Sneaky photos with Sly Camera
Monday, October 19, 2009 at 10:00AM | Glyn Evans I recently posted news on the release of this app, as I had previously been asked if there was such an app that used the iPhone's proximity sensor to take a photo, and Sly Camera does just that. When I posted about this app I commented "I am not sure it is worth paying for", and to be honest that view still stands, but I had a situation where I also had a need for an app that used the proximity sensor to take a snap, so I decided to give it a try.
The App
The developers description: Sly Camera lets you secretly take a photo of anyone or anything. Just open Sly Camera and act like you're taking a phone call ("Hello"). When SlyCam detects that your phone is near your ear or other object via the iPhone's proximity sensor, it snaps a photo.
This app is really simple to use, launch it and it immediately opens its custom camera UI, with a message at the bottom of the screen telling you exactly what to do.
Taking a photo is as simple as raising the iPhone to your ear and the proximity sensor then triggers the camera shutter. Remove the iPhone from your ear and you are presented with a preview of the shot you have just captured with the option to save it, or if you are not happy with the shot, retake. When saving, you get a message that your photo is being saved, and then a confirmation message your photo has been saved. Acknowledge the saved OK message and you are ready to take another snap.
So what do I think of this app?
The idea of using the proximity sensor to trigger the iPhone's camera is a neat idea, that is perfect for those candid shots, however whilst the idea is good, the execution of this idea with this app is very poor.
The problems start as soon as you raise the iPhone to your ear, as the proximity sensor triggers the shutter before you get chance to ensure the iPhone is in an upright position, resulting in photos being captured at an angle. The other problem related to this, is the iPhone's accelerometer which detects whether you are taking your shot in portrait or landscape mode gets confused, and as such your photos are saved with incorrect orientation.
Above: Incorrectly orientated and angled sample shot.With these two major issues, it makes this app pretty useless for snapping legitimate candid shots, however if the developer implemented a 5 second delay between the proximity sensor detection the iPhone against your ear and the photo being taken, then this would resolve the angle and orientation issues.
In addition to these problems, a nice to have would be for the app to be able to take multiple shots before saving to the camera roll. If these fixes/tweaks were made, then Sly Camera would become a useful candid camera app, but as it currently stands, only scores 1 star out of 5.
If I had to describe this app in a four words it would be "nice idea, poorly executed".
If you would like to try out Sly Camera for yourself, then I have 5x promo codes up for grabs, so in the usual manor post your request in the comments section below, not forgetting to register your email address and I will email them out at the end of the week.
Please note: as with all promo codes you will need a US iTunes account to redeem these promo codes.
AppStore Link: Sly Camera - Price £0.59/$0.99
UPDATE: 19th October 2009 @ 6:30pm GMT. Sometime between writing this review and posting it the developer has decided to hike the price from £0.59/$0.99 to whopping £5.99/$9.99. I have no idea what the developer was thinking about when he did this, but at this price the app is not even worth thinking about, and in fact I would go as far as to change the star rating from 1 star out of 5, to an unprecedented -2 stars out of 5, yes that's a minus score!!
Sly Camera in iPhone App Review
Reader Comments (11)
Shame it's US store only.
Interesting idea, would the App Store accept such a sneaky app?
Sure... I'd like to give it a spin. Sounds interesting.
let's give it a try..
Sounds like the perfect thing for People of WalMart! I'd like a promo please…
i think it sounds kind of awesome.
taking pictures of the person sitting next to you or whatever.
maybe you could hit the 'go' button or whatever when the phone is closer to in the right position?
i'm totally into trying this one out! pick me please.
Furthermore, shutting off the shutter sound, or changing it to a dif sound, would be a nice feature.
I would LOVE to try this out! NO WAY am I paying $10 tho!!! Hook me up with a code please! I've only paid that much for an app once!
$10 !?! Are they insane?
It is a cool idea though and I'd love to try it out.
It sounds pretty neat, I would love to give it a spin.
Thanks
Send one my way please...
Hmm, Camera Genius with sound capture on should do the trick