Verdict
Camera Awesome has been a big hit on the iPhone, but now SmugMug, the developer, has finally gotten around to updating the app with native iPad support. As you can probable guess from the name, Camera Awesome is essentially a direct replacement for your iPhone or iPad’s native camera app and offers more shooting modes as well as lots of editing and effects features.
For example, it helps you to better compose your shots by including a visual horizontal level as well as various grid overlays. You can separately set exposure and focus settings by tapping with two fingers on the screen and there’s also a pop out menu on the right of the viewfinder that lets you choose fast and slow burst modes, turn on the image stabiliser or activate the shot timer. You can even set the app up to take photos at set intervals ranging from one second to one minute.
Where the iPad version wins over the iPhone one is when it comes to tweaking the shots you’ve taken, as the larger screen makes editing much less fiddly. The central editing feature remains the ‘Awesomeize’ button. Tap this and the app will automatically adjust stuff like contrast and colour temperature to produce a punchier image. However, you can also take manual control and use the sliders to tweak the sharpness, temperature, vibrance and contrast settings yourself.
As you’d expect, you can use the app to crop images and it’s neat the way it includes crop presets for aspect ratios like 16×9 and 4×6. There’s also an abundance of effects, filters, textures and frames that you can add to your photo. Some of these are provided for free, while others are available as in-app purchases. You can buy these either as sets for between 69p and £2.49, or buy all of them in one go for £6.99. However, there are probably enough provided as standard that most people probably won’t feel the need to shell out for more.
The sharing features are neat too, as once you’ve entered your log-in details you can do one tap sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and SmugMug’s own photo-sharing service. The only real negative is that the app lacks a stitching mode to allow you to quickly create panoramas.
Camera Awesome Verdict
If you’re looking for an alternative to your iPhone or iPad’s camera app, with decent effects and great sharing options, then Camera Awesome is definitely worth checking out. We just wish it was a little bit quicker at applying the Awesomeize feature and had a panorama mode.
Trusted Score
Score in detail
-
Usability 8
-
Design 7
-
Value 9
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Features 7
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Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
