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HDR Camera+

Radiating and Luminous Pictures With HDR Camera+

by Yan Matusevich on Jul 4, 2011 10:55:58 PM — read 3,940 times

Tested version: 1.62
Latest version: 2.18
Requires Android: from 2.2

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Summary

The photo-taking possibilities are limitless with SLR cameras. If you’ve got Photoshop on top of that, there’s virtually nothing you can’t do. Just as photo editing used to be reserved only for professionals, HDR (high dynamic range) pictures are considered to be something out of reach for the general public.

HDR Camera+ brings brilliant HDR optics to your Android device. Are the pictures any good? Find out in our review.
 

Features & Use

Section rating:

“Oh, darn, I’m out of film” is something I haven’t heard anyone say in ages. With the emergence of ever-increasing memory cards, there’s usually enough room on your digital cameras for an endless amount of photos. And even if you do run out of space – just dump the excess onto your computer and problem solved.

What’s HDR photography?
It’s high contrast photography which basically means that the pictures are insanely beautiful and full of depth. HDR Camera+ creates HDR photos by taking three LDR (low dynamic range) pictures and then fusing them together. Every picture receives a different amount of light thereby creating this unique and enchanting effect.

HDR-Settings
Adjusting the color vividness determines how expressive your pictures will look. The range goes from standard to pure, from saturated all the way to black & white. Try to use a setting that works well with the color scheme of what your about to take a picture of. Saturated should only be used if you want to have very strong colors, otherwise the colors risk being too overwhelming and obtrusive.
Local and micro contrasts are two additional cool effects. The first one adjust the general contrast settings, while the later allows you to adjust the picture’s contrast in detail. Adjusting the exposure simply changes the intensity of the light.

App Settings
The quality of the picture is as important as the place where it’s stored. You can choose to save the three original shots if you wish.
The capture mode is just a code word for shutter speed. If you need to GPS tag your picture, HDR Camera+ has a separate option for that.

Don’t Share It With the World
I just can’t wrap my head around what the share feature is supposed to do. You start off by selecting which service you would like to use to share your pictures. The problem is that you haven’t even taken the picture at this point and the app tends to crash at this crucial step more often than not. You don’t have the option of sharing the picture once it’s been taken. WTF?

Bottom Line:
The thing that bothers me the most is the poor user-friendliness. There’s no shutter button, so you have to tap the screen to take a picture instead. Not to mention the fact that the share function is a total failure. Another problem: you have just three seconds to view a picture after you’ve shot it. After that it disappears and there’s no way to open the gallery from within the app.

As far as the pictures are concerned, they are absolutely fantastic! No two buts about it. The HDR photos as stunning and work really well.

 

  

 

Click on a picture to view in full-size. Be careful when viewing them on your Android photo: each picture is around 1MB!

All of the drawbacks are compensated by the amazing picture quality. All in all, it’s an awesome camera with bad usability.

Pros

  • Adjustable picture quality
  • HDR Options
  • Amazing colors and awesome pictures with HDR effect
  • GPS tagging
  • Full camera exposure

Cons

  • No additional effects
  • Poor usability
  • No share function
     

Screen & Controls

Section rating:

Look and Feel

There is no ultimate camera app solution for Android and HDR Camera+ most certainly won’t be it. Given how unintuitive the app is, it’s hard enough trying to use it at all. There are just two buttons on the screen and nothing more. Does it look stylish and nice? Absolutely not. Without a shutter button, you’ll have to tap the screen to take a snapshot.
 

Speed & Stability

Section rating:

HDR Camera+ is smooth and reliable in its performance. Depending on how powerful your Android device is, it may take a while to create each HDR picture.

Price/Performance Ratio

Section rating:

HDR Camera+ can be downloaded for ~$3.36 from the AndroidPIT App Center.

 

Comparable Apps

HDR Camera

Pro HDR Camera

Magic Hour - Camera

Vignette

Vignette (demo version)

Report comparable or similar apps

Developer

Dmitry Shmunk en

United States

Almalence Inc.

Top App:

HDR Camera+
Full featured and fast HDR camera for Android: - Full resolution - Real HDR: exposure (...)

More Apps:

HDR Camera+
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Archive

Jul 4, 2011 11:25:25 PM

I never tried these things before as I'm still a new Android user. And I think there are many apps like this right? If so, are they better than this one?
Thanks for the review!

Jul 5, 2011 7:42:23 AM

Photos could not be clicked. Please fix the links in the test report.

Jul 5, 2011 10:26:03 AM

@ Zhelyazko: Problem fixed! Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

@Mohammed: well, there are many photo apps - that's true. but this app specialized in HDR pictures, which are different than normal pictures.

Jul 7, 2011 1:57:37 PM

@Mohammed Vignette is a popular camera app. While it of course is a matter of taste and opinion, some people use that app to make their Android a viable second choice from a real camera.

Jul 14, 2011 1:36:20 PM

Hmm, I also forgot to mention Camera360.

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Market Comments

J, Apr 23, 2012
Galaxy Nexus Would like option to have a camera button. I find that I accidentally take pics when not ready sometimes. Image stabilization really helps pics look clear. Lot of options to make your pics look great. Great job on the app.
Frankie, Apr 21, 2012
Good only for Scenery.i have tried to take good pics of me or my kin but we end up looking like "orange beaners".needs better decoding but still takes great pics.so I'll have two camera apps for my purposes.
Steve, Apr 21, 2012
Love it! Amazing app, not only does it help take fantastic pics, helps with 'camera shake' too. Can't understand the whining about the icon, does it affect the functionality of the app?? pathetic people out there!! SGII
JD, Apr 20, 2012
Great I started with the free version and within minutes I knew I would like it so bought full version Dislikes- no zoom, no flash, and the one I hate the most is when I click on gallery to view the picture I took. It starts me out from oldest to newest. So I have to spend 5mins scrolling threw 2k+ pictures to get to view it... Will give 5star when fixed
S., Apr 20, 2012
Just like others stated Amazing.
Bridget, Apr 20, 2012
Not great! I feel I wasted $3.99. The editing is not that great!
Rupam, Apr 19, 2012
Great results Not right landscaped mode on galaxy tab
Richard, Apr 19, 2012
Amazing Cool app
Matthew, Apr 17, 2012
consistently good results updates have only improved things. good stuff.
Ivan, Apr 17, 2012
Benedick Purchased, but uninstalled in a week. Bad picture quality. Not recommended.
mesae, Apr 16, 2012
Well done Does what it says. Results are surprisingly good. Excellent optional use for the stock camera. Acer A500.
bill, Apr 16, 2012
really good, 1x1 ratio really good HDR images, needs 1x1 ratio option
Trevor, Apr 16, 2012
Addicted! Does a great job, images are full of beautiful colour and really "pop"! This camera sees the world the way I want to see it: vivid, rich, intense.
Bruce, Apr 16, 2012
Bionic Developer listens to any issues and is quick to fix and get updates out.. Well worth the $$ best camera app
Kiser, Apr 16, 2012
Lots of features and Great Results
desertangel, Apr 16, 2012
Nexus S ICS 4.0.3. Takes pictures in those impossible lighting conditions. Works with ICS.
Ad James, Apr 15, 2012
Bug After Latest Update? Awesome! However, fails to save images(s) after latest update. Please fix soon before stars start to fade away!
Mark, Apr 15, 2012
Amazing This is an amazing camera app that takes some great jaw dropping pictures. Forget everything else... this is the only one you will need.
Will, Apr 15, 2012
Great App I started with the free version and liked it so much that I bought the full version.
Rui Kang, Apr 15, 2012
Works well, but There are instances when it produces broken photos. (ie photos that does not load). But when it does, it works swell. Please add option for users to select their own bracketing values and I'll give it a five.
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