Adobe Photoshop Express v2.0 Improves Retina And Multitasking Support, Plus A New Camera Pack
March 16, 2011
Adobe has updated their free Photoshop Express to fully support the Retina and iOS 4 background multitasking abilities. However, along those improvements, Adobe is focusing the attention on the new Camera Pack in-app purchase item.
The $3.99 Camera Pack adds three new features to the app: Reduce Noise, Self Timer, and Auto Review. The Self Timer works exactly as expected, and can be set at a three or 10-second delay. The Auto Review function offers a way bypass the "rapid fire capturing" feature introduced in v1.5, where photos immediately get saved to the Camera Roll like Apple's Camera app. Auto Review is designed for those who don't want to take numerous photos hoping to finally get it right and sift through them later or tap their way to viewing the last photo every time.
As nice as those features are for certain occasions, they aren't breathtaking and certainly not something I'd pay $4 for. In my opinion, the last feature seems to be the most worthy to the Photoshop name. Reduce Noise works to remove as much of the graininess and speckles you see on some lower quality camera captures. Not quite as much of a problem for the iPhone 4's rear camera, but still can occur when taking photos in certain conditions.
I find the Photoshop Express app to be a good option for some basic photo manipulation, though to be honest, I'm not impressed with the Camera Pack price to add these few features. There are many other photography iOS apps that meet or beat that price, and some even have more features. I'll still use Photoshop Express for things like cropping, rotation, and even some nifty border effects, but I won't be instantly jumping to add the Camera Pack.
Adobe Photoshop Express is a free universal app compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch running iOS 4.2 or later. The Camera Pack with Reduce Noise, Self Timer, and Auto Review is a $3.99 in-app purchase.
