(Not Boring) Camera - a review
TL;DR
Interesting idea for a "pro"-level subscription-based app that, with some very odd design choices, doesn't offer a trial. No thanks.
I've been hearing a ton about this iPhone app over the last couple of months. It seems to be a new darling among the photography apps along with mood.camera. !Camera and mood subscribe to the original Hipstamatic idea of choosing a "look" (as they're called now. "filter" apparently is too old school) and taking pictures -- no editing allowed. Both also claim to have a custom image processing pipeline to make their default shots look more film-like vs. the alleged over-processed images coming out of the default camera app.
Image processing pipeline
At the end of the day the most important part of any camera app is the images it produces. As noted above !Camera has a custom image processing pipeline for their own take on what makes a good image. They call it "Super RAW" and say on their website:
No more flat lifeless photos, no AI processing, no weird artifacts. Our SuperRaw™ photo processing has been crafted to showcase more film-like tones and preserve a photo's beautiful natural grain.
On X the app's creator, Andy Allen, says:
How do we make the grain in !Camera photos look so good? It's 100% natural. Our SuperRaw format preserves the beautiful, natural grain straight off the camera sensor. No need to ever add fake grain again.
Odd wording there as there is no such thing as "natural grain". Digital cameras all have noise, not grain, and there is nothing beautiful about it. Grain is an analog film thing that exists because of how real film is made. All modern photo editing apps on the iPhone have a grain control but some, like !Camera, make it part of the image processing when a photo is taken.
A tangent…
Just a bit of a tangent here about processing in the default camera app on the iPhone because I think it's warranted. The RAW data coming off an image sensor looks like crap, that's why there is a lot of processing done between when the photo is taken and the result is saved. In the case of Apple there is a lot of machine learning-based processing that happens to make photos most people want to see. These other apps replace (some?) of that pipeline with their own to make their own choices as to what that image ultimately looks like. Apple itself now has "styles" to modify the pipeline to change the processing, I assume as a response to the complaints about their heavy-handed processing of previous iPhones.
User interface
The user interface for !Camera can be described as "plastic toy" which seems like an odd choice for what is termed a "pro camera" in the app description. I have to admit that the interface is fun with excellent haptic feedback from all of the controls. In my opinion it is a modern take on the original Hipstamatic app and fun to use and manipulate.
Like Hipstamatic before it you can customize the look of the camera case. Hipstamatic had (has actually as it is still alive and well) preset camera cases you could choose. !Camera takes that a step further by letting you choose the colors yourself if the presets available aren't to your liking.
I have to say that this part of the app is a bit odd to me. Who is this app trying to appeal to? I don't see people who really care about being able to set the colors of their virtual camera case really caring about "SuperRAW", etc. On the flip side I don't see people who really care about the image processing and manual controls caring about the virtual camera case. Personally I find it fun but very gimmicky.
Once a photo is snapped there is a delay in when you can review it which can be turned off in the settings. mood.camera does the same thing and this is another feature of these applications I don't understand. The intent per the website is:
Review your photos as you take them. Slow down and be intentional with every shot.
Hipstamatic used to do the same thing. A photo would be "developed" but in the case of Hipstamatic that was a trick to turn slow image processing into a feature of the camera and played into it's kitschiness. I don't know why anyone would want such a feature now. Part of the joy of modern phones is the fact that pictures can be taken so quickly and the user gets feedback instantly. That is a plus, not a minus. If I wanted to wait I'd be shooting film.
LUT import
Ah LUTs. Another new darling of the iPhone photo community. It all sounds so easy too -- just import them for fresh new looks! LUT means lookup table and at its most basic is just a transformation from one value to another. They're heavily used in the movie/TV industry to make color changes (called color grading) to video to give footage certain looks. You've seen them for a long time but maybe didn't know it. Most well-known film makers have their own look to their work made possible by color grading with LUTs.
If you read the link above you'll see there is nothing simple about LUTs. !Camera uses 3D LUTs for it's looks. From the documentation:
Import a LUT file to use any of the thousands developed by great photographers. Many are free and others are for sale. Or create your own!
No hints given as to where to get these LUTs or how to create them and if you search on them you'll see that it's…confusing. LUTs are still generally used for video, not still photography. With the introduction by Panasonic of the ability to import LUTs into their LUMIX camera line it's getting easier to find LUTs for still photo use but it still isn't common.
Let's consider an example: Fujifilm film simulations on cameras like the X100VI. These are very popular film looks that people want elsewhere. There is a guy who's done a lot of work to bring these to more people via Lightroom profiles or 3D LUTs.
If you look at the LUT options you see:
If you look at the LUT options you see:
- 3D LUTs (Log)
- Fujify F-Log, F-Log2, F-Log2 C 3D LUTs (General)
- Fujify S-Log3 3D LUTs (for Sony)
- Fujify Apple Log 3D LUTs (for Apple)
So…which one? I guess "Apple Log" is a good guess but…what is "Log"? The !Camera docs are no help. They just make it seem like you import them and go.
So…which one? I guess "Apple Log" is a good guess but…what is "Log"? The !Camera docs are no help. They just make it seem like you import them and go.
So while LUTs seem like a great way to easily get a bunch of new looks for your pictures the reality isn't quite so easy. The options in the list above are for video (Log is a video thing, not a still photo thing). Since the guy is selling different versions I assume it means they'll give different results if imported into !Camera.
Note: in the case of the camera app Analogue the developer at least notes that he is actually capturing stills using Apple Log format used in iPhone video. Analogue also allows LUT import so it would seem that the Apple version of the Fujify LUTs would be the right one. But does !Camera also capture in Apple Log format? The developer doesn't say.
I've found one source of LUTs that are specifically made for !Camera ($19.99)
Other sources of LUTs:
- Fresh LUTs - free but requires sign up
- The Panasonic LUMIX app - free in the app store
- Ross's LUTs - made for LUMIX but free
Subscription model
Like many apps !Camera is subscription-based and costs $14.99 per year. Unlike many other subscription-based apps there is no trial. Unfortunately most of the features are locked behind the subscription so it's impossible to try the application properly without spending money. The developer says to just ask Apple for a refund. That's great but there is no guarantee Apple is going to give a refund. I've been turned down in the past. Terrible business practice, especially when it would be so easy to give a short trial.
Final Thoughts
I said it in the TL;DR above: no thanks. There isn't enough of a benefit for me to pay $14.99/yr for this. Given that I'm a photo app addict I've already got many other ways to take and edit photos to get these looks -- mood.camera being the closest option which can be bought outright for the same price as a year of !Camera. Analogue, also available as an outright purchase for slightly more, does the same thing minus the cutesy interface and allows editing of photos taken with the app to apply different looks. Those things, along with some issues I've found with proper focusing in 4x zoom mode, and no actual 2x zoom mode (the developer says to crop the images), make it a hard no.