With limited space on the home screen of my iPhone, only the best apps get any real estate. Well, Apple’s Camera app has had its spot officially usurped by Camera Genius ($1.99). And for good reason.
Published by CodeGoo, Camera Genius is full of extra camera features that leave you wondering, why didn’t Apple think of these? Notable favorites include digital zoom, six different line guides, a timed shutter, and most useful, a feature dubbed “Big Button” that turns your entire screen into a shutter button―super useful when you’re trying to take a self portrait with your friends or significant other. Other cool features include a burst mode, sound activated shutter, and anti-shake.
Now, with all the useful features Camera Genius has to offer, you may be temped to forever delete Apple’s Camera app from your iPhone (as if it were possible), but don’t try it just yet.
While it’s true Camera Genius is a photo-taking whiz, it doesn’t do video.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention a couple of quirks I found. First, its location stamp feature (which, if turned on, imprints location data onto your photos) is buggy and doesn’t always work. But more annoyingly, while its picture previewer (camera roll) works fine for viewing photos, it won’t let you actually delete any of them—you’ll still need to use Apple’s Photo Album or Camera app to do that.
But even with these small quirks, the sheer usefulness of Camera Genius’ extra features make it much more useful than Apple’s Camera app. And so to the victor go the spoils… well played Camera Genius! You have secured your place in one of the coveted spots on my iPhone’s home screen.
