I am in my second year of a 365 Photo Project and this year I’ve actually not missed a day – thanks in part to the camera on my Droid X.  (You can see the current results of my 365 project each day on my personal blog.)  While I normally carry a Nikon D80 with me everywhere I go, sometimes lugging a big camera isn’t appropriate and sometimes, I just don’t want to hassle with it.  However, my Droid X goes everywhere and so does its awesome camera.

I use a lot of different camera apps on the Droid X and still haven’t settled on my favorite.  However, I like Camera Effects from the fun folks at Swiss Code Monkeys.  The app is what I would classify as a basic camera app.  You can zoom, set your white balance, set exposure, and choose whether or not to use flash.  A small settings button right on the main screen hides all sorts of other options like picture size, quality, color effects, and scene mode. All the controls are right on the screen, intuitive, and easy to access.  Changes to the white balance and exposure settings are shown on screen in the preview mode just like with most other camera apps.  I prefer the radio button controls for exposure setting in Camera Effects over some of the other camera apps I have that use a slider to set exposure.

On screen controls let you set white balance, exposure, flash, and zoom

The app seems to generate good pictures as well – even in really low light situations.  I shot the two images below at a Picture Size of 5MP, the max in the app, and at a Quality of Super Fine – also the max in the app.  Images have, at these settings, a maximum size of 640.

Image taken indoors in very low light. Just applied the auto contrast filter and it looks good

This photo was taken in good sunlight and I left it at the full size of 640. Auto Contrast filter and Vignette Effect applied

As you can see, Camera Effects includes several filters and effects.  I just used the Auto Contrast on both of these and then applied the vignette effect to the image of the rose.  Applying the different effects uses a simple scrolling preview after the image is taken.  I found this to be a lot faster than other menu driven apps.  So, while it might not have quite as many options for these effects, Camera Effects has most of my favorites and they are fast and easy to get to.

One thing Camera Effects lacks in comparison to most other camera apps I’ve seen is a link to the gallery but you have a full host of sharing options from right within the app.  That fits my workflow just fine, but if you like to get to the gallery from within your camera app, you won’t find that feature currently in Camera Effects.

If you want a quick, easy-to-use camera app, give Camera Effects a try.  Let us know in the comments what other Android photography tools you couldn’t live without!

android

Camera Effects
Swiss Codemonkeys
Free
5,000,000 - 10,000,000
Link Android Market

I am a world traveler, part-time road warrior, and home body all wrapped up in one gadget-loving package. I work a full-time, high demand job in educational technology. My true joy is helping others find technology tools that actually make their life easier, more fun, and their work more efficient. I'm happiest with a camera in my hand and love to write about all tech, but especially love giving a little Android LUV!

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Posted in Software Reviews Tags: 360, Android, android camera, android camera app, androidgals, cam, cam effects, camera, camera effects, camera effects android app, camera fun, droidx, effects, fx, fx camera, fxcamera, hipstamatic, image effects, lomo, photo effects, photobucket, photofunia, photoshop

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