Review: Camera Plus has some unique features to make your iPhone photography better
Camera Plus (not to be confused with the best-selling and excellent app Camera +) is a US$0.99 (on sale for a limited time) app that offers nice control of your photography both before and after you snap your pictures.
The app offers three focus modes: Macro, Normal and Far. You can lock your focus once it is set. Another clever feature is "Lumy," an exposure slider you can see in the main live screen. It increases luminance in low light, and keeps the noise down. Another nice function is called Pix'd. Basically, it's an automatic tweaking feature for color, contrast and brightness. A lot of auto-enhance features don't work very well. Pix'd does a nice job. It's used after you take your photo, rather than before.
The app also offers a stabilization mode, burst mode, timer controlled photos, the ability to use the volume buttons on the phone to snap a photo and optional geo-tagging. The app also supports video and you can select your resolution as either full-res or 480p.
Photos can be shared via Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Twitter, iMessage and Mail.
I gave the app a spin in the neighborhood. I was happy with the performance and appreciated nice little touches like an on-screen level indicator that helped me get my horizon straight. The focus modes were quick and accurate. The Pix'd feature did help most of my images, and it did not go overboard and kept them looking natural without overdriving saturation. Although you can cancel the Pix'd effect without saving, I would have liked to have seen a split-screen look at before and after, or a quick revert button for comparisons.
The app does not have any HDR capabilities, which is a negative for the way I use my camera. It does have some useful editing tools, but they are a bit hidden. When you open the app's camera roll, you hold your finger down on the image you want to edit. You'll find tools for cropping, color adjustments and image flip / rotation. You can also enter edit mode when you are in the Pix'd editor. You can edit other photos from your camera roll not taken in Camera Plus, but some panoramas I took were deemed too large to open.
Camera Plus is quick and produces images as good as other top-tier photo apps. While not overflowing with seldom-used features, it has what you need to take excellent photos by providing tools to help you align, focus and compose your images. The Pix'd feature is the best post-photo feature. It does the job well, and there are also other basic image editing tools.
Camera Plus is not a universal app, and it requires iOS 7 or greater. It's optimized for the iPhone 5. The app gets excellent reviews from users, and I agree this is a well-done camera app.
