The Best Camera

My big feature request is a slider to control the degree of adjustment applied by a filter. Many of them are pretty heavy-handed right now, and many images don't benefit from it. But I really like the UI, the "layers", thebestcamera.com, etc. Cool stuff.

You know what? If you want better metadata, you have to ask Apple. Duplicate rdar 7223714 (http://openradar.appspot.com/7223714) , in which I use your name as a reference (a little too quickly I apologize) ;-)
Well you become a reference when people refer to you, don't you?

Anyway, I have been toying with this app and it's really a great way to enhance very quickly many pictures. All three tests were successful, even from 'bad' pictures.

Another app that was just released too is Zoom Lens from Matt Farrugia (the guy who did slideshow). It's a nice way to use a 'zoom' when you need it. He's the one who tweeted about bestcam.

thanks for the nice write up, duncan. and especially Jeremy and Cyril for chiming in. @ jeremy... our thought is that sliders blow the UI. messy. if your thought is that some filters are heavy handed, i'd agree if you mean the signature filters. that's on purpose. we want them to do something substantial. to correct for anything that you feel is too heavy handed, start out by taking the punch outta the image with the tools like fade and lighten. building from that base should correct for a lot of conditions... dunno if that helps. really appreciate the feedback, I'm listening for sure...

I agree about sliders ruining the UI, but in this case I think you can do without them. When you apply an effect, before tapping Apply or Cancel, just drag your finger left or right to control the severity of the effect. Not obvious, but easily mentioned once (at first filter application perhaps).

Standard disclaimer: I'm not a programmer, so that suggestion might make the big brains at Ubermind run screaming to implement.

Jeff

Chase, since you're listening, do you plan to do anything about the complaints of many regarding your "overdone" branding within the app and the places it shares? I don't want "Chase Jarvis" showing up near my images, even if I do use an app you designed, just the same as I don't want the name of the memory card, my camera, the software I used to edit or FTP images to my server, the brand of linux the server uses, etc.

I echo the comment about heavy branding. It rather spoils the effect. The Facebook app uploads photos easily enough; I probably would use it (and accept a few additional steps) when I am totally sick of having brand Jarvis next to my pics.

Chase here. You all are 100% right to be frustrated with the Facebook thing. It is a bug, and was 100% unintended. I was mortified when I discovered it.

Here's how the caption bug can potentially affect a Facebook posting.

First, if you do not write a Facebook caption when uploading your image via the sharing page on Best Camera, your caption says “Uploaded from Chase Jarvis’ Best Camera”. This text was written by the programmer as dummy text in the development of the app and and was not intended to act as any default caption.

Second, if you do enter a caption for Facebook and then share your image to BOTH Facebook and thebestcamera.com, your Facebook caption is being replaced by the errant default caption. The current work around is to manually update your Facebook caption, or upload your image to thebestcamera.com and Facebook separately thus retaining the Facebook caption you’ve entered.

Again, this was 100% unintended. I was mortified when I discovered it--we simply missed it in testing, no excuses. Within 24 hours of our launch we built a 1.01 release which will correct both of these problems. It is currently in the approval process at the App Store and we’ll announce as soon as the new version is available.

Our bad, but we're scrambling to make it right. In the meantime, I hope you dig the rest of the ecosystem.