100 Cameras in 1 – iPhone App Review

A Post By: James Brandon

My name is James, and I am an iPhone App junkie. I’m always scouring through the app store looking for cool new apps that will blow me away or make my life easier. The greatest thing about these things is that most of them are only $1-$2, so what’s the harm in trying them out every now and again? Even if you end up not liking the app, you still spent less than you would on a coffee at Starbucks (but I promise that won’t be the case with this one).

I recently got the chance to be on the test team for a new app from my friend Trey Ratcliff of Stuck In Customs, and it’s been a blast to watch the success of this fun little app.

Since it’s release, 100 Cameras in 1 has climbed to the number 1 spot in the competitive “Paid Photography” category, and is currently (at the time of writing this article) at number 13 overall in the “Top Paid” category. That’s only 12 spots away from Angry Birds!

So, What Is 100 Cameras in 1 all about?

100 Cameras is a really cool app that anybody can use to share photos with friends and family in a fresh, fun way. It’s not too complicated, you don’t have to be a pro to understand it, it’s intuitive, and it’s got a very clean and pretty interface.

Some Sweet Benefits

It’s designed for speed, so it won’t bog down your iphone with lengthy processing times or bulky file sizes.
It gives you a fun way to create unique photos
Unlike other apps where you pick a setting, then take a picture to see how it turns out. This app lets you either take a picture, or choose one from your library, then scroll through and choose from a seemingly endless amount of possible effects and filters for your final result
Gives you the ability to share your creation on Facebook, Twitter, email, and Flickr
Works with Apple’s new “Gamecenter.” Unlock fun achievements and compare with your friends and family
It’s genuinely fun and easy to use

Interface and Overview

For this review, I chose an image from my library of a couple elephant seals I found off the coast of California a few years back. For me, this is one of the reasons I like this app so much. With similar apps, there isn’t an option to choose an image from your library (much less an image taken with a pro level DLSR).

When you open the app from your iPhone menu, you come to the first screen shown above. You can, of course, always click “take photo” instead of choosing from the library. When you choose “create from library,” you’re taken to all the images stored on your iPhone. When you pick one, you are then prompted to crop the image down to a square. This could be seen as an annoyance to some, but it really doesn’t bother me. Almost all the apps like this work in the same way, and the square aspect ratio just adds to the artsy feel of the final result in my opinion.

Once you have your image cropped, simply select “choose.” The app goes to work immediately and within a second kicks out several results to choose from. If you don’t see any you like, you can click the “more” button at the top right to view all the different categories of filters. The filters are separated into groups that are designed for landscapes, people, etc. Over time, you will find filters that you really enjoy and you can add them to your favorites. With the recent update to the app, you can also now stack filters on top of one another, and adjust the opacity of each filter as you see fit.

When you are done stacking filters, changing opacities, and being creative, simply hit share to send the creation out into the world. If you send the image to Facebook, it will be added to a new album titled “100 Cameras in 1” where all your images from the app will be stored in the future. You can send the image out on Twitter or Flickr as well, or you can send the image straight to your printer and throw the image into a frame. If you’re still not satisfied, you can also email the image to anyone you’d like.

As you create and share images, you build up points through Apple’s Gamecenter. These points will of course give you an intrinsic sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, and you can compare your impressive amount of points against your lazy friends and let them know who’s boss. This is just another added benefit to this already cool app.

Here’s the final image after 3 sets of filters at different opacities…

Conclusion

100 Cameras in 1 is a great app that will fit nicely into your homes screen’s photography folder. At only $.99, you really have no reason not to buy this fun little app and give it a try. Heck, for that matter, but a few apps within the same category and have an all out photo creation frenzy. That’s what is so great about apps anyways, they are incredibly cheap and involve little to no risk in purchasing them!

The point of apps like this isn’t to create gallery or magazine quality images, the point is to have fun with every day photos and not take yourself too seriously. If you are an old school photographer who only likes images that are straight out of a camera with absolutely no further post processing or creativity, then this app probably isn’t for you. But if you like having fun with your camera phone, or images you’ve saved to your library, this app will no doubt be a nice creative outlet for you.