New iPhone Photo App: QuickCam

"If the stats don't impress, and the user interface does not appeal, then the rapid fire will blow your mind away." - Editor

App Store Description: If you still use the default camera, QuickCam is for you. Default camera simplicity with pro camera performance!

Features:

• 200% faster than the default camera
• Simple rapid capture - hold the still button!
• Take photos WHILE taking video!
• Easier controls (zoom, flashlight, auto-flash)
• Saves directly to the camera roll with no waiting!
• Pinch to zoom (infinite zoom)
• Single tap to set focus/exposure
• Double tap to set exposure separately
• Triple tap to reset zoom/focus/exposure
• Fully multi-tasking aware

QuickCam and Stock Camera Stats:

App startup time:
Stock Camera: ~2.5sec
QuickCam: < 1 sec

Minimum time between pictures:
Stock Camera: > 1 sec
QuickCam: ~0.6 sec

Burst rate for stills (iPhone 4):
Stock Camera: Not available
QuickCam: ~2fps back cam, ~5fps front cam (hold the still button)

Time to switch from photo to video mode:
Stock Camera: ~1.8sec
QuickCam: Not required / automatic

App Store Link: QuickCam; Price: £0.59/$0.99/€0.79

Editors comments: This is not a "pro camera" replacement app, but a simple and easy to use camera replacement app for the rest of us. With full-res* support, quick launch, rapid fire and ability to capture photos whilst still shooting a video, this app could well replace the iPhones default camera app for many people.

If the stats don't impress, and the user interface does not appeal, then the rapid fire will blow your mind away. Launch this app, touch to focus and then just hold your finger on the camera icon, and this app will capture full-res images faster than any other rapid fire camera app [see sample shots below].

Above: If you look closely, you will see a small jet taken off. I apologies for the size of the airplane, but it was the closest I could get at the time, but this series of shots show just what this app is capable of.

*Photos captured whilst zooming and shooting video are saved at a reduced resolution.

Comments

[Draigg]

It's almost TOO fast! This will take some getting used to!

[Alex]

Do any of these non-stock camera apps take advantage of the iPhones HDR capabilities?
While HDR on the stock camera app is nothing special, it DOES look better than without the HDR.
But none of these other camera apps mention if they make use of it or not.... Sometimes I just wanna take a photo, and not have to worry about loading it up in a separate app just to apply some minor HDR effects (though I do like Dynamic Light...)

[Josh]

Hi Guys - I'm the developer and wanted to respond to your comments. First, Draigg - it is almost too fast in some cases isn't it? I assume you are on an iPod Touch? Same goes for the iPad 2. Sometimes hard to take just one picture on those devices! But that won't be slowing down anytime soon, sorry ;-)

Regarding HDR Alex, I'd like it too and maybe one day we'll get it in there. It's a little tricky because of API limitations but could be done with some fancy engineering. For now, I'd recommend either using the default camera purely for HDR appropriate situations, or going with ProHDR if you don't mind a little extra processing time. Those guys really did get it right. It's far superior to the default camera at the expense of a little extra time on your part.

Thanks! Hope you enjoy QuickCam :-)

Josh

[Shadow.]

It's really nice the dev turned up :)

It doesn't load fast under 1 second for me :P

I hope you read reviews in iTunes, they speak volumes (better looking buttons are much needed)

One question however, you save as 720x1280, how do you do this when apple does not?

Quickfire is just amazing, it really is

Video shooting quality can be improved (doesn't look like 720p)

With a few minor tweaks, this IS my camera replacement app.

Also, non-auto shooting video would be appreciated.

[li]

does quickcam support 3gs?

[Josh]

Hi li - We do support 3GS. Keep in mind you do not have a front cam or a light, so the difference is that all the buttons on the top of the UI disappear. My wife has a 3GS and uses it all the time - of course she's biased, but definitely I tried to look out for you guys. Give it a try for $0.99. If you aren't happy let me know and I'll buy you a beer :-)

Cheers,
Josh

[Richard]

I really like this app's speed and am now using it as my main camera. I don't particularly care what the buttons look like- they work and after all I'm taking pictures not admiring the interface.

Glyn what did you animate your sequence of images in?
Richard

[Glyn Evans]

@Richard, I used an online gif creator

[Pearl Hsia]

Do you have a Facebook fan page or account that I can like or add so I can be updated with our posts? Thanks!

[pete]

aside from the initial startup, the app is quite zippy! I would prefer the UI to be tweaked a bit, and I would love to see a little button that takes me to the camera roll. But all-in-all, this is a very cool app and will likely replace many of of the other camera apps on my iPhone!

[Josh]

Hi Shadow - The dev here again. Sorry for the delay. Posted yesterday but something went wrong. Anyway, what device are you on? The first time you start the app there should be a delay. After that it should be very fast. If you are killing the app from your taskbar, I'd recommend you don't. Apple's multi-tasking is very good now and there really isn't much, if any, reason to do that.

Regarding our 1280x720 pictures - you are on an iPod Touch I assume? The sensor is 1280x720 and we take advantage of that to increase resolution on that device (when capturing while taking a video).

Regarding the UI, yep we know it's ugly. We here you! We are engineers first, graphics designers 8th or 9th at best. Look for an improvement to that in an update soon.

Thanks for your support and email me at twoteethtech at gmail.com with any questions.

Thanks!
Josh

[Shadow.]

Thanks very much fir the reply.

I am on iPod touch (4th gen), and fresh run takes about 5 seconds.

Super quick from multi tasking, however, I personally dont like leaving apps running in background, but I hear you too, I'll just leave it in background.

But for those really important shots, you just want to load as fast as you can.

Anothet cool feature I suggest is auto shoot, when you open app, it begins shooting for you.

[Myr]

Bought this app thanks to Glyn's review. It's quite a nifty piece of app I have to say! An inconvenience I have with it though, is that I cannot review pictures from the app itself, unlike the native cam app. I'd rather have the zoom bar replaced with an option to view previously taken pics. Til then, I guess I'll still use the native cam for normal pics and use this app when I need to take pictures of restless pets.