App review: Best Camera

Photography is one of the many ways for people to visually express themselves. The camera has gone through many phases and stages, but ever since the iPhone hit the market in 2007, it has started a new phase in photography: iPhoneography.

Even though the iPhone started out with 2 megapixels and has since gone up to 3 megapixels, it has quickly become one of the most popular ways to take a photo for those moments that can never be captured again. Sure, the megapixels aren’t a lot and thus the picture quality isn’t on par with the slew of DSLRs or even the point-n-shoots on the market, but given the right conditions, iPhone photographs can be great in their own merit.

With the introduction of the App Store, there have been an explosion of photography apps to help you make the most of your iPhone photos, and finding the right one can be difficult. But amongst all these apps, Chase Jarvis’ own Best Camera app is a gem.

If you aren’t familiar with Chase Jarvis, he’s a professional photographer that has an impressive portfolio and has entered the world of app development for the iPhone with Best Camera, which is developed under the name of Ubermind, who has several other applications.

The concept of Best Camera is simple: it’s actually based on Jarvis’ own book, “The Best Camera Is The One With You,” that features a collection of his own iPhone photography. Jarvis believes that it doesn’t matter what camera you have with you, as long as it’s with you, it really is the best camera to capture those special moments. And with the iPhone, since those that have it are more than likely to have it with them all the time, the reality is that the iPhone is one of our best cameras.

The app itself is simple: you can either take a photo with the app or pull one from your Camera Roll. If you take a photo with the app, the original can be saved up to its full resolution in the Camera Roll. Once you get a photo going, you’ll see 14 icons on a ‘dock’ at the bottom of the screen – these are your effects.

The first four are stylized lenses – Jewel, Paris, Slate, and Candy. These are considered some of Jarvis’ specialties that he uses in his photography portfolio, so with this app he brings them to the user. The next two are to either lighten or darken the entire photo, which can be repeated until the desired effect is achieved. Then there is Fade, which gives the photo an ‘old’ look to it. Then there’s Contrast, Warm, Cool, and Desaturate to change the tone of the photo. The Vignette filter gives it the darkened edges to focus on the center of the image. The last two are Square (which is essentially a crop) and Frame, which places a simple white border around the image.

If you change your mind on a filter, there’s a button with two circles in the top right corner. Tapping this button will show the currently used filters on the dock instead of all available filters. Each filter will have an X in the corner so they can easily be deleted.

Now that you’re done with your art, how do you get it out there? Well, Best Camera has you covered. It has social network integration with Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. Jarvis’ even has his own social site that is dedicated for Best Camera users. This site, thebestcamera.com, shows the filters in the order that you’ve used them, so that other Best Camera users can see how you achieved the effects on a photo. The other options to share your photo is by in-app email, or save it to your Camera Roll.

Going back on thebestcamera.com, there is even a button in the app that loads up a 4×3 collage of Best Camera photos, either Recent or Popular. The images will change one-by-one after a few seconds, so it’s more than likely you’ll find a particular photo that will strike your eye, and perhaps even inspire you. If you find a photo you like, tap it and you can view it full-screen. You can give it a thumbs up or block it if you find it inappropriate. There’s also an Info button that allows you to view the bio of the photographer.

Overall, this is a good photo app for your iPhone. It may be limited in terms of filters and effects, and gives you no control on the colors once the effects have been applied. However, the UI is gorgeous and there is even a social site for these specific users, so it has that sense of community, albeit a small one compared to others. The effects may be limited, but they still do make photos stand out. Personally, I use this app as the base app for my iPhoneography – I refine the images with other apps after this one. This app is also great for those that are just wanting a quick fix to creating fantastic looking iPhone photos – those that don’t particularly care for precise color, brightness, saturation, and exposure control.

The price of $2.99 may seem high, but I’ve found myself using this app every single day. Well worth the price tag if you want good looking iPhone photos.

Learn more about Best Camera for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

About Christine Chan

Christine Chan is a Senior Editor for Beatweek Magazine. Her editorial contributions include reviews of iPhone apps and iPod nano accessories.