Camera+ was one of the very first and very best photo apps in the App Store. There’s no question that it even helped kick off the whole iPhoneography fad. Now the makers behind Camera+ are back with a new companion app called MagiCam that aims to make smartphone photography quick and simple.
Whereas Camera+ was a very slow and deliberate app letting users seriously tweak their images, MagiCam is a one-touch app for shooting and sharing. As such the app opens up to a word less visual interface with only a few virtual buttons to turn on the flash, change cameras, transform the frame into Instagram square, and select filters. Below the set of controls there’s also a filmstrip, which displays the images users have shot so far.
As for the simplicity of the app, it all starts as soon as shooter tap on the shutter button. Once the camera takes an image, the app automatically processes the image brightening colors, brightening the frame, and other unseen processing effects. MagiCam never surfaces what it is doing to users’ images, instead the app simply visualizes it is processing photos by adding sparkling stars onto the photo.
While there aren’t any many settings that iPhone shooters can alter manually, they can set what filters are applied to their images. Tap on the rainbow colored wheel in the lower right and a flower-shaped array displaying nine separate live view versions of your final image. These options include “Dramatic,” which turns the frame monochromatic, saturated “Cheerful” images, and a green tinted “Envious” filter.
If users aren’t happy with their filter choice, tapping on the image in the filmstrip will let them reselect their chosen effects. From the app users can also share their images with a number of social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or opt to import their pictures to Camera+ for deeper level fixes.
MagiCam might not leverage the same level of control as many other serious camera apps such as VSCO Cam, Snapseed, or Tap Tap Tap’s own Camera+, but this is entirely by design. Instead MagiCam is fun app made for beginners without any intimidating or difficult controls.
Unfortunately from my own experiences using an iPhone 4S, the MagiCam app seemed lagged often and crashed more than a few times. The app will probably run better on newer devices like the iPhone 5S, but for now it seems Tap Tap Tap’s latest app is a bit too heavyweight for older generation Apple smartphones. Still this is an app that users should definitely check out to make their photos look automagically better.
MagiCam is iOS app available for $0.99 in the iTunes Store.
Kevin Lee is a freelance writer who types all day and listens to his ever-expanding music library. Follow Kevin Lee on Twitter at @baggingspam.