Cameramatic: One Of The Best Toy Cameras On The iPhone

by Pu on February 9, 2011

When at first I tried Cameramatic by youthhr, I didn’t pay enough attention to it. Maybe because toy cameras on the iPhone were popping up like mushrooms and it was hard at first sight to distinguish the one from the other. Also, the first release of this app had some bugs that prevented me to fully enjoy it. Thus I had forgotten about Cameramatic till the release of the last update. After that, I started paying more attention to this app and I realized Cameramatic has a lot  interesting qualities about it.

Main Features

  • Up to 1530×1530 pixels (3GS) or 1930×1930 pixels (4) resolution;
  • 30+ filters (more available with in-app purchase);
  • 25+ frames;
  • Light leaks, vignetting and grain on/off;
  • Access EXIF and geotagging data;
  • Share via email, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Appotography Opinion

Cameramatic lets you both access your photo library or take photos from within the app. Photos you take are directly saved in a square format, while with previously taken photos you can adjust the cropping before the photo is processed. Saved images are stored into the app’s light box. From Cameramatic’s light box you can access each image’s data, change settings and share using email, Facebook, Twitter or Flickr. You can enable automatic saving to export directly to the camera roll as soon as your photo is processed, if you prefer.

Cameramatic by youthhr for iPhone

The filters you get with Cameramatic are all reminiscent of vintage lo-fi cameras and among them you will find cross processing and monochrome films, TTV frames, grungy textures, and so on. Each effect is carefully designed to convey the feel of original toy cameras.

Here is a preview of some combinations obtained with Cameramatic for iPhone:

Cameramatic by youthhr for iPhone

The filters are really good and the combinations you can obtain are many. To vary your results each time, you can enable vignetting, film grain (only for black and white filters) and light leaks — an element that, in my opinion, still needs some improvement to look more authentic. Purchasing the additional packs (each for $0.99/€0.79) will widen even more your possibilities. It’s true you cannot make too many adjustments to the photos or adapt single parameters, like each filter’s intensity, but the results are anyway believable and varied enough not only to justify the purchase, but also to be satisfied with it.

Another thing I like about this app is the fact it gives you access to EXIF data and geographical tagging information. It would be very convenient if all developers included this feature into their apps, so people would be able to avoid the hassle of relying on external services just to make sure their images are the right size or to know other useful information.

The only serious issue I have with Cameramatic is the lack of preview or some other reference for individual filters: my memory perhaps isn’t excellent, so I cannot remember every time which filter is which just from the name. For frames you have a preview and some filters are easy to guess, but with others it is more complicated. The problem is partly solved by the fact until your photo is stored in your light box, you can edit it and make changes to any of its parameters. Still, choosing among filters without visual reference can sometimes be annoying, especially if you decide to save directly to camera roll.

Among the number of toycam simulation apps, Cameramatic is one of the best and one I definitely feel like recommending, especially if you’re into the lo-fi analog look.

Overall

Name: Cameramatic
Developer: youthhr
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch. iOS 4.0 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 5/5

Cameramatic - youthhr

Previous post:

Next post: