Update: ProCamera just released an update, version 2.5, which added some exiting features.
If you have an iPhone 3GS, the most important new features are video recording from within ProCamera as well as a Photo Compass. Two very useful features, indeed.
But to me, it’s sometimes the small things that matter much more. The feature I missed the most was to auto-save pictures – too often, I simply forgot to save my pictures using the background save. While at it, they also added a Grid overlay (Great!), a variable timer (ProCamera is my app-of-choice for taking “iTripod” pictures) and also to get rid of the Zoom buttons, since I never use digital zoom.
Overall, a great program has been made even more powerful — it remains our camera replacement of choice and a solid Editor’s Pick!
Let’s face it – the iPhone camera is not that great. We all hope for something better once iPhone 3.0 comes out.
In the meantime, there is some help. Pro Camera is one application with advanced features compared to the regular camera app and it has become my new default camera application. First of all, it supports a very basic image stabilization (in Canon-speak) or vibration reduction (in Nikon-speak): it utilizes the accelerometer to help you level your shots before you take them and has an user-definable anti-shake delay function so it won’t capture your shot until you hold your iPhone still. The results are noticeably better as you can see from the 100% crop from two images taken in my home office.
ProCamera also includes a timer for delayed shots or self-portraits. In addition, as is also visible in the image above, it applies color temperature correction to your shots, which makes them look a bit cooler. This might not be to everyone’s liking, but can be changed in Photogene (see our review) on the iPhone or your favorite photo editor on your PC or Mac.
One feature that takes getting used to is the background save function. While it’s great to have a buffer, so you can keep snapping pictures and don’t have to wait for every photo to be saved before being able to shoot again, you have to wait until the last photo has been saved before you can quit the app. Quit the application too early and you lose all the photos that have not been saved yet. I wish there was a warning when you try to quit before all pictures are saved. Fortunately, there’s a setting to turn this off, if you do not like photo buffering.
Price: $2.99 from iTunes.
I’m known to shop the modern way – when being out there shopping, I take pictures of merchandize with my iPhone as reminders to research them later in order to make a buying decision. Of course, this can get embarrassing when, e.g., a clerk watches me in a bookstore taking pictures of books. So I’ve been waiting for an app like cam-u-flage to allow me to camouflage what I’m really up to…
With cam-u-flage, you can cover up your screen with any image (in a bookstore, a screenshot of some text or an Evernote note might work best). At the same time, the entire screen becomes your camera – just tap anywhere to take the picture. Of course, tap to focus is not supported any longer. cam-u-flage then starts writing the image to memory and lets you know when it is ready for the next shot. In fact, only the bottom of the screen gives away what you are really doing.
You can use different pictures as a background and in case you want to see what you are shooting, you can adjust the opacity of the background image. Set it to 100% and you are in total stealth mode. Set it to less and the camera live view will be overlaid. For my shopping activities, I always leave it at 100% opacity. And have yet to be “caught” since using it…
Verdict: Recommended
Price: $1.99 from iTunes.
Update: Finally, Apple approved the new version of ProCamera and while the wait was too long, it was worth it. First of all, I have Image Stabilization back on my iPhone – great! Additional Plus: They significantly improved the user interface, so it’s easier to not forget saving your image once taken with ProCamera. I have not tested Zoom quality, since I don’t plan to use it. Overall, I’m simply happy to have this app back on my iPhone! Needless to say, ProCamera is an Editor’s Pick!
Let’s face it – the iPhone camera is not that great. We all hope for something better once iPhone 3.0 comes out.
In the meantime, there is some help. Pro Camera is one application with advanced features compared to the regular camera app and it has become my new default camera application. First of all, it supports a very basic image stabilization (in Canon-speak) or vibration reduction (in Nikon-speak): it utilizes the accelerometer to help you level your shots before you take them and has an user-definable anti-shake delay function so it won’t capture your shot until you hold your iPhone still. The results are noticeably better as you can see from the 100% crop from two images taken in my home office.
ProCamera also includes a timer for delayed shots or self-portraits. In addition, as is also visible in the image above, it applies color temperature correction to your shots, which makes them look a bit cooler. This might not be to everyone’s liking, but can be changed in Photogene (see our review) on the iPhone or your favorite photo editor on your PC or Mac.
One feature that takes getting used to is the background save function. While it’s great to have a buffer, so you can keep snapping pictures and don’t have to wait for every photo to be saved before being able to shoot again, you have to wait until the last photo has been saved before you can quit the app. Quit the application too early and you lose all the photos that have not been saved yet. I wish there was a warning when you try to quit before all pictures are saved. Fortunately, there’s a setting to turn this off, if you do not like photo buffering.
Price: $2.99 from iTunes.
Second Update: Today, we awarded Photoforge an Editor’s Pick in the iPhone Photo Editing category. Over the last weeks, I have been using it more and more for its more granular editing capabilities, esp. with curves (as a Photoshop user, I feel very comfortable with curves, although they are not everyone’s cup of tea). PhotoGene retains its Editor’s Pick award, since we still prefer it for its editing speed, but PhotoForge is the editor of choice for advanced, in-depth editing.
Update: Photoforge released a new version on July 3 that added support for resizing, cropping and rotating of images. Thanks to our reader Brian for pointing it out. Additionally, another update was released to Apple, but is not available yet in iTunes. This update will provide support for the full iPhone 3GS 3M resolution – currently you cannot save an image in Photoforge at full iPhone 3GS resolution. In my tests, the latest version of Photoforge seemed a bit sluggish and we still prefer (maybe due to familiarity) the PhotoGene interface. PhotoGene remains our Editor’s Pick. PhotoForge is still on sale for $2.99. Both will stay on my iPhone.
In one corner: PhotoGene, our current Editor’s pick for iPhone photo editing. In the other corner: PhotoForge, the challenger.
Curve adjustment in PhotoForge
In short,
PhotoForge is a photo editor’s dream. It is as close to Photoshop (OK, Photoshop Elements) as you can get on the iPhone. It supports a lot of very advanced features such as curves, RGB, CYMK and CIE Lab color spaces, many different brushes, HDR simulation, blurring and sharpening, just to name some of them. It’s pretty easy to use and the output results look great. In pure editing, it certainly outshines PhotoGene. And Photoshop’s tools are much better than PhotoForge.
But here’s my problem with PhotoForge: I don’t really do advanced photo editing on my iPhone. If I really need to do heavy-duty editing, I download the image and use Photoshop on my Mac or PC. The iPhone’s screen real estate is just to small for precise editing, at least to me.
Level adjustment in PhotoGene
On the other hand,
PhotoGene focuses on all the basic editing task, that are needed when trying to quickly edit a photo. It includes resizing, straightening and cropping, all of which are sorely missed in PhotoForge. In fact, the lack of these features forces me to use PhotoGene anyway before I can even use PhotoForge. Thus, since I cannot use PhotoForge without PhotoGene, I might as well stay within PhotoGene.
PhotoGene also has additional features such as framing which I don’t use, but come in handy if you want to pretty up a photo before posting it online.
When I bought my current car more than 8 years ago, one of the leading car magazines ran a comparison test with 9 other cars in its class. My car came in 6th. In the story, they ran a sidebar where they asked the test drivers which car they would prefer for everyday driving. The drivers all pointed to my car. The same is true with PhotoGene. While PhotoForge outshines PhotoGene in the depth and breadth of editing tasks, only PhotoGene handles all the tasks that I need to perform during everyday photo editing, especially if I want to upload the image from my iPhone. And that makes PhotoGene retain its crown as IiPhonePhotoVideo’s Editor’s Pick for photo editing!
PhotoForge: $2.99 in iTunes (currently on Sale)
PhotoGene: $2.99 in iTunes
