The New iPod Touch Camera Disappointed You? There’s An App For That! Plus, Win A Promo Code!
September 24, 2010
After waiting for so long for the iPod Touch to have a camera on board, did you feel let down when it finally came out? Were you expecting a more sophisticated camera? Read on to discover an app that can help.
I recently interviewed Josh Patterick, a developer at Occipital (perhaps best known for Red Laser). In the past, I reviewed their app ClearCam, and how it improves the iPhone camera, but inquiring minds want to know: can it also work its magic to improve the iPod Touch’s camera?
KF: Tell us about ClearCam and what it does. JP: Thanks Karen. ClearCam is designed to do one thing and do it really well - help users to consistently capture the best photos possible on any iDevice with camera. It helps to eliminate blur without missing the moment in everyday shooting situations, and can deliver stunning images with more than twice the resolution of the native camera for those once-in-a-lifetime photos. We offer two modes: Quick: Eliminates blur in everyday shooting by rapidly capturing a burst of shots and keeping only the best one. Enhanced: This mode combines information from a series of rapid captures to legitimately double the resolution of the native camera. More importantly, it creates photos that are much sharper and have much less noise. KF: Has ClearCam undergone any recent updates to work with the new iPod Touch? JP: Yes! When we saw the specs on the Touch device, we knew we had to do something. ClearCam seemed like the perfect candidate to deliver reasonable photos to those devices. I spent a lot of time and energy enhancing algorithms, increasing capture speed, and generally tweaking the app to get the most out of it on that device. I am very pleased with the results and hope our users are as well. KF: The new iPod Touch’s camera takes still photos with a maximum of just 0.7 MP, or 690x720. Can you give us some statistics on how much improvement one can expect with ClearCam? JP: Technically speaking, we generate 1.35MP images on the iPod Touch, or 1008x1344. As many know though, resolution isn't everything. It's easy to double resolution of an image without improving the quality and people need to be careful about that. ClearCam combines information from many photos which is how the app is able to substantially increase the clarity along with resolution. KF: What else is unique about ClearCam that readers may want to know? JP: One thing that's been a challenge for all camera apps, is that historically EXIF and GPS data could not be saved to the camera roll due to Apple API restrictions. There are many advantages to keeping this data with the image. The most obvious is compatibility with the "Places" feature in the Camera Roll. At this point, we believe that ClearCam is the only app available that provides this capability which we like to call true camera roll integration.See ClearCam in action on the iPod Touch:
iPhone AND/OR iPod Touch 4 users: retweet this article or comment below for your chance to win one of 15 promo codes of ClearCam. You must have a U.S. iTunes account in order to redeem the code. Contest ends on Friday, Sept 24 at 8:00 p.m. EDT. Good luck!
