Salutations and welcome back, denizens of the interwebs!
It's been a short while since we revisited our ongoing blog series on the continuing evolution of cellular telephones, smartphones and tablets as cameras.
There was a day not so very long ago when the camera your cellular telephone was equipped with was of heinous quality, a paradox to operate and just downright your "last resort".
Today, the quality of some device cameras can rival that of consumer grade point & shoot digital cameras; not to mention smartphones and tablets allow us myriad applications on all platforms to further increase the intricacy and depth of those images.
It is in this regard we give you Pt. IV of our ongoing series; Your Cell Phone as a Camera
Last time we reviewed RedGiant Software's Plastic Bullet for iOS and Action Snap on the ANDROID platform.
Today we'll look at another pair of apps for ANDROID users: Pudding Cam from KTH and LemeLeme from Momo Travel Consulting Inc.
Pudding Cam by KTH
Pudding cam has a few things going for it and a few things it lost somewhere on its way to where it is now. It has one of the friendliest and cleanest interfaces of any ANDROID platform camera app I've yet used. It has some really great looks built into it, albeit, rather limited.
Allow me to elaborate, friends.
As you can see from the image above, 'sharp and clean' are words that can certainly be used to describe the interface. Now, not that we set out in this blog to deprecate the well intent and programming savvy of those designing these free apps, but there comes a time when we must move on to all that is wrong in the world...or at least this app. Pudding Cam only really features as many camera emulators and film stocks as you see pictured above. In total there are seven cameras and eight stocks; featuring some that are practical and somewhat faithfully represent the real thing, others that are best avoided. All in all there are 56 combinations and when you stack that against some of the other free camera apps out there it gets lost in the crowd. Especially when, even on an 8mp device [I'm currently utilizing the DROID BIONIC from Motorola] the images turn out something like this...
In the interest of full disclosure, these are fairly high resolution screen captures from my ANDROID device utilizing ASnap [Thanks to CircleSoft Apps for this great utility!]. Anyway, Pudding Cam has no adjustment to cater to devices boasting higher resolutions. It does have a three setting resolution adjustment for the images themselves but this does little to help in the quality department. In fact, while shooting the latter of the two images on the largest resolution setting on the app, it crashed twice due to 'insufficient memory'. Sorry, but not on the BIONIC.
I would recommend this app for anyone interested in trying out all of the growing collection of apps out there, but for the serious photographer that seriously likes to play with their cell phone camera, I wouldn't gamble never getting back the 15 minutes of your life it takes to download and futz with.
LemeLeme by Momo Travel Consulting Inc.
I suppose it's most poignant to state that not only is LemeLeme in a constant state of transition [currently known as Leme Camera on the iOS platform] but that is was originally programmed for iOS and has only recently made the transition to ANDROID. The ANDROID version of this app does not boast the flexibility and selection of effects, lenses and filters that the iOS version does and users are limited to a small satchel full of preset filters. The interface is typical for apps of this variety and neither adds nor detracts from the overall experience.
As you can see from the image above, LemeLeme features a bit of vintage-esque styling with its interface; I can appreciate that. I cannot speak for the iOS version of the app but in the ANDROID version, filters are chosen after image capture rather than prior to. This has its pitfalls as you have no real way to preview how a particular look will fit your framing and composition. That leads me to the next interesting quirk. LemeLeme likes to save every look you apply to your original image. "What do you mean by that, Andrew?" you may inquire. Well, if you want to preview all of the seventeen filters and twelve border mods, you now have twenty-nine images stored on your device; "Uh Oh!" you exclaim.
Don't get me wrong, I dig this app for what it's worth [and it was free]. I do believe if the folk[s] at Momo Travel Consulting continue to develop this app for the ANDROID platform and it ever reaches the depth the iOS version has, it may be a real contender in the protracted tech war that is mobile device development.
Yay. Pictures.
I would strongly encourage you all to get out and take a look at these apps, play with them, push their limits, suggest improvements to the developers and share your images with us by submitting them to our Who Needs A Camera mission. Check the 'Missions' tab on our homepage for the full list of active missions and updated descriptions.
Thanks for Reading & Happy Shooting!
Andrew
Don't get me wrong, I dig this app for what it's worth [and it was free]. I do believe if the folk[s] at Momo Travel Consulting continue to develop this app for the ANDROID platform and it ever reaches the depth the iOS version has, it may be a real contender in the protracted tech war that is mobile device development.
Yay. Pictures.
I would strongly encourage you all to get out and take a look at these apps, play with them, push their limits, suggest improvements to the developers and share your images with us by submitting them to our Who Needs A Camera mission. Check the 'Missions' tab on our homepage for the full list of active missions and updated descriptions.
Thanks for Reading & Happy Shooting!
Andrew
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