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Radiating and Luminous Pictures With HDR Camera+
Tested version: 1.62
Latest version: 2.34
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
“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
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
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
HDR Camera+ can be downloaded for ~$3.36 from the AndroidPIT App Center.
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Take pictures with vivid colors and rich detail! The best High Dynamic Range camera (...)
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Hmm, I also forgot to mention Camera360.
@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.
@ 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.
Photos could not be clicked. Please fix the links in the test report.
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!