New iPhone Photo App: Old Photo Reel
Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 10:17PM | Glyn Evans 
Description from the AppStore: As if you are viewing set of film negative strip, FX Reel wraps 12 distinctive effects into a fresh "Reel" user interface.
By simply sliding the reel you will discover 9 creative Black and White effects, 3 Sepia effects, and 3 Cyanotype effects all with different levels of local contrast and other settings.
Tap on the image to view full size; or simply save the result to Camera Roll. Discover the side of your own photos you have never noticed before!
AppStore Link: Old Photo Reel - Price £0.59/$0.99
Editors comments: Old Photo Reel is the same app as FX Reel: Mono which I reviewed back last August 2009. From the developer of iFlashReady, which for a long time was my recommended image correction app, Old Photo Reel, like its twin, FX Reel: Mono, has a nice easy to use interface along with some nice mono results, but just like FX Reel: Mono, it saves at a pathetic 480 x 360 pixels!! When I bought this app, I was a bit skeptical, as on the face of it, it looked like a remake of FX Reel: Mono, but I had hoped for full-res support, but I was wrong and right at the same time. Wrong for thinking it would support full-res, right for thinking it was a remake of FX Reel: Mono.
I am not going to rate this app, as I feel badly let down by what used to be an excellent developer, and one that had told me they wanted to produce the best photo apps available for the iPhone. Not only do I feel let down, but as this app is nothing more that a renamed FX Reel: Mono, I also feel ripped off, so my advise would be, "don't waste your money on this app".
Reader Comments (6)
Thanks for yet another forthright and honest writeup.
I thought the exact same thing!
After a blatant renaming screw job I would suggest avoiding any & all newly released apps by Imaging Luminary all together!
SCW
My first thought was to suggest that you ask for a refund, but apparently that's not an option:
"..software download purchases are non-refundable."
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/salespolicies.html
Is that even legal?
It's the one thing Android has Apple beat well and truly, if you purchase an App from the Android Market, you can request an uninstall & refund within 24 hours of purchase. So if an app is a rip off, you don't loose out (though UK buyers were charge £1 international fee, but for US users it safeguarded them).
Apple Store needs to adopt the same policy, as the vetting of apps still leave s a lot to be desired it seems.
Glyn, thanks for this review. I did notice something odd. This app as well as another one this company put out on April 23rd, inightshot, have 5 star reviews. Very few actual written reviews, but it states on each of these apps they have 47 and 50 reviewers that gave them an average of five stars. It just seems a bit odd not one reviewer is mentioning the low res in the app store. I guess it's buyer beware, I really appreciate the fact that you, Marty, and SCW give us a heads up before we waste our money. :)
It's too bad about the low save res, as it looks like it would have been a fun app to play around with. Oh well, it's not like I'm in a photo app drought here, I should play with all the ones I already have before thinking about getting any more. And that will happen about the same time the Earth finally loses it's grip on the Moon and it floats off into space forever (probably not for a few thousand years.)