New iPhone Photo App: Hot Shots Digital Camera
Monday, May 17, 2010 at 10:00AM | Glyn Evans 
Description from the AppStore: Face Detection, Double Exposure, High Speed Burst, Filters, Self Timer, Digital Zoom, Sharing to Facebook & Email and more.
Use the FACE DETECTION feature to automatically take a picture when a face is detected. This is a great way to capture shots of children and anyone else that moves too quick for your finger to react when they look at the camera.
Take SELF PORTRAITS using the face detection feature by turning on face detection and the self timer and pointing the camera back at yourself. The camera will only take a picture if your entire face is in the picture.
Use the DOUBLE EXPOSURE feature to take one photo and using the live preview, overlay another photo on top of it.
Use the SPECIAL EFFECTS FILTERS to get creative with your pictures. The special effects filters include:
- Black & White
- Sepia Tone
- Inverted Image
- Brighten (Flash)
- High Contrast
- Soft Focus
- Grain Effect
- Mosaic
FILTERS can be overlaid on top of each other for even more special effects, for example, use Black & White, High Contrast and Grain Effect for a GothPix style photo.
Finally, after you're done creating your masterpiece you may upload the picture to your Facebook account with built-in Facebook sharing or use the built-in email composer to send your pictures.
COMING SOON: Crop, Sharpen, Apply filters after image capture, Share to Twitter and Flickr.
AppStore Link: Hot Shots Digital Camera - Price £0.59/$0.99
Editors comments: This is a pretty nice camera replacement app, that saves at full-res (1600x1200) on the iPhone 3G (not sure about the 3GS), even when shooting in burst and double exposure modes you get full-res. The most surprising thing for me, was the app saves at full-res when using the zoom function, although the resulting image is not really any more usable than those from a low-res zoom app.
All the features work well, although the self-portrait mode does not center your face, which is a shame.
The only feature I do not like is the "Special Effects Filters", but that aside, this is an interesting app that has a lot to offer, so if you're still looking for that camera replacement app, then this could be it.
If you decide to give this app a go, then don't forget to come back and let us know what you think.
Reader Comments (3)
Saving at full resolution in zoom mode is a tactic many devs use called upsampling. It is basically zooming & then at save enlarging the smaller cropped/zoomed image to the users specific or default sizing.
*On a side note....
I noticed a while ago that many apps we like & have praised. Either on released or after requesting full res support, have instead used this "upsampling" method rather than learn how to code & activate true full resolution support. So it gets harder & harder to trust developers or app results when under the hood the app could be just enlarging your original small image to get your desired result.
This app isn't worth much, unfortunately. I can't locate the place to adjust the settings, only the filters. The quality of the zoom is just not there. The zoom slider isn't very sensative and can take the user from far to EXTREMECLOSEUPOMG with out much effort. The filters are nice, but there's nothing there that just wow'ed me.
I just haven't found a replacement camera app that I've enjoyed more than ProCamera.
** I forgot to add: I was unsucessful in getting the face detection to work. That was a real shame, as it was the feature that drew me in to try this app in the first place. With a kidlet about to turn two, having an app that could self detect her smile (which could be gone before I can snap the shot - this kid hardly ever sits still) was an attractive option **