10 Best iPod Touch Camera Apps

Now that Apple has finally released an iPod Touch with a camera, iTouch users can experience the same photo fun that the iPhone users have had for years. Since the quality of the camera is lower than that of the iPhone, I have pushed these more toward the toy camera angle, plus since that is really the focus of this blog. I also have added the ones I have found the most useful, and what I use most often.

1) Hipstamatic - $1.99, additional effects are .99¢
Hipstamatic is the the gold standard for toy camera emulators for iPhone. Both in it's design, and in it's function and end product. Well thought out all the way through, well designed, and it takes great, dreamy photos. It is a bit pricey though, and is quickly becoming the new "myspace photo angle" meaning it is a very saturated app. Still definitely worth getting, it is the one app you need to start from really.

2) Classic Toy Camera - FREE, but effects are .99¢
Classic Toy is fastly becoming my favorite camera app, it is the one I use the most for sure. Not only does it take great pictures, it has many more  different options than Hipstamatic. I generally use it on the pinhole setting, but it also mimics multi-frame images like the Pop Cam and the Lomo Action Sampler, and the Pop 9. Lots of great film effects as well, from damaged, to saturation, all for a great price. Highly recommended.

3). Photoshop Express - FREE
Comparable to Photoshop 1.0 on a computer, this free app comes in really, really handy, for turning the orientation of pictures on the fly, desaturating, cropping etc. Trust me, you will use it much more than you think, and it is free.

4) PicasaSync - $1.99
Again, another app that isn't necessarily a picture taking app, but this one you will appreciate later on, especially if you buy it early on as I would recommend-before you have a ton of photos. Basically what it does is it uploads the pictures you take to your Picassa account, which you have free if you have a Gmail account (also free). It isn't automatic, but it is fast over wi-fi, and easy enough to upload 20-30 pictures a week to back them up. The lite version doesn't do much, but nice to see if you would want to use it. Of course, you do have a backup on your computer each time you sync, but having an additional cloud backup is definitely nice.

5) More Lomo  - FREE
More Lomo is one of a slew of Lomo styled apps. I like it best though. One, it takes the best Lomo-y pics of any of the ones I have tried. Two, it is super minimal to use, just open and tap, then pick to save Lomo + Original, or just the Lomo and at whichever quality you choose. I have often used it instead of the regular Apple camera. So worth it.

6) Cam-U-Flage  - $1.99
Simply the best and most useful spy camera app in the app store. You can set an image as your 'viewfinder' then set the transparency, or not, and tap the screen to take a photo. In essence, anyone looking at you will think you are looking at your screen not a camera app. I set my image to a screen grab of my home screen, so it is even more hidden. It also now takes video, which is awesome. Totally worth the price. Though use it responsibly, please.

7) Video Panorama  - $1.99
Seen that commercial of the video camera that can turn your footage into a panoramic photo? Well as the corny saying goes "there is an app for that". Video Panorama s a good simple quick app for making quick Panoramic images, and as an added bonus, it does some weird stuff where it sews the images together, go crappy! (I mean that in the best way).  For super high quality Panoramics, try Pano, it is my other option.

8) CameraBag - $1.99
CameraBag, as the name suggests, is basically one app full of a lot of camera's. It mimics Holga, Polaroid (both old and new), cross process, magazine, cinema, etc. The nice thing about it is that you can take one photo and save it in whichever option looks the best. The drawback though is that you have to go through all those options, granted you can remove the ones you never use. I find that I use the magazine effect the most from this app, partly because it fills a gap in the other apps. I would definitely suggest you get it, maybe even first, it might do all you ever need.

ShakeIt Photo

9) ShakeItPhoto  - .99¢
You can see my write up of it here from before. Simply put it is the best image quality of all the Polaroid knock off apps there are.

10) IncrediBooth - .99¢
This app is by the same guys that created Hipstamatic. The graphics are simply great, and it is a great use of the front facing camera (which in fact you must have to use this app). Since the iPod Touch now has the front facing camera,  this app should be a no-brainer to buy, and will probably soon account for 80% of the photos your friends post online.

There you have it. The 10 apps you should download to take pictures and enjoy the camera on your shiny new iPod Touch. Any of these apps work just as well on the iPhone 4, and are definitely recommended as well.

Enjoy.

Fisher Price Creative Effects FAX Camera

As I have mentioned a few times in previous posts, one of the most interesting cameras from the actual toy world was the Fisher Price Creative Effects Fun Photomaker, a funny little, brightly colored camera that uses a paper similar to fax paper (or heat sensitive cash register tape really). It also used cartridges you could plug into it to create other "frames" over your photos, much like this Barbie themed one on eBay right now.

They didn't make very many, and even back then (1997 ish) it was not widely known how cool the pictures were to the lo-fi camera crowd. Those were the early days of the internet, keep in mind. I luckily got one at Toys'r'us off the shelf back then, bought WAAAY more 'film' for it than I will ever use, though luckily i kept many of the cartiridges and you can easily reload it, see instructions from bentstruments.com here

Benstruments.com also has LOTS more info on this camera. They are a good source for lots of these weirder and still usable toy cameras, and their hacked versions as well. Definitely check them out and bookmark them.

Here is what the Creative Effects pictures look like via Flicker...

It is a really fun camera if you can find one and some of the "film" or at least a cartridge to refill. The only draw back to it, like many of these older cameras, is it takes a bit for the photo to print, roughly a minute, and it also plays an annoying song while it is "processing" the image before it prints, sure the song is fun and meant to entertain kids, but it gets old quick (reminds me to look into disconnecting the speaker on mine).

All in all though, a definite Essential Camera to own.