Tag Archives: iPhone camera

ProCam iPhone Camera app with the Unique User Interface

When I say ‘unique’, I’m talking about unique on the iPhone. The ProCam interface may actually look familiar to many digital camera users as the camera app mimics real world buttons. But, with settings and adjustments that I wish my digital camera had.

The feature list is pretty familiar for most iPhone Camera apps:

– Full focus and exposure control (touch focus / touch exposure)
– White Balance lock
– Adjustable image resolution (Full / High / Medium / Low)
– Adjustable aspect ratio (4:3 / 3:2 / 16:9 / 1:1)
– Adjustable JPEG compression quality (100% / 90% / 80%)
– Adjustable video resolution (Full HD: 1080p / HD:720p / VGA: 640×480 / Low:480×360)
– 6x digital zoom
– Geo location tagging
– Alignment grids (Thirds / Trisec / Golden / Horizon)
– Front / Back camera support
– Flash settings (Auto / On / Off / Torch)

The user interface for ProCam, while very un-iPhone like, looking more like a physical camera, makes it easy to change settings quickly. When I’m doing street photography, I usually have to choose a setting and shoot for the better part of the day with it. Many ‘camera’ settings are offered in the popular app solutions, but every change are a couple taps deep. With ProCam, everything can be done with one tap or a twist of a virtual nob.

When viewing your subject, the dial on the right twists to change the ‘camera’ set up:

– Single Shot
– Anti-Shake with adjustable sensitivity (High / Medium / Low)
– Burst mode with adjustable image quality (Full / VGA)
– Self-Timer
– Interval
– Face Detection
– Big Button
– Video

The small tab out of the ‘dial’ is used for controlling the 6x zoom. Choose the arrow button on the lower left corner to expose the specifics on how you want your iPhone’s camera to work via ProCam. Tap the options to change, the single window makes it easy to change while on the go to get a specific shot quickly.

There is also several screens worth of fine tuning all of the features via the Menu button (upper right). ProCam keeps the settings simple and quick too with a tap to change On/Off or quick chooser showing in a single view rather than having to drill down for every adjustable line item.

 

iPhone Camera Hipstamatic app updated with new Portrait Pak – also Free lens and film

A iPhone camera app Hipstamatic update means it’s time to get out and shoot with new photography effects. The app isn’t a filter post shooting app, everything is set up prior to snapping a photo.

The update to Hipstamatic takes it to version 255. The lens ‘Jane’ and the film Ina’s 1982 are now included to use at no charge. The ‘Recent’ photo area has had a redesign. And, the Hipstamatic app’s photos uploaded directly to FaceBook timeline, Twitter and Instagram can now include location tags.

Completely new for this update is the Portrait SnapPak. The in-app purchased Pak is the normal 99 cents, including a single lens and film: Foxy Lens and Sugar Film. I will get back here with an update to this post after having a few days to text the new Pak against my daily iPhone photography.

iPhone Photogs, ProCamera is on sale during WWDC

Just a quick shout out that ProCamera for the iPhone is on sale right now. The developers state that it is for the World Wide Developers Conference, which I don’t know if it mean in advance of the Monday kick off or through to the end of the event. So, if you have been thinking about grabbing ProCamera since I last reviewed in, now might be a good time.

Refresher on ProCamera. It is the app that lets you quickly get to fine tuning adjustments during the actual photography step. You can split your focus and exposure key points via a simple draggable square/circle interface. You can quickly jump to an enhanced zoom and anti shake setting so you can get ultra close ups. And, amongst many more camera features, you can zip off a bunch of photos in high speed via the Burst option. When you have the photo taken, ProCamera has a wide variety of fine tuning tools to get the most out of the images prior to saving to the iPhone’s camera role or sharing out through your favorite social sharing services.

Outside of the quick access tools via the camera view, ProCamera offers several screens list of items that you can adjust to get the tools to work the way you want them to. Choose the level of stabilization checking, turn on/off the volume button as a shutter release, adjust what additional data is saved with each photo taken, select framing for videos shot through ProCamera and to use Expert mode or not… just a few in the list to get the iPhone camera working for you rather than you adjusting to it.

As promised, a easy to use Polarizer Filter Lens for the iPhone

If you have done much photography with a full size film camera, you most likely have a polarizer filter to screw onto the end of your lens. It cuts down on reflections on shiny objects so you don’t have the sky reflecting off of cars and you in the picture when photographing a window. A lot of pictures I take with my iPhone involving shiny objects, I want the reflection. But, I have longed for a polarizer filter to place over the iPhone’s lens those times I’m trying to take a picture through a window such as when doing street photography.

I mentioned recently that I found a ‘clip-on’ Fish Eye lens for the iPhone that also came as a twist Polarizer filter lens option. There are a couple full case Polarizer options, but we already covered how that option didn’t meet my needs as I don’t need the lens on all of the time so the case would be on/off all day. Instead, I spent the last couple weeks playing with the Gizmon clip (sold by Four Corner for $25 US) on option, and I can say it works as I had hoped.

The Polarizer filter lens turns freely so you just twist till the reflection goes away. Below is a shot with the lens on (image is the same without the polarizer clipped on) the iPhone but not adjusted to effect the reflection on the Nano’s screen. Notice the dark area in the upper right corner of the image, that shows I didn’t have the lens aligned correctly (just didn’t take a second to pay attention when I took the shot but it is something that should be watched for). The lens opening to go over the iPhone camera (or iPad or most other smartphone cameras) is plenty large to take a picture without any edge distortion.

A quick twist of the Gizmon Clip-On Polarizer lens and the reflection goes away…

Hipstamatic camera for the iPhone, on sale for Holiday weekend 50% off

Fence sitters for the retro camera Hipstamatic app, it’s a pretty good time to jump in. Regular readers know I have covered the app through all of it’s updates and many of it’s film / lens pack additions. Today, the developers announced that they are offering the app for 50% off now through the holiday weekend. All of the basic included lens and films are included, ready for some fun photo shooting while your out and about.

Also, for the holiday weekend is the return of all of the previous packs that have come and gone. Many of the holiday packs appear for a few months then go away. If you didn’t grab the effects, it was no longer possible to buy them. Non of the packs seems to be discounted like the actual Hipstamatic app is this weekend, but it’s nice to have back a few that I had been slow to grab and didn’t in-app purchase. Now, off to mix and match while doing the faire this weekend.

More graphics and less text, 500px Stackr for the iPhone updated

You may remember my earlier mention of 500px Stackr. It is not only for viewing photos but the app also lets you upload to your 500px account directly from your iPhone. The uploading feature cut a few steps out of my busy day, yea!

The app popped up as being updated so I took a quick end to end pass through the new version. The developers have taken a app dealing with visually impacting images and made it’s self visually pleasing. Gone are the screens of lists of text. Gone is the multi taps to get to the ‘Upload’ option. Launching 500px Stackr takes you right to an overview of top images in the different group as well to easy to use buttons for actions you may also need to perform. The options are the same (except Upload being easier to get to) as the previous version’s text list, now though the options are divided into boxes/buttons with images even before you dive into the different areas.

Also changes in the overview of an individual’s image area. 500px Stackr still has their name across the top and the quick overview thumbnails down the side. Now the options have moved from thin text lines, challenging for big fingers, to larger buttons, much easier to read and touch.

Finally a Fish Eye lens for my iPhone that I can actually use!

Watch out… the tunnel walk ways, bridges, old buildings and dense forests will never been the same. At lease, not the same through the eye of my iPhone camera.

I have gone through fish eye options both software and physical hardware. There is some acceptable software available and that is what I have had to be using. The problem with the Fish Eye lenses I have tested on my iPhone (yes, I bought all of them, ugh!) has presented me with a variety of issues. Mostly the problem is because I have a thin vinyl protective skin on the back of my iPhone. It protects the iPhone glass face and it has a fun design I did that makes my iPhone mine in a crowd of millions of iPhones.

The hardware played with so far has included lenses that attached via a small magnetic ring that stuck to the iPhone… which covered up the flash all of the time. There was the full case version that would have been ‘okish’ if the lens could be removed from the case, instead it was full case on/off. One of my favorite is the Olloclip… very nicely made with three lens options to use… issue being is that it is a precision fit around a bare iPhone with too close of tolerances to allow a fit over the back skin. I actually made a template to use for cutting out the corner of the iPhone skin just so I could use the Olloclip, I’ll post that up shortly for you to use if you have the same challenge.

Enter, the  Gizmon Clip-On Fish Eye. Simple design, why didn’t I think of it?!! The folks at the Four Corner Store Web site offer three versions. The Fish Eye, I’m covering here… The Polarizer, which I will review after I play enough to know it for a review, and the 3 Image Mirage… not my sort of thing.

Each of the Gizmon Clip-On lenses come individually packaged. The lenses are attached to the clip so you will be carrying as many full units as you need with you, not just a clip and lenses. That is fine, the lens/clip is reasonably small enough to toss into any bag. The clip slides easily over the iPhone edge, judging by the extra area in the loop, it should work over the edge of most tighter fitting cases. The pressure ‘finger’ of the clip does rest on the iPhone’s screen but since it is plastic, it doesn’t confuse the screen thinking it’s a finger. The design means that it will work on my iPhone 4s, along with my iPad and my friend’s older iPhone 3Gs too.

The lens is easy on/off. I found that for best alignment of the lens over the camera, rather than looking through the iPhone screen, I flip the iPhone over and look through the lens to encircle the camera. The larger outside diameter of the lens is working well for clearer images than I experienced with other options. I’ll do a head:head between this and the Olloclip and report back. Meanwhile, pretty happy with my purchase for easy of use.

Thumba photo editor for the iPhone, is less about cute filters and more about serious editing

Thumba starts off looking a bit different from other photo editors and keeps going from there. Take a photo or import it results in a full image view and simple buttons. Thumba Photo Editor lets you grab another image, save and share, filters/effects, more information and a view of the photo before/after changes.

The tools are arranged differently than most photo editing tools on the iPhone. Thumba has rows to sweep through aligned in groups for: Image, Adjustments, Filters and Effects. Where most photo editing apps offer crop, borders and filters, Thumba has extended the options with more tuning in the more professional area. Pro like tools, yet still simple to use.

Depending on the tuning tool chosen, Thumba presents sliders for more customizable adjustments.

More info can be found on the image through the Thumba’s ‘i’ button. I like the adjustable resizing of the overall image. This is handy when I’m going to use the photo in a blog post vs sending to friends.


Just FYI, the full list of the tuning options from the developers:
Image
– Crop
– Rotate
– Flip
– Borders
. Burned
. Broken
. Cherry
. Film Strip
. Grunge
. Happy
. Holga
. Light Leaks
. Old Photo
. View Finder
. Year 1944
. Year 1967
– Colored Border
– Instant Camera
– Mirror
– Aspect Ratio in Crop function

Adjustments
– Auto Fix
– Brightness&Contrast
– Hue&Saturation
– Local Contrast
– Exposure
– Sharpen
– Red Eyes Removal
– Black&White
– Color Balance
– Shadows & Highlight
– Colorize
– Multiply
– Posterize
– White Balance

Filters
– Color Selection
– Cross Processing
– Glow
– Gradient Blend
– Grain
– Gray Scale
– HDR
– Infrared
– Lomography
– Retro
. Broken Camera
. Burned
. Dodged
. Extreme Damage
. Lovely
– Sepia
– Skin Treatment
– Soften Portrait
– Sunny Day
– Tilt Shift
– Vintage
. Eighties
. Glamour
. Schizo
. Seventies
. Vintage
. Warm Summer

Effects
– 3D Glasses
– Blur
– Invert Color
– Night Vision
– Pencil Sketch
– Solarization
– Vignette
– X-Ray
– Color Filter
– Diffuze
– Night Vision
– Silence Movie
– Stamp

HalfTone for the iPhone updated with Dropbox, Photo Stamps and Send To Camera+

As a reminder, HalfTone is the iPhone app that lets you convert your photos to newsprint dots. You can adjust the quantity and quality of those dots, add caption boxes like cartoons have and change the background ‘papers’. At first glance, my thought had been it was an app that has very limited uses, but places to share the photos keeps coming up.

The update has a few items that jump right out as ‘much needed’. The first is the addition to the stamps area, where you can choose an image to use to paste onto your HalfTone converted image. The image stamp can be rotated and resized.

Another item is sending the photos your working on within HalfTone directly out to Camera+. The feature has been available before to send photos directly to other enhancement apps rather than saving to the photo library then importing it to another app. The addition of Camera+ to HalfTone’s Send To options lowers the quantity of steps and number of photos half done on my iPhone.

The full list of HalfTone updates includes sending photos directly to DropBox too:

Hipstamatic brings back Wicker Park HipstaPak – This weekend only!

An update showed on my iPhone for Hipstamatic. Nothing special was listed. But, looking around there is a few new options and old friends are back.

A HipstaPak that was pulled a while ago, has returned to buy for those folks that missed the chance before. The Pak, Wicker Park, is a lens, flash and case (digital, not physical case). The lens is the Lucas AB2 which is popular for adding a brown glow to photos taken with it. Like I mentioned in the opening, the developers are trying to add some excitement to the Wicker Park pak as it is only available to purchase this weekend from within the shopping cart area of the iPhone Hipstamatic app.

When in the cart area of Hipstamatic, I noticed a new 99 cent (US) offering called PopTone CasePak.

The new Pak in Hipstamatic is ‘cases’ for your fun. Like the rustic case in the Wicker Park Pak, PopTone CasePak is a group of 5 cases that really pop with bright colors. They don’t change the functioning features of Hipstamatic, they are just for personalization and a lot of fun.