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  • Zitrr Camera is a jack-of-all-trades camera app and editor for iOS

    by 
    Mel Martin
    Mel Martin
    03.18.2013

    There are camera apps for the iPhone that claim to do it all, and some come very close. Newcomer Zitrr Camera (US$0.99, on sale through Tuesday) claims to be the only camera app you'll ever need. With a couple of caveats, it qualifies for the title. The app has a variety of useful shooting modes, including HD video, a timer mode, a burst mode (rapidly shoot frames one after the other), anti-shake software, a big button for larger controls to make shooting easier and even a barcode scanner. Zitrr Camera features 34 live effects, so rather than add them after the image is taken, you can actually set up the filter and see it applied live on your screen. This is very helpful. You can tap the screen to focus and adjust the white balance controls. The app provides a histogram, sharing with all your favorite social networks, and filters that can be applied after the fact. Zitrr Camera also creates slide shows, on-screen guides for composition and a level. That's a lot, but not everything. Zitrr camera also gives you digitally created lenses like fisheye and tilt-shift. It has a collection of frames, and photos can be titled. As you can see, there are a boatload of features in this one app. I used it to take some artsy (to me) photos of my parrot, which I have placed in the gallery. %Gallery-183065% I did have some points of confusion. Initially I thought Zitrr Camera wouldn't save photos to my Camera Roll. Eventually I found that option on the editing screen, not the sharing menu where I expected it to be. I also miss the ability to take HDR images from within the app. There is an effect called "Intense" that uses some HDR algorithms to stretch the picture and add saturation, but I would have preferred to combine multiple exposures for a true HDR effect. Also, once a photo is edited, it drops to just under 1 MP size, which is a considerable loss. Live filters preserve the original resolution, but as soon as you begin editing in the app itself the image loses data. This will be a serious limitation for some users. For casual shooting, it was not a problem. The developer tells me this issue will be resolved in a soon-to-come update. Having said that, Zitrr Camera is a terrific, well thought out camera app. For $0.99, it is a bargain, and it is on sale until Tuesday midnight ET. After that, it's $1.99. Zitrr Camera works on just about any iOS device, and is optimized for the iPhone 5. It requires iOS 5.1 or greater. I think you'll like this app, and marvel at what is included. If the app evolves to output edited images at full resolution, it will be best in class.