iPhone App Review: Zoom Lens

Billed as "Zoom: the Apple way", Zoom Lens is one of the easiest and I think the best digital zoom apps currently available for the iPhone. There has however been some negative feedback on this app, so I decided to take a closer look at the app to see if I could work out why.

The App

Zoom Lens is as simple as they come, simply launch the app, touch the screen and then pinch to zoom in or out as if you were viewing photos from the camera roll.  As you do this you will notice the magnification indicator in the bottom left hand corner of the app screen increasing or decreasing from 1x to 8x. The nice bit about this feature, is the increases/descreases are seamlessly variable, and so you have 100% control over the zoom function.

When you have zoomed, framed and focused your shot (3GS only), simply tap the camera icon and the photo is taken.  You will then be presented with a preview of your shot, and have the option to save it (by tapping the tick) or reject it (by tapping the X) and retake.

When you save your shot, you will see the centre part of the camera icon flash red, and when the save is complete you will hear a chime and the red flashing icon will turn green, and that's all there is to this app.

The results

To test the quality of the results from this app, I asked a friend (yes I have one or two) who has an iPhone 3GS to take a couple of test shots, and these can be seen below.  The first was taken at 1x, whilst the second shot was taken a the top end, 8x, and as you can see from these shots, the quality even at 8x on a 3GS is very acceptable.

I then took a couple of shots on my iPhone 3G, which has only got a 2 megapixel camera, with the first shot at 1x and the second one at 4x, and whilst the results are OK, I would not want to go above 4x magnification as the results become far to pixelated.

So what do I think of Zoom Lens?

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post there have been a number of negative comments posted about this app, however having beta tested this app prior to its release, and having tested it on both a 3G and 3GS I think I know see where the problem lies, and it's not with the app, but with the iPhones camera capabilities and the users expectations.

First off you have to remember this is a digital zoom app, and so like any camera with a digital zoom there will always be a loss in quality, and that quality loss will be much greater with the 2 megapixel iPhone/iPhone 3G, compared with the 3 megapixel iPhone 3GS.

So with this in mind, if you are using the 2 megapixel iPhone/iPhone 3G then you probably will be disappointed in the results, especially if you go above 4x magnification, whilst if you have the iPhone 3GS with its autofocus and improved 3 megapixel camera, then you will probably be more than happy with the end results even at 8x magnification.  Also if you compare this app with others in the same category, then you may be pleasantly surprised to find that Zoom Lens is one of the few apps that saves at full resolution, and it is this along with its simple and sleek interface and its ability to retain the iPhone 3GS autofocus feature that makes it stand out from the crowd.

Despite some of the shortcomings caused by the iPhones low quality camera, Zoom Lens with its up to 8x magnification, its ability to retain the autofocus feature of the iPhone 3GS and the fact that it saves all shots at full resolution, makes Zoom Lens the only zoom app worth buying, and gets the iPhoneography blog "Recommended" award.

AppStore Link: Zoom Lens - Price £0.59/$0.99