Review: RED DOT CAMERA is a slick, rangefinder-style camera app

Inspired by the retro craftsmanship of the classic Leica M camera series, Red Dot Camera ($2.99) is a very good manual exposure, rangefinder-style camera. This no-frills camera app is simple, easy to use, and all the controls you need are right there on the screen.

Red Dot Camera is designed to behave like a classic rangefinder camera. A rangefinder camera has a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus. Usually this involves combining a split-image in the viewfinder to focus the lens. You can see how it works on a Leica M2 here.

While not a true rangefinder simulation, the app features a rangefinder-style manual focusing mode which lets you focus in with precision using a magnified patch at the center of the viewfinder. It’s about the best digital approximation we’ll see at this time. The feature is functional, as well as a nice nod to a classic camera.

In addition to auto and full manual focus, Red Dot also has three focus presets which quickly let you set focus for distances, fairly close-range normal use, or all-the-way-in macro.

Red Dot Camera has a large viewfinder and large controls that I had no problems using with my large fingers. The user-interface is clean and well-designed. Exposure values and shutter speed are tucked at the bottom of the screen – visible, but out of the way. The flourishes are inspired by classic Leica cameras — something the iPhone has been compared to in the past. It’s a nice detail. The UI is a good mix of analog with digital touches.

The shutter release is a big red Leica-style button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, conveniently located for thumb release.

The app has a full auto mode, but where it shines is that you can easily override and manually set shutter speed, ISO, and focus. There’s also a manual exposure adjustment.

I really like how the manual settings also act as overrides. It’s a great feature and very well implemented here. You can set your ISO manually and let the camera adjust the exposure and shutter speed for you if you want. Where the iPhone camera wants to automatically default to the best overall settings, you can use a priority override like the one in Red Dot to increase the sensitivity of the camera which automatically gives you a faster shutter speed. This is great for reducing blur when photographing moving objects.

You can manually override any or all settings. iPhoneographers with a traditional photography background will appreciate the combination of control and automation that Red Dot offers. It behaves like a good rangefinder camera.

Red Dot Camera lacks a manual white balance adjustment, a very useful feature some of the more powerful camera apps like ProCamera, Manual, and Camera+ have. There’s not even a white balance lock. The iPhone’s camera does a very good job of automatically white-balancing photos. But there are a lot of times when I use manual white balance and a gray card to compensate for the variance in indoor lighting when shooting color important photographs. While I’ll probably stick with Pro Camera and a gray card for my more color-important photos, this is not a dealbreaker for me for taking everyday photos. This may not be an issue for you, but if it’s a feature you use, you’ll be disappointed that it’s not here in this first release.

The large viewfinder can display frame lines for the 28mm fixed focal length of the iPhone, as well as 35mm and 50mm simulated focal lengths, just like the Leica M rangefinder. You can set the app to crop your images down to these longer lens simulations. It’s a fun feature and adds a nice touch to the overall experience of shooting with the app. When using this feature, though, the app will simply crop images and reduce the pixel dimensions. Otherwise, Red Dot supports the full 12 MP output of an iPhone 6S and it saves all sorts of metadata as well.

Also hidden in the sparsely populated menu is an option for black-and-white photos. It’s a good feature, but there are better black-and-white camera apps for this purpose.

There’s a full-featured free version that you can try out, Red Dot Camera Free, with all of the features of the paid version, but it adds a watermark to the lower-right corner of your photo.

One of the first cameras I shot with was one of my grandfather’s Petri rangefinders. I still have a 35mm Petri that he gave me years ago. On that level, Red Dot Camera is also a nice trip back.

I like Red Dot Camera. If you’re looking for a camera app that lets you override how the camera wants to take your photo, Red Dot Camera is definitely worth a look. Functionally, it’s similar to Manual or Pure Shot, but with fewer features. The tools you need are still here and at your fingertips. The tradeoff is a much simpler, less cluttered interface that won’t get in the way of your shot, which is how I like my camera apps.

Download Red Dot Camera

App Store link: Red Dot Camera – Manual Rangefinder Style Camera for iPhone – Lifelike Apps, Inc