Zoom Lens, the Apple way

Press release description: BitWink is proud to introduce Zoom Lens 1.0 their new digital camera zoom for iPhone. Offering precise pinch-to-zoom control of the real-time camera view, Zoom Lens 1.0 brings an 8x digital photo zoom to the iPhone with automatic sharpening of the resulting photo and full-resolution output.

Using a beautifully minimalist interface, Zoom Lens 1.0 offers a user experience that will be instantly familiar to iPhone photography enthusiasts. Presented with the familiar camera interface augmented with a retro-analog zoom indicator, the user simply pinches the live preview to set the level of desired zoom. 3GS users can continue to single-tap to set the focus point at any zoom level. When the shutter is pressed an automatically-sharpened preview is displayed for the user to pan and zoom across prior to saving.

"Zoom is a feature that every iPhone camera user wants. It's a bit of a mystery why Apple don't include it as standard." said Matt Farrugia, founder of BitWink. "There are alternatives available on the App Store but we could see from the reviews that users weren't satisfied with the experience being offered. We asked ourselves, if Apple did zoom, what would it look like? It seems obvious that pinch-to-zoom should be the metaphor, so that was our starting point, and we kept it very simple, very focused from there. It's not a bells and whistles app - just one thing, done really well."

Feature Highlights:

• Offers precise pinch-to-zoom control of the real-time camera view
• Provides up to 8x digital zoom
• Saves in full-resolution output (e.g. 1536 x 2048 on the 3GS)
• Automatically displays a sharpened image in the post-capture preview

System Requirements:

• Camera-enabled iPhone with iPhone OS 3.1 or later

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

Editors comments: I had the privilege of beta testing this app, and it is very impressive, however you do need an iPhone 3GS to get the best results. I tested Zoom Lens on a 2 megapixel iPhone 3G, and whilst I was able to zoom to 8x, the resulting photos were of poor quality, so I would only recommend this or any zoom app for that, if you have a 3GS, or you WILL be disappointed.

Comments

[JS]

It seems to work well enough up to 4x zoom on the iPhone 3G....

Correct me if I am wrong.

[Marty Near DFW]

I grabbed this app based on the query of another commenter in a recent post here. I was skeptical before I downloaded it. After all, the app store is filled with "digital zoom" apps which are really just in-app cropping.

Zoom Lens is the real deal. Not only does it offer image interpolation, but its sharpening algorithm is very nice for a digital zoom. I've been using Snapture for over a year, another app with an image interpolated zoom feature, but lacks the sharpening algorithm and that makes a difference.

I've only run comparison tests with both apps up to 4X -- the max my caffeinated hands can handle. Zoom Lens produces superior results when compared to Snapture's. It's still a digital zoom and will not replace a real zoom lens, but based on my tests, Zoom Lens is the best digital zoom for iPhone that I've used so far.

=M=
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[greg]

I agree with all of the above.

[Richard Craig Beeman]

I was amazed at this. It's not perfect, but very good for a digital zoom. Again, very good for a digital zoom. I can go up to 3x and the pictures come out nicely. Obviously you aren't going for portrait shots for school pictures with this camera, but for a portable, "Oh i need a good shot of this and I left my good camera at home" shot, it's GREAT!