Hipstamatic(01 of07)
Open Image ModalThe customizable Hipstamatic camera attempts to \"bring back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras of the past\"; it gives you, iPhone photographer, the option to swap camera lenses and film and change up your flash settings, creating heavily-filtered photographs that look like Polaroids.\r\n\r\nA download of Hipstamatic costs $1.99 and comes with four lenses, three different kinds of film, and three different kinds of flash. You can also purchase in-app upgrade \"HipstaPaks,\" which come with one lens, one film, and one flash for 99 cents apiece. Combining all of these effects makes for good, addictive fun.\r\n\r\nHipstamatic also comes with the option to order \"analog\" versions of your prints online and have them delivered to your door. \r\n\r\nHipstamatic isn\'t exactly the hippest, most underground photography app out there -- after millions and millions of downloads, it probably reached its mainstream apex when New York Times war photographer Damon Winter used the app to illustrate a story about the war in Afghanistan -- but it is an excellent option for filter-heavy iPhone photography. \r\n\r\nHipstamatic is $1.99 on the iTunes Store.\r\n\r\nCORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that the New York Times war photographer was James Estrin; it was actually Damon Winter. (credit:Hipstamatic)
Camera+(02 of07)
Open Image ModalOne of Time Magazine\'s 50 Best iPhone Apps of 2011, Camera+ is cleverly titled: It\'s your iPhone camera PLUS a lot of helpful professional photography features that Apple\'s standard camera just doesn\'t have.\r\n\r\nYou can adjust focus and exposure with your fingers; choose scene modes like Beach, Sunset, Portrait, and Nighttime; add borders and Instagram-like filters; and line up your shots with on-screen grid lines. The app comes with an attractive and intuitive interface (see above) that makes controlling the results of your picture-taking easy; it also comes with a robust editing suite for post-shot polishing.\r\n\r\nIf you take your iPhone photography seriously, Camera+ is a solid purchase. \r\n\r\nCamera+ is 99 cents in the iTunes Store. (credit:Camera+)
IncrediBooth(03 of07)
Open Image ModalA silly little camera app best enjoyed with friends, IncrediBooth replicates the experience of a photo booth at a carnival or video arcade. You point your camera toward yourself (and hopefully, your friends (and even more hopefully, wearing silly hats)) and IncrediBooth takes four photos, which it spits out onto a kind of digital photo strip. You can save any individual photo from the strip, or the strip itself, onto your iPhone.\r\n\r\nIncrediBooth, which is 99 cents, comes with four filters (provided by the aforementioned Hipstamatic). You can buy additional filters for 99 cents apiece. \r\n\r\nIncrediBooth is $0.99 in the iTunes Store. (credit:IncrediBooth)
CameraSharp(04 of07)
Open Image ModalCameraSharp is a full-featured, fast-loading camera that is all about super-creative control: \r\n\r\n- There is Sound Shutter, which allows you to take photos of you and your friends by clapping or whistling (that\'s me whistling above, starting a two second self-timer); \r\n- Self-Timer, which you can set by spinning two fingers in a circle on the screen to set the length of time before the photo takes;\r\n- Separate Focus and Exposure locks, which you can drag around the image before you take a shot to get the right lighting; \r\n- Continuous Mode, for bursts of photos or time-lapse photos, with adjustable intervals between shots.\r\n- Big Button Mode, which allows you to touch anywhere on the screen to take a picture...\r\n\r\n...and more. Oh, and one other thing: CameraSharp very proudly advertises that it does NOT connect to Facebook, as it is \"all about taking the best photo.\" It does save to your camera roll, and you can email your results and all that -- just no Facebook. (In an age of frictionless connectivity, it is perhaps the first openly anti-Facebook app I\'ve ever encountered.)\r\n\r\nCameraSharp is $1.99 in the iTunes Store (credit:CameraSharp)
Fast Camera(05 of07)
Open Image ModalThe other day, a proud new parent (and colleague) was complaining to me that he needed a smartphone whose camera could open super quickly and immediately be available to take photos, lest he miss his littlest one doing something adorable.\r\n\r\nFast Camera could help: As soon as you open the app, Fast Camera begins taking 8-megapixel photos as fast as it can and doesn\'t stop until you press a button. (If you\'re wondering just how fast \"Fast Camera\" is: The developer claims it can take up to 800 photos per minute; it\'s pretty dang fast). It\'s not super customizable as a shooter, per se: You can choose rear camera or front, VGA or 8 megapixel; landscape or portrait; and you can also set the delay between pics, from \"None\" to 1/10 second to 1/5 second to 1/4 second and so on. There is also a self-timer, if you want to take a whole bunch of group shots at once and choose from the best.\r\n\r\nThe main attraction, however, is the auto-starting burst of photos that you get whenever you open the app. With Fast Camera, you may never have to miss that fleeting, once-in-a-lifetime shot -- or first step. \r\n\r\nFast Camera is $0.99 in the iTunes Store. (credit:Fast Camera)
CamWow(06 of07)
Open Image ModalAside from reminding us of one of the all-time greatest infomercials (with Vince!), we like CamWow as a straight-up Instagram alternative for those photogs obsessed with filters. CamWow offers 20 free filters and effects, all of which you can see in real-time on a four-by-four grid of live cameras. You simply touch the filter you want to take a photo. It\'s a neat representation of the different options you have using a camera with multiple filters.\r\n\r\nThe download is free, but you have to pay $1.99 to get rid of the ads and the CamWow watermark on your photos (if you so choose).\r\n\r\nCamWow is free in the iTunes Store. (credit:CamWow)
Pro HDR(07 of07)
Open Image ModalA photographer friend assures me that this is \"probably the best HDR app in the app store;\" I have no reason to disagree. Pro HDR combines two photos -- one optimized for hightlights, one for shadows -- and merges the two together to create the best one. It also comes with a powerful (if ugly) editing suite, which now features 20 filters, 15 frames, and the option to add text to your photos.\r\n\r\nPro HDR is $1.99 in the iTunes Store. You might also check out HDR FX, for an HDR camera with an emphasis on filters, which is a free download until April 23, 2012. (credit:Pro HDR)