QuickAdvice: Mobits Cam Brings Photo Booth Fun To Your iPhone, Plus Giveaway!
Mobits Cam ($0.99) by Mobits brings a Photo Booth-like experience right to your iPhone.
You know the fun that you can have with the Photo Booth app on Mac OS X? Well, Mobits Cam brings that same experience to you in a more portable form.
The app launches quickly, and you get the camera after the Mobits Cam splash screen. The default setting will be Normal, but there are 8 other effects that you can apply to your photos. Just like Photo Booth on Macs, there is a live preview option to see what each effect will look like before you select it.
Once you find an effect you like, tap it and it will bring you to the high-resolution camera mode where you can press the shutter button to take a photo. Once the photo is taken, the image will be immediately saved into the device Camera Roll, though it takes a few seconds to process.
In the Settings menu, you can find an option for taking timed photos, toggle for Big Button (using the screen as the shutter button), and the option to use the frontal camera (only on the iPhone 4). If you need to contact the developer for support or to report bugs, there is an option to send a message directly from the app (how convenient!).
If you use the Timer option, the photo will be taken only after the interval that you set. The default is set at 0, which will allow for immediate pictures.
An important thing I need to mention is that there is no current way to manually focus in the app. There is only autofocus with both the shutter button and using the screen as the button. Hopefully this issue can be addressed in a future update from the developers.
Yes, the photos taken with this app will be saved in full resolution (up to 1936x2592 on the iPhone 4), so you don't need to worry about tinkering with various settings to get full resolution photos.
I found the app to be relatively fun to use, but there is a little speed issue. There appears to be a bit of a lag between the video relay and the actual taking of a photo. This means that the camera would also need to stay still for a bit longer to make sure that the photo isn't blurry or anything.
Despite the speed issue, I am overall happy with the app. Automatically saving the photo in full resolution is a great benefit of the app. The effects are fun and unique, and the live preview is nice to have. The overall interface is nice looking as well, although it's not optimized for the iPhone 4 Retina display yet. Hopefully the developers can change that in a future update.
One more thing...the option to toggle the front facing camera on the iPhone 4 should not be buried in the app settings. Rather there needs to be an option on the camera screen to toggle the frontal camera when available. I found the current process to be a bit cumbersome but not a deal-breaker. Hopefully the developers can fix that in a future update.
So if you want some Photo Booth fun, check out Mobits Cam. It will cost you less than your morning latte and be a bit more entertaining.
CONTEST: We have 3 promo codes for Mobits Cam to give away! So if you want to score a copy, simply leave a comment. We'll be closing the contest Monday 8/23/10 at 6 PM PST. Winners will be chosen shortly after.
An email will be required so we can contact the winners and deliver your promo code. Good luck!
