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.
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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.
