Review: iVideoCamera Doesn’t Do Great Video, But It’s A Start

Giles Turnbull ()

20091215-ivideocamera.jpg

So Apple has allowed into the Store a third-party video recording application for plain old 2G and 3G iPhones; but honestly, don’t get your hopes up too high.

20091215-ivideocameraicon.jpgiVideoCamera by Laan Labs suffers some serious limitations: it only records three frames a second, it can only record for a minute at most, and resolution is just 160×213. It’s little more than a series of stills stitched together into something vaguely resembling moving pictures.

Here’s the first video I shot as soon as I installed the app (I was listening to some Radiohead at the time):

Not quite James Cameron, but hey, the app costs justs one dollar and all the limitations are made clear from the outset. And it’s better than nothing at all.

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What’s nice is that exporting to YouTube or Vimeo is quick and simple and built right in to the app. If the devs can boost the frame rate and resolution even a little bit in future updates, this app will be well worth having on your older model iPhone – just in case.

(Via The Apple Blog.)

8 comments »

About the author

gilest

Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. He has a website you can ignore and a Twitter account you needn't follow.

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Posted in iPhone, Photography, Reviews, Software, Top stories |

  • ksk

    i wonder why it is so limited. JB app, cycorder does 384×288 at i think 12+ fps (dont quote those specs, but it is more than 3 fps)

  • http://macphotographytips.net/ Bakari

    I’ve been looking for someone to post a sample before I decide to purchase. Thanks

  • Gabriel

    KSK, Did you spell that right? I can’t find it in the store.

  • ksk

    yes, it is spelled right. you have to be jailbroken to get it.
    Cycorder is a featured package in Cydia

  • Joe

    Yes, Cycorder alone is worth liberating your iphone. On 3G or 2G iphone, once you’ve got video from Cycorder, you can use qTweeter to put your videos online with TwitVid or Pixelpipe to upload to YouTube etc.

  • Evan

    Hey thanks a lot for the info!
    I just purchased the app on the fly (3g).
    The video quality is indeed very poor but its dirt cheap and its better than nothing! And no need for jailbreak either.
    The developer promises there will be quality improvements in the future so theres hope it will get better.
    If it was 10$ or something I d might think about it, but at 1$ its a no-brainer.

  • http://www.nimbling.com Herman

    oh come on. Jailbreak your phone already. This is plain childish.

  • Rich

    New version released today offers way better video quality and fps (i think 10fps) – works great.