CameraSharp, A Finely-Honed iPhone Camera Replacement App

Easy to use, and lots of great features. What's not to like?

There is, you may be aware, a new iPad launching today, along with its fancy new camera. That’s great and all, but what if you a) don’t want one b) live outside the first wave of launch countries or c) just don’t care?

Then why not make a little improvement to the camera already in your iPhone or iPod Touch, with a little app called CameraSharp which, today at least, is free? CameraSharp is an app with a single purpose: to make taking photos easier.

To this end, CameraSharp eschews grunge effects, filters and other gimmicks, and just concentrates on the shooting. The app is especially good if you have an iPod Touch, with its crappy camera app. You can snap a photo with the on-screen button, or choose to make the entire screen the shutter release (you can’t use the volume-up button, though), and you can even choose to trigger it with sound.

The sound trigger works with a 2-second self timer. Thus you can set up a group shot including you, and clap. The timer then kicks in to let you get your hands out of the way.

On-screen, there are various guides, from a grid to a 3-D level. You can also zoom, and set focus and exposure separately via one and two-finger taps. These taps bring up a little non-magnifying loupe which you can slide around and place over the thing you want focused or properly exposed.

Finally, there are focus, white-balance and exposure locks, and a self timer set by twisting two fingers on the screen, like turning a dial.

From my limited testing, I like CameraSharp quite a bit, although with the built-in camera now so easy to access from the lock screen, it might not get all that much use. As I said, the app is free today.

Easy to use, and lots of great features. What's not to like?

• Via iPhoneography

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