowed my story to the shots you see here and in the first part of this gallery.

For such a tall city, I found myself wanting to shoot with a wide aspect ratio much of the time, something which Camera HD helps me do easily in camera. For me, it either helped enhance the horizon or the added width helped to narrow the focus of your view of the scene.

Here is Part II of the story.

"The S Line"

The S Line, Times Square Station
Shot with Camera Genius, modifed in CameraBag

"Subway"

Times Square, New York
Shot with Camera Genius, unenhanced

"Roxy Deli"

Times Square, New York
Shot with Camera Genius, modified in Photogene

"Stardust Diner"

7th Avenue, New York
Shot with Camera Genius, modified in Photogene

The beauty in the every day. Things we may walk past all the time and miss something wonderful.

I’ve become fascinated with neon light and how the iPhone camera interprets it, as well as how far you can push the image in post processing. I loved how the reds in the Roxy sign held their own in the never-ending day that is nighttime in Times Square. I loved how the buildings around the Stardust Diner sign picked up the ambient light, giving them a warmth which complimented the sign. Two neon signs — two very different settings. One always competing in the noise, the other a calm icon on a quiet late-night street.

"Imagine"

Central Park, New York
Shot with Camera XL, modified in Photogene

The postcard. The leaves and the subtle hint of shadows take the image from pristine to real for me.

"Carriage Ride in Central Park"

Shot with Camera HD, modified with Photogene

"Manhattan Monochrome"

New York La Guardia Airport
Shot with Zoom Lens, modifed with PhotoForge, monochromed in CameraBag

From New York La Guardia Airport, the skyline of Manhattan looks much much smaller than you see in the image — it’s a rough spot on the horizon. Even far away it was awe-inspiring with the sunset. While the colors were breathtaking, to me the image works better in black & white as it adds more contrast to the skyline than was there, even far away.

"The Jet Age"

New York La Guardia Airport
Shot with Camera HD, modifed with Photogene

Old aircraft hangars modernized. A Boeing 757 sits in the foreground at the gate. Classic lines in a modern aircraft. The juxtaposition of old meeting new.

=M=

ProCamera

ProCamera
Version 2.0

Bottom Line: Unimpressed

When it comes to my iPhone camera apps, I’m pretty picky. After testing ProCamera by Daemgen during a recent LoFi shoot, I am pretty underwhelmed and disappointed.

The feature set seems very appealing — zoom lens, gridlines, self-timer, anti-shake feature among them. I like that there are prefs that adjust the sensitivity of many of these features. I like that the screen has two shutter release areas, the full-screen big button for instant shutter release and the smaller area at the base of the screen for anti-shake release.

An anti-shake feature is always nice to have, and I use it for nearly every image I shoot, day or night. For night photography, it helps minimize blurs. For day photography, it helps compensate for over-Starbucked hands. Both my day and night shots are much clearer using anti-shake. ProCamera’s is nicely implemented and has 3 adjustable settings. I’ve set mine to the highest sensitivity, which forces the longest wait to shutter release. You might have decent results with the middle setting, also.

My biggest disappointment is with the digital zoom. Because it took version 2.0 so long to get approved, I had assumed that ProCamera had one of the new enhanced digital zoom features that the OS 3.1 API allows — real digital zoom, image resampling and full-resolution. This is not the case. All ProCamera’s digital zoom does is simply crop your image in camera, giving you an image that’s only 25% of the size you are expecting, in my case 400 x 300 pixel images. These images may be fine for email, Facebook or MMS, but this app bills itself to have advanced features. The digital zoom feature is unusable for any iPhoneography. Full-size zoomed images are possible for iPhone and Zoom Lens by BitWink is still my go-to app for digital zoom. For a full-featured camera app with real digital zoom, Snapture is also available in the app store. Both apps achieve full-resolution, in camera digital zoom with full-size output.

The app has a tiltmeter to help you level your image to the horizon and it’s a nice addition not found in many camera apps of this class. Most of the time, I composed my images using the grid-guides. The grid-guides are a nice feature and fall in a 7 x 9 grid, helping you align your subject to the frame vertically and horizontally. If you use the the “Rule of Thirds” to compose your images, you may find ProCamera’s grid guides a little distracting.

I didn’t have much luck with ProCamera’s high-speed saving feature. I was only able to shoot 2 images before the cache filled up and I was forced to wait until the images had saved. Apple’s Camera app, of course, has no such limitation. Camera Genius lets you save 3 before the cache fills up.

I’m not fully understanding all the love currently being given this app in other reviews. ProCamera has the potential to be my default camera app has yet not replaced Apple’s Camera app or Camera Genius. I understand that the 2.1 update may address some of my criticisms here, and when it’s released, I’ll be happy to revisit this review at that time. For now, though, the lack of a real digital zoom as well as the few performance issues relegates this app to my back page. I’d give this app a “Recommend” because it is a decent camera app with a lot of well-implemented features, but I’m bumping it down because it’s pretty pricey for the performance and features you are paying for. For $2.99 USD, I feel ProCamera is overpriced and there are other apps in this class, notably Camera Genius and Snapture, that perform much better for a buck or two less.

ProCamera is $2.99 USD in the App Store.

=M=

FTC Disclosure: I am not associated with Daemgen, CodeGoo, Snapture Labs or any camera app creator. I paid for this app in the App store.

Today, I’m in Seattle taking ProCamera by Daemgen.net for a test. My default camera app has been Camera Genius, despite its lack of a quality zoom. My default digital zoom lens app is the excellent Zoom Lens by BitWink and to me is the standard that must be met with any digital zoom lens app.

What I like about Camera Genius is its excellent anti-shake feature and its rule of thirds gridlines. Features I find compelling in ProCamera are an anti-shake feature and its onscreen tiltometer. ProCamera has gridlines, but they don’t use the rule of thirds. This isn’t really a problem for me as I mostly use gridlines to straighten, not compose, my shot. In this case, ProCamera offers two features to help me do so.

One thing I noticed in testing last night was that ProCamera’s anti-shake feature isn’t as sensitive as Camera Genius’, even at the highest sensitivity setting. This means your shutter snaps quicker. I’ll run some side-by-side comparisons today to see how this effects image sharpness, if at all.

=M=

Zoom Lens

Zoom Lens
Version 1.0

Bottom Line: Essential!

Zoom Lens by BitWink finally brings a real digital zoom to the App Store. It provides up to an 8X digital zoom with no loss of image resolution.

I grabbed this app based on the query of a commenter in a recent post at iPhoneography.com. I was skeptical before I downloaded it. After all, the app store is filled with “digital zoom” apps which are really just in-app cropping.

Zoom Lens is the real deal. It does what it advertises and does it well.

You set the zoom level by pinching and scrolling onscreen. A double tap on the screen toggles between 4X zoom and no zoom — a nice touch. No matter what your zoom level, Zoom Lens actually resamples your images, sharpens them, and saves them at full resolution — 2MP or 3MP depending on your iPhone. The results are better than cropping and resampling in Photoshop. I’ve used several of the zoom apps and Zoom Lens produces the best results by far. Not only does it offer image interpolation, but its sharpening algorithm is very nice for a digital zoom. I’ve been using Snapture for over a year, another app with an image interpolated digital zoom feature, but it lacks the sharpening algorithm and that makes a difference.

I’ve only run comparison tests with both apps up to 4X — the max my caffeinated hands can handle. Zoom Lens produces superior results when compared to Snapture’s. It’s still a digital zoom and will not replace a real zoom lens, so don’t expect results that are on par with a good consumer camera or a high-end SLR. Also, remember that the higher the zoom level, the more your image will degrade — that’s true of any digital zoom. But based on my tests, Zoom Lens is the best digital zoom for iPhone that I’ve used so far. Definitely worth the money for this great camera add-on!

Zoom Lens is available in the App Store for $0.99 USD.

=M=