Camera+ for iPhone - app review

By Leanna Lofte
last updated

Camera+ for iPhone is a photography application that allows you to take photos and edit them. tap tap tap claims Camera+ is "all about one thing - GREAT PHOTOS!" How does Camera+ hold up to this expectation? Follow along to find out.

When you launch Camera+, you will be looking at the back of camera with a view finder. Under the viewfinder, where there would normally be a screen on a digital camera, there are two options: take photos and Lightbox. Behind the camera, you can see a little of what your iPhone's camera can see. Inside the viewfinder, you'll see a very small version of exactly what your camera sees. Tap on the viewfinder or "take photos" to take a picture.

When taking a photo, there is a 3x3 grid to help line up your shot (optional). There is also a stabilizer which will not snap the picture until the iPhone is held still. This is great for low light situations or when you are zoomed in (up to 5x).

The Lightbox is where you go to view all the photos you've taken with Camera+. The Lightbox is designed with filmstrips containing 3 photos each and is very visually appealing. None of the photos save to your camera roll until you tell it to. This is great for keeping your camera roll clutter-free of photos you don't want. Tapping a photo brings up options to edit, save, copy, or share. Double tapping a photo makes it larger and provides the same options.

There are 4 different ways to edit your photos: scenes, crops, effects, and borders. Scenes is similar to the different modes you might find on a digital point and shoot camera: auto, flash, sunset, night, backlit, portrait, beach, scenery, concert, food, and text. There are 9 different common crop ratios available. The 21 different effects are categorized as color, retro, and special. I am impressed with all the options and quality of these effects. They are fun and look great. There are 7 different borders to choose from. Most are very basic; the only "fun" one being "instant" which makes your photo look like it was taken with a polaroid camera.

Overall, I was impressed with Camera+. The plethora of good effects makes the app worth it alone. Camera+ does a great job of producing great photos.

[$1.99 - iTunes link (opens in new tab)]

Pros

  • Unique UI
  • 5x zoom, stabilizer, and grid available when taking photos
  • Creatively designed Lightbox to scroll through pictures
  • Many scene modes, crop ratios, borders, and effects
  • Share to Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr
  • Support for multitasking, Retina Display, flash, and front facing camera on iPhone 4
  • Access photo library to edit photos not taken with Camera+

Cons

  • Landscape only supported when taking and viewing photos
  • Cannot view photos in full screen
  • Saving a photo to camera roll removes it from the Lightbox

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Leanna Lofte
Leanna Lofte

Former app and photography editor at iMore, Leanna has since moved on to other endeavors. Mother, wife, mathamagician, even though she no longer writes for iMore you can still follow her on Twitter @llofte.

21 Comments
  • FRST
  • Good review! One thing you forgot to mention, though, is that geo-tag information gets lost when you transfer a photo to your PC, or share it....
    I was told by support that "all the Meta Data information is lost as the iPhone OS does not support export of EXIF tags from other apps"
  • Ah. I'm sorry, I never realized this. But based on what you say, this would be an OS problem, not an app problem, correct?
  • Cool except for the no landscape. And no full screen.
  • Great review. Once you save your photos to the camera roll the metadata is preserved when you sync the photos to your Mac and PC. I have tested this with the photos I took last week in Aruba. They still are geotagged and show up in Places in the Photos app.
  • When you say "Only Portrait Mode" are you talking about the UI or actually taking landscape pictures with this?
    Because I have this app and I know it will take landscape pictures. . .
  • I'm talking about the UI. Taking and viewing photos in landscape is supported, but when using all other aspects of the app, you have to be in portrait. I'll update the review to make that more clear. Thanks.
  • Good review. Camera+ is my favorite camera app by far, and I've tried plenty. The UI and the effects are what really make it stand out. One other small annoyance is that the anti-shake is not sticky. It resets when you exit. Overall, a really fun and well-made app, though.
  • Why does this chick sound so out of breath?
  • LOL!! Probably because I'm pregnant and breathing isn't exactly as easy as it used to be... especially when sitting on the ground.
  • Is this a good option for a single-app replacement of the standard Camera app? Or is there another one you'd recommend?
    And am I reading that pictures taken within this app will retain no location information? Or does it correctly save this information within the camera roll so it's there when syncing?
  • I guess "Golden" mode stands for the Golden Ratio 1.618:1
  • How do I zoom when taking a picture?
  • The best camera replacement so far. I've tried them all and this is the only one I go back to.
  • I'm surprised that there's no mention of what is arguably the best feature of Camera+, the ability to set focus and exposure individually. Tap/hold to focus, then use a second finger to set exposure (see promo video on their site). This lets you focus on an area that would otherwise result in an under or over-exposed photo. In my use, that alone has been worth more than any of the filters, etc.
  • Massie, this feature wasn't available at the time this review was written. But you are right, that feature is very awesome.
  • Ah, that explains it! Thanks Leanna.
  • @Josh. When you say "Once you save your photos to the camera roll the metadata is preserved when you sync the photos to your Mac and PC". I don't get it. It does not work for me when I copy the photos from the iPhone to my PC using Windows Vista. Global Delight support told me loss of EXIF tags was an iOS issue.
  • Actually you CAN view full screen...first, double-click on the home button and scroll to the furthest left and click the portait orientation to make sure it is unlocked. Second, hold down the power button on the top right of your iPhone until you are prompted to 'slide to power off'...then after it powers off hold that button down again until it reboots. You should be able to view photos full frame after this. A side note about the loss of exif data on a pc, some of your photos will be full frame but sideways so that you have to cock your head to see the photo correctly. I believe this is from the loss of exif data because the camera should save the orientation data.
  • hhaah...okay, it looks like a word I wrote was censored...what I meant was 'some of your photos will be full frame but sideways so you have to 'rooster' your head to see the photo correctly.
  • I 'exported' all of my light box.. the camera got a call and poped me out of camera+.. i lost ALL of my photos.. since it erases the photos out of lightbox BEFORE it confirms it has been transferred properly.. now i am afraid to do transfers!!