Saycheezzz responds to my comments about King Camera's speed issues

Following my comments in the previous about version 1.03 of King Camera and the shutter lag/delay problems, the developers Saycheezzz have posted the following video response.

The video does indeed show the speed improvements that I had expected to see, however, for what ever reason, am not seeing on my iPhone 4.

I carried out some non scientific tests, comparing King Camera 1.03 with two of its competitors and the native camera app itself.

The test I carried out, was to take one photo approximately every second, over a 10 second period, tapping the shutter 10x.

With the native app, I captured on average 6 shots, with the 2 competitors I captured 6 and 10 shots respectively, but with King Camera 1.03 just 4 shots [an average of 1 every 2 seconds]. I then decided to roll back to King Camera version 1.02 [as I no longer had anything older], and ran the same test. This time was able to capture 6 shots, the same as the native camera app.

Originally I was not going to post these test results and comments, but as my integrity has been put in to question by some, and following comments in the previous post, it would appear that I'm not alone, and this is not an isolated case, as there are others like @Tomba and the well known beta tester @Mr Timney who are also experiencing this shutter lag/delay.

Whilst this may only be affect a small number of the apps users, there clearly is a problem somewhere, so if you are one of those affected, then I urge you to tells the developers via their support page http://www.saycheezzz.com/contact-support/

Comments

[Mr Timney]

I just noticed Glyn has posted this new post discussing the issue of speed, when taking multiple shots one after the other. So I did a handful of tests 3 different ways.

1. testing using the iPhones default camera
2. testing King Camera using the default button (no setting tweaks)
3. testing King Camera using the "BIG" camera button option that utilizes the whole screen as a shutter button (no other setting tweaks)

I did all of the above each a handful of times & each time, tapping the button or screen 10 times to give a better average.

1. iPhones default camera saved & generated 7 photos out of the 10 times I repeatedly tapped the button during a 10 second period.

2. King Camera default button & got a steady result of 5 photos out of the 10 times I repeatedly tapped the button during a 10 second period.

3. King Camera using the "BIG" button option (using the entire screen as a shutter button), and my results were mixed. I got 5, then 6 alternating results out of the 10 times I repeatedly tapped the screen during a 10 second period. So I will round up & go with the 6 out of 10 times.

This proves to me still even more clearly why I always use the default iPhone camera to capture photo & post process whenever possible.

The iPhone's default camera with no settings or tweaks to be had gave me a higher result that both options in King Camera over the same 10 second period trying to capture as many photos as possible.

So if we average the two using King Camera we are pretty close to a 2 second delay.

But I am more that willing & open to help & test to bring the speeds up to users likings, as well as the other post processing side of things too. Overall it's a good app, it's just not showing me that it's doing what others have claimed in faster speeds.

[Fredrik Nilsson]

I'm afraid this is a discussion you cannot win. I have the same issues as you do in the majority of the tests I've done on my phone, but every now and then it behaves as promised. I'd say it's better to drop the discussion. If the creator doesn't believe it's customers then it's better to let it all pass.

If I remember correctly we a had a discussion a few months back regarding the Perfectly Clear app, but that might have been on Marty’s site. I claimed that Perfectly Clear’s recent updates were so bad that I thought you should begin covering a few of its competitors. You on the other hand wanted to wait before the current revision came before passing a judgement on the app. So in that case you got critics for not saying too loud

Even if I wasn’t involved at that time, there was also a discussion regarding the comments about one of the update for the ShakeIt Photo app.

My point is that there will always be those that the either love your comments and those that don’t. If a person doesn’t like your articles, they are free to avoid them. I know that I will continue to read the articles, but I also know that I won’t always agree with your opinion at all times.

I also know that King Camera has better bring something extremely good to get its place back at my iphone. A company that spends more time arguing with critics isn’t worth supporting.

[Glyn Evans]

@Fredrik Nilsson. Thank you for your comments, and you are right, there was a discussion here http://www.iphoneography.com/journal/tag/perfectly-clear on the blog regarding the Perfectly Clear update that had major problems, and continues to do so, however rather than arguing with the developers, I worked with them, and continue to do so, in identifying the problem and testing their betas to destruction, and later this year a version that is as good as the old should hit the App Store.

Sadly, not all developers like my comments, and this can, and has caused friction and heated debates here on the blog.

[JAG]

I was intrigued by this discussion of the lag in the shutter, so I did my own comparison. In my tests, I just repeatedly pressed the shutter button for 10 seconds to see what I would get. I tested my go-to camera/editing apps. I counted the number of total thumbs rendered and the time it took to render all thumbs. Here are my unscientific findings.

King Camera = 7 pics 29 seconds; and 8 pics 32 seconds (two trials)
CameraGenius = 5 pics 41 seconds
ProCamera = 14 pics 25 seconds
Camera+ = 16 pics 12 seconds

I did not test the stock camera app or QuickPix (or others) since these other apps have either a lack of features or some other flaw in the features that I would never use them. The apps tested were the ones I think have the best camera app combined with photo editing features in one app. I did not account for whether the rapid fire photos taken were in fact full res or some reduced res. I haven't taken the time to research this yet and this could obviously be a factor in the times noted above. Anyone have info on this for these apps?

[JAG]

UPDATE:

As far as I can tell, the camera/editing apps tested in my previous post all shoot full res except for Camera+ that shoots a disappointingly low 480X640 in its rapid fire mode (burst mode). In ProCamera, I used the Rapid Fire mode, which was the most impressive in terms of quickness and quality. Unfortunately, the photo editing features are not as good as Camera+ or CameraGenius. Still in search of the perfect mix of all camera and photo editing features. Who will get it right....first?!

[Shadow.]

King camera wins the award for the longest app on my iPod to start up.

It's so bad it's funny. The developers just can't and haven't got it right.

Let's hope they do so soon, otherwise this looks like a bit of a flop

And you Glyn were hyping this app a while a go I remember :P not so much now eh?

[Glyn Evans]

OK, this will be the last comment I make on the King Camera shutter lag/delay issue that I have raised here on the blog. The reason for this final comment from me, is that I want to address my critics, and set thing straight about my comments.

First up, I have not, and, am not slating this app because of any relationship I may have with other developers, competing app or not, this is something I have never done, nor will ever do, I have more integrity than that.

There was a comment made about me getting my facts right before posting my opinion. Well in response to that, if you have read my 2 part review of King Camera version 1.0, then you will know that I gave the app 5 stars (yes that right 5 stars) for the camera features, but due to the 4 second lag/delay between shots, I only gave the camera app an overall 3 star rating.

The developers recognized this as an issue and accepted my criticism, which they addressed and resolved in version 1.01 of King Camera, with shutter lag being around 1.5 seconds between shots, which was on par with other camera replacement apps. At the time of the 1.01 release I commented by saying "this update addresses and fixes one of my key criticisms, the time lag between shots, although it does still take a long time to process rapidly taken shots".

When 1.03 hit the App Store, I was excited by Yanik's statement on their promo video, where he said of the shutter button, and I quote, "it's almost instantaneous now, it used to be around 2 to 3 seconds between shots, but now its almost instantaneous, you can take as many shots as you want and you're sure not to miss out on that shot"

This was clearly not the case on my iPhone, no instantaneous shutter for me, so I ran a couple of quick tests, and found the shutter on the 1.03 update was slower than the 1.01 and 1.02 updates, and not instantaneous as promised, and hence my comments.

Understandably the developers were not happy with my comments, but as can be read in the comments of this and other King Camera posts, I was not the only one experiencing this same issue, and sadly before I had chance to email video evidence of the problem, the devs posted a video response to my claims, and the bun fight ensued.

The bottom line is, King Camera is not a bad app, after all if it was, I would not have given it the ratings I did, but 1.03 has a problem, a problem that is not exclusive to me, and one that should and must be addressed, if this app is to succeed.