Is Best Camera really the best app?

Ok, I'm not going to write a full review of this app, because Chase Jarvis has done an excellent job of producing a walkthrough video guide to his app Best Camera, so instead I am going to jump straight in with my own verdict/opinion of the app.

If you haven't already watch Chase's video guide, then I would suggest you watch it before reading the rest of my post.

So what do I like about Best Camera?

All apps have their good and bad points, and for me the best bits are:

• The apps interface and ease of use.
• The online community that Chase and his crew have created over at thebestcamera.com.
• The ability and ease of sharing your photos on Twitter, Facebook and via email to photo blogs like Flickr, Tumblr and Posterous, or any email service come to that.
• Being able to view and vote on the community photos with in the app.
• The ability to apply multiple filter effects to a photo, and multiples of those filters, for example if I darken a photo and it is not dark enough, I just add another dark filter on top.
• The ability to remove a filter or change the sequence of a filter.
• Support for full resolution.
• The ability to apply the same set of filters to the next photo allowing for basic batch processing.
• Being able to see the filter effects applied to photos on the community website, which allows you to get effect ideas and try them on your own photos (great for learning).

What I don't like about it?

As with all good points there have to be bad points, and for me they are:

• Not being able to change the output resolution without re-opening the photo you are editing.  This is a pain if you want to save a high res photo, but only share in low res.
• Limited control over your thebestcamera.com profile (not being able to delete your shared photos).
• Sharing is a little slow when sharing to multiple sources, and especially at high res.

The bugs and the glitches

As with any app there are bugs and glitches, and Best Camera is no exception, with the following major/minor bugs found during my time with the app:

• Facebook upload shows as "Photo from Chase Jarvis' Best Camera". This is a bug and a fix has been submitted to the AppStore, so this should be resolved any day soon.
• For me this is a big one, the app regularly crashes when either editing or saving at full res on my iPhone 3G.  I don't think this is such a problem on the 3GS, but whilst writing this post the app crashed several times!!

My wish list

This app is far from perfect, and for some reason there are effects missing that you would not expect to be missing and some features that would be nice to have, and for me they are:

• Fix the memory management problems which should resolve the app crashing problem on at least the Pphone 3G.
• Add a soft focus filter (not sure why this one was missed out in the first place).
• Add the ability to save effects for future use, not just the next photo, by creating a save custom effects option.
• A grain effect filter would be nice to add some grit to my photos.
• Colour graduation filters would be nice.
• A 35mm frame to frame the photos, creating a slide effect.

Above: Original photo, and Best Camera manipulated version. Click on the photo to see how I created this effect.Above: Original photo, and Best Camera manipulated version. Click on the photo to see how I created this effect.Above: Original photo, and Best Camera manipulated version. Click on the photo to see how I created this effect.

So ultimately what do I think of Best Camera?

When I first downloaded and installed Best Camera, I thought WOW this does look like this could be the ultimate photo app, then as I began to play more with it, the shine wore off and I began to think this was more of a marketing exercise, with an app thrown in, than an actual app release; after all the app was only one third of the overall Best Camera experience, as there is the book (revenue generating) and the community website. Then as the days passed and I continued to use/play with the app trying to recreate effects from some of my favourite standalone apps, so Best Camera began to shine through again, and the more I played the more I liked it.  Now nearly a week on and this app is firmly on my main photo app page, and whilst it will not replace some of my standalone apps like Spica (which produce high contrast and grainy B&W images), it will probably replace the likes of CameraBag as I can produce similar results, with the same ease of use but with better resolutions and greater flexibility and control.

So back to my question and heading for this post "Is Best Camera really the best app?" In short NO, but it very nearly is, and if the things on my wish list get implemented, then for me this app could well become the best app for my iPhoneography. OK it's not going to ever replace the likes of Photogene or EffectsLab for those who want greater control over their iPhone photos, but for the majority of people (including myself) if all you want is to create some good looking photos quickly and easily, and then share them with friends, family and the online communities, then Best Camera could well be the best thing to hit the iPhone in a long time, and this whole experience of app and community could set the standard for future photo apps.

To sum up, this is a great app that will provide a great experience for the majority of users, and whilst it may have a few bugs, be lacking in some areas and have a higher price tag than most of photo apps in the AppStore, in my opinion is well worth the £1.79/$2.99, and gets the iPhoneography's blog "recommended" award for overall user experience.

AppStore Link: Best Camera - Price £1.79/$2.99

Comments

[nikissive]

I'm using this app since a week and I must say that I find it very complete.
The only thing I would add is the ability to choose between 3 or 4 different types of vignetting.

[greg]

Great review Glyn. I am really enjoying this app so far and do look forward to the updates that you mentioned. I have not had a problem with it crashing on me at all. I have a 3GS so I do not know if that makes a difference in its performance. I also noted that the only way that you can vote for a photo on his site is through the app itself and not when you go to his site on your computer. And I also noticed yesterday that I saw photos that were on the site that did not use the app at all. Another frustration is that when you click on the info button on a photo that you are looking at through the app you do not get any information about what filters were used. Just the name of the person who took the picture. It would be nice to get this uniform across the board.

[Pamela]

I would like to see sliders to let me choose the degree of the effect I have selected. Grain and soft focus would also be nice, as well as more control with vignette. But I find this and tiltshiftgen to be my go-to apps now for quick and easy edits, superceding even camerabag.

[Eliano]

Hi Glyn, very interesting review!

Best Camera is my favourite App because it have all the filters I need to improve my shots and interesting features about the photo sharing.

I hope that we could download an upgrade soon.

Best wishes,
Eliano

[chase jarvis]

thanks so much for the review and comments. your feedback is great - we're listening. in truth, we wanted to incorporate much of what you're requesting in ver 1.0, but alas there are timelines and budgets to work with, so we had to make some choices. since i'm a photographer and not a software developer - lots of good learning going on in that realm...

regardless, the app, book, and community are in this for the long haul, and our goal is to make this the app with a great blend of simplicity, power, and ease of use. it'll never be photoshop for the iphone - and we don't want it to be. in the meantime, thanks so much for the feedback and spreading the good word. more soon...

[Charles]

I continue to play with this App but have to say i am becoming discouraged. The signature filters all seem to blast the image with a high contrast hot spot. I was beginning to think that perhaps it was my phone but in looking at your images on this site I see the same thing. is this really acceptable to everyone?

[Glyn Evans]

Hi Charles

I know what you mean, but I do tend to find my iPhone 3G does sometimes produce shots that appear to have a hotspot, but for these shots the filters used introduced it, which is what I wanted.

If you compare this shot http://bestc.am/hp with this one http://bestc.am/XBW then you will see the hoptspot is much less on the 2nd one.

I think this is an app that in the long run will become one of many peoples app of choice, especially as they increase and improve on the filters etc.

[Stefano Mantegna]

I have an 3Gs iPhone and even if I choose "export in original size" the image exported is 640x480...

I don't understand the meaning of "Not being able to change the output resolution without re-opening the photo you are editing".

[Dartanyon]

I think that the resolution problem is actually an iTunes problem ...
Photos that are transferred to the phone from iPhoto through iTunes are compressed down to 640x480. So by the time the App gets a hold of it that is original size. I think @stefano that if you take a photo using the camera that's built into the iPhone (not BestCam) and then bring that photo into the App, and save it back to iPhoto (via iTunes) you will see that the photo is original size.
If anyone else is having this issue, please email me at support@thebestcamera.com

[Acliffe]

Just bought the app and i've always been an avid 'mobile photographer' every since i got my first camera phone bout 5-6 years ago but i've found thanks to great apps like this on the iPhone it makes the whole process that much more fun, keep up the great work Chase what you've done is amazing creating the 3 tier ecosystem of book (which i've told my wife i want), the app and the community (which would be good to see a user login where all your shots you've uploaded too the web site are viewable with the 'recipe' and how many ppl like it).

I love the ability to add as many filters and to shuffle them in different orders to get different effects is amazing, i think the app only needs a few tweaks and add a few more filters and i think it will be the best camera app out there just remember its only just started so it can only get better.

Also keep up the brilliant work your doin Glyn, your my own stop shop website for my favourite hobby......iPhoneography, all those other iphone photography sites, especially the one run by a load of kids (everybody knows which one) should take a leaf out of your book cause ur doin a grand job :)