Camera+ has just had another update with improved usability of the "Touch Exposure and Touch Focus" feature, as well as a whole bunch of bug fixes.
So what's new.
greatly improved usability of our exclusive Touch Exposure and Touch Focus features so that you can now move around the controls once you lift your fingers, hopefully resulting in far fewer cases of pretzel-finger
fixed a bug where the camera shutter button would stop functioning
fixed a bug where double flash & flip controls would appear in the camera screen
fixed a bug where there was a dead area with Touch Exposure and Touch Focus
fixed a bug where the main screen shutter button wasn’t working
fixed a bug where copying photos that were zoomed would result in unzoomed photos when pasting them
fixed a bug where Touch Exposure and Touch Focus were using incorrect touch points if the camera was zoomed
increased maximum zoom amount to 6× “You want the zoom? You Can’t handle the zoom!”
various minor bug fixes and enhancements
If you have an iPhone 4 and don't already have this app, then I seriously recommend that you check it out, you won't be disappointed.
Ever been at a concert and wished your friends could experience the atmosphere with you? Ever been on a mountain top and wished your family could experience the same view? Ever thought "they've got to see this!" but simply taking a picture was not enough? Share your experiences with unique images taken in a unique way with your iPhone 4 and "You Gotta See This!" Read on to learn how it works...
Simply start the recording in "You Gotta See This!", swipe the scene up, down, left and right with the camera and share the image created by one of the six amazing themes on Twitter, Facebook or by email. Or simply save it to your camera roll for later presentation.
The app creates collages of images that you take by slowly moving the camera around in 3D space. The resulting images are somewhat similar to what is called "panography" or "Hockneyesque" (after the artist David Hockney).
"You Gotta See This!" uses the iPhone 4 gyroscope to determine the camera orientation while you record and positions the images it takes accordingly on a flat surface to create the spacial collages.
iPhone 4 ONLY
AppStore Link: You Gotta See This! - Price: £1.79/$1.99/€1.59
Editors comments: The video above and the blurb from the developers website tells you all you need to know about this app, which is easy to use, and lets you create photo collage's in the style of David Hockney, right on your iPhone.
The photos are saved at various resolutions depending on the style/layout that you choose, but all are acceptable, and the app has a few settings that can tweak; these are:
The camera, which can be switch from the main (back) or the front facing camera.
The iPhone 4 flash, which can be switched on or off.
The focus and exposure, which can be left on auto or locked.
Verdict
This is a nice, easy to use app that lets you create good looking photo collages right on your iPhone, and if you are a fan of that David Hockney style, then this is a must have app, and gets a 4 star rating from me.
Description from the AppStore: Eraser Camera is a iPhone application that erases the moving objects in taking a photo.
Have you ever wanted to remove the person who just passed by, when you take a picture at the tourist's spot or the place of good scenery?
When you take a photo of specific person, have not wanted to remove other people or cars in the background?
With normal camera, you have to wait for people to pass by, however if you use Eraser Camera, you do not need to wait, Eraser Camera will erase them for you.
Eraser camera takes two consecutive photos, and by analyzing them, it recognize the moving objects and removes them.
The principle of Eraser Camera is to overwrite only the required parts in the two photos.
Features:
Automatically remove moving objects.
Manually remove moving objects.
Up to 15 seconds delayed timer.
Interval of 0.6 sec, 0.8 sec or 1.0 sec between each photo.
Please note: I have edited the above AppStore description, as the original translation was a little poor.
Editors comments: Eraser Camera is a simple app to use, and has the potential to be one of the best object removal apps for the iPhone but the developer has some things to sort out first.
The App
The app is simple to use, and after the apps launch page you are presented with a simple interface that at its heart has a large shutter button to press to take your photo.
There are a minimal set of in app settings allowing you to set a delay of up to 15 seconds before the app takes its photo, and an interval of 0.6 seconds, 0.8 seconds or 1.0 second between each of the 2 photos this app takes.
Eraser Camera does not harness the features of either the iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS, offering only basic camera functions, there is no flash, zoom or touch-to-focus support here, and no full-res support on the iPhone 4. That said, what it does, it does quite well.
Eraser Camera takes 2 consecutive photos with a delay between each, then it compares the 2 photos, merging them together to make the final photo, and in the process removes any moving object the app detects. This automatic removal feature does not always work, so the developer has included a manual option, whereby you select each of the 2 photos in turn and use your finger to erase the unwanted object/objects, and then merges them together with the object removed.
Above: Screen shot showing a passer-byAbove: The merged photo with no passer-by
So what do I think of Eraser Camera?
Overall I was quite impressed, and this app definitely has potential, although it does have one very big bug. In testing I found that every time I took a photo in landscape mode, the app would crash while processing the 2 images, however in portrait mode this did not seem to be a problem on my iPhone 4.
If the developer can resolve this crashing problem, increase the resolution and even allow for more than 2 photos to be taken and merged, then this app could easily become a 5 star app, but as it currently stands, it only gets 3 stars from me.
Description from the AppStore: Capturing panoramas has never been easier! Just tap the screen and pan your phone camera in any direction. You'll see your panorama being built in realtime as our computer vision-based system analyzes every incoming image. When you're done, you can save your panorama instantly to the Camera Roll, no need to wait for it to stitch. There is nothing else like it!
Features:
Realtime panorama creation
Create full 360 degree panoramas in under 20 seconds
Instantly save to the Camera Roll - no waiting for image stitching
Fully supports the new iPhone 4 Retina display and gyros
Uses brand new iOS 4 Camera APIs
Requires iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 due to high-speed video processing.
Editors comments: This app uses a different approach to most other panoramic apps, in that it stitches as it go's.
The app is easy enough to use, however for me the results are little hit and miss, and are not as clean as using an app like AutoStitch.
During testing there were occasions when the app left a gap between the stitching, rendering the pano useless.
Verdict
Overall I found this app very disappointing, with the image quality well below that of AutoStitch, and despite its unique approach to creating a panoramic, it comes nowhere near to knocking AutoStitch off its perch.
Editors comments: This app offers a unique way to create those old and retro looking photos, but...
...please read on!!
The App
Launch the app and you have 3 obvious options to choose, load a photo from your photo album, take a photo, or save. It is not obvious where or how you select your time-zone until you tap the i icon, and then you are presented with your date selector.
Having selected your date and loaded a photo your old/retro looking photo appears, however this is where the bugs begin to show. If you load a portrait photo, for some reason it will load that photo in landscape, squishing the photo, and rendering it useless. Also if you do not like the look of the selected date/effect, and decide to select a different date, you have to reload the photo!!
Having selected a date, loaded a photo and are happy with the effect, you simply save the photo, however there is no indication that the photo has saved!!
Next we have the saved file size. Now remember this is an iOS 4 only app, so 2 to 5 megapixels. Imagine my surprise when the saved photo was a useless 300 x 400 pixels!!
So what do I think of TimeCamera for iPhone?
I like the idea of using a date selection process, as this makes the app different from other apps in this category, the orientation bug is annoying, but I am sure will be easily fixed, however the low-res output for any iPhone app is appalling, and so this app only just gets a 1 star rating from me.
Note to the developer: If you resolve the above bugs and output size, then this app could easily become a 4 star app, but as it currently stands, I can not recommend this app to anyone.
Monday, August 2, 2010 at 9:37PM | 
