Monday
Oct102011
ProCamera, now iOS 5 ready and more
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 6:38PM | Glyn Evans 
ProCamera, one of the leading all-in-one camera replacement apps has just been updated, and is now ready for the release of iOS 5. In addition to now being iOS 5 compatible, this update also adds…
- Faster startup
- Even less shutter lag
- Even less power consumption for longer battery life
- Up to 2 hour video recording for iPhone 3GS. (Support for longer video recording on other devices coming soon)
- "Saving-Indicator" in QuickFlick Album to show that images or videos are being saved and will appear momentarily.
…along with assorted minor bug fixes.
App Store Link: ProCamera; Price: £1.99/$2.99/€2.39
tagged ProCamera in App Update
ProCamera in App Update
Reader Comments (13)
Seriously. I have no idea what the developers are thinking with that. I want to love ProCamera, but the flashing SIZE JUMPING focus box is obnoxious.
I hate photo apps that demand unnecessary attention for their UI while I'm trying to take a picture.
the different sizes make sense.
Big (in the middle) indicates that normal operation with continous adjustment of focus and exposure is in use.
Small box(es) are used if you want to measure AND LOCK the focus and exposure of a picture detail. And you can tap to focus and tap to exposure with DIFFERENT boxes. Great.
By the way its the same with the original (iOS4) camera app or apps like camera+. There are big boxes in the middle and small boxes for tap to focus. They are also blinking til they finished measurement. The only difference is that the meatured values are not saved.
I dont know if there are still older photo apps available that does not support tap to focus and are not blinking. But you will miss an important feature to get control.
And, really, can they kill the flashing? It's not subtle at all.
ProCamera has potential, but the way they've set up focus and exposure is amateur at best. It's obnoxious. Flashing garbage on my screen while I'm trying to set up and take a shot is distracting. It gets in the way instead of acting like an aid.
When I'm setting up a shot, the only one changing settings in a pro camera app should be the pro. Not the app. The whole small box / big box / flashing thing is a joke. It's clear that the app wasn't designed by photographers.
1) The boxes only flash to indicate that the camera is hunting for focus or adjusting the exposure. This is really good to know.
2) When the app is first opened the box is large and in the center of the screen to indicate that it is in the camera's default autofocus and exposure setting. Dragging the box changes it to a smaller box(es) to indicate that you are now controlling the focus and exposure points. You can drag them wherever you like and they stay there. It will not return the large box in the center of the screen unless you tap there. If you want to set a focus or exposure point near the center of the screen just drag it there, don't tap.
You may be accustomed to the tapping required by Camera+ but doesn't make ProCamera inferior. You're problems are coming from your own assumptions about how a camera app should work. Pay a little more attention to how this app actually does work. I've used both extensively and ProCamera is my preference.
Regarding Camera+
1) I find it annoying that I have to put two fingers on the screen to break up the control points.
2) I think the reticle and aperture graphics that they use as a control point are distracting. They certainly block my view of the subject more that ProCamera's simple boxes.
3) I'm still bitter that they set up a system to hack people's phones to implement a feature that Apple had explicitly rejected resulting in me losing access to app for months at a time when it was my primary camera app.
Jay, I don't use the filters in either app. It's not a "Pro" feature, I don't think ProCamera should change their name because you don't like their filters.
It flashes to acknowledge that you've chosen a focus point. It flashes to show it's focussing. It flashes more to show that it's gained focus. It flashes yellow. It flashes white. It flashes small boxes. It flashes large boxes. Holy moly, enough with the flashing.
Second, let's talk about how the UI handles tap to focus.
Try focusing just off center. Watch the box ignore you and just jump back to the giant size and begin flashing again. Why? It should stick with the small box size and focus where you told it to. Instead, the app has a rather large center area where any click makes the focus box reset, jump in size and start flashing the huge square again. The developer considers this to be a feature.
Yes, it should begin by focusing in the center, but a tap to focus should do exactly that. With ProCamera, tap to focus is ignored if you tap too close to the center of the screen. Instead, the focus box becomes huge and oh, more of the flashing. Enough with the flashing already. If I tap to focus, I want the app to give me that small box and focus. If I tap in the center, give me that small box and focus! I don't want maybe big box, maybe small box / flash flash flash.
As for Camera+, especially concerning your 3rd point: you're absolutely right. I only gave in and purchased Camera+ when I got too frustrated with ProCamera's jumping flashing boxes (also, ProCamera used to have a glitch where it took the shot slightly after a click, meaning I got a ton of bad shots - but they corrected that issue long ago).
Nothing bugs me more than unpredictable app behavior. Different size flashing boxes based on where I click is unpredictable. I end up being distracted by the flashing boxes instead of paying attention to the shot I'm trying to get.
Apple's Camera app has a similarly annoying behavior where the tap to focus box resets itself if the camera moves enough. I don't mind that sort of thing from an amateur app (and I totally understand why the app does this. The subject moved, so the app thinks I want to fix the focus point, but that means no ability to focus and reposition, which is a common technique).
I'm not saying Camera+ is perfect either. I only use it for the camera. The editor half of the app has its own silly UI issues. But, for taking pictures, it's my go-to app.
Tap to focus should always be tap to focus. Even if I click in or near the center of the screen.
The other "problem" seems to be a very special case where you would want want to position the both control locking points very close to the center of the screen. You can position them both anywhere on the screen except the center by tapping. If you were positioning the focus and exposure control points separately this wouldn't be an issue. However, the app understands a tap on the center of the screen as a request to return to autofocus/autoexposure mode. In this case, the Camera+ double-tap behavior might be a better solution. It's pretty to easy to workaround by setting the subject off-center, locking in focus/exposure on it, then recomposing the shot.
Either I rarely put my subject in the dead center of my screen, or I focus and recompose without really thinking about it. I've noticed the app's behavior regarding tapping on the center and it's honestly never been an issue for me. I can see how might be annoying if you were used to something else.