Ovi has apps to make your Nokia’s camera smile and say cheese

Recently, over at the Ovi Daily App we’ve been having a lot of fun with the 12-megapixel camera built in to our Nokia N8 devices. We won’t bore you with how cool the camera is – you all know that stuff already. But, we’re not just using the camera … ...

Recently, over at the Ovi Daily App we’ve been having a lot of fun with the 12-megapixel camera built in to our Nokia N8 devices. We won’t bore you with how cool the camera is – you all know that stuff already. But, we’re not just using the camera … we’re using apps that enhance and extend the functionality of the built-in camera, in a wide range of cool and clever ways.

I hadn’t really realized it until doing the research for this blog post, but we’ve already reviewed five different camera apps this month alone – and it’s only half-way through April! If we didn’t know better, we might have mistaken this for National Photography Month, which is apparently every May. (You knew that, right?)

Let’s take a look at a sample of those apps – and the cool-looking results – now.

First up is the HDR Photo Camera app by Romania’s Intellsys. HDR stands for “high dynamic range”, which refers to a technique that can overcome a limitation found in virtually all cameras. Whether you are using film or a digital image sensor, most cameras are limited in their ability to record extremely dark and extremely bright areas in the same photograph. As our reviewer explained:  “The HDR technique manages to cover the full breadth of this wider range of tonal values by merging several images, each made at a different exposure. In the case of this app, three exposures – light, medium, and dark – are made of the subject and these are then “fused” together, a process that can take as much as 1 minute.” So, this app requires some patience, but the results are really worthwhile.

Here’s an example of the results from our reviewer:

Notice in the image above that the sky shows some late-in-the-day color and that there is lots of detail in the parking areas to the right. And what you see in the same scene without the HDR app in use – it lacks the detail you see above.

HDR Photo Camera is serious stuff – and you will need to be prepared to pay for it. The Qt-based app is $9.99 (USD) in Store, but for those who want take their photography to the next step, this app is well worth it. It is compatible with Nokia S60 5.0 devices and new Symbian devices like the Nokia N8.

Similar to HDR Photo Camera is an app called Camera Pro for N8 by developer Harald Meyer. As our reviewer in the Daily App noted: “As you work with the app you start to find new ways it helps you be more creative.”

Among the many features and functions in this app, you will find the following – as shown in the screenshot above  (clockwise from upper right) white balance, contrast, ISO speed, camera mode (pic / video), tools controls, auto focus, macro preset, landscape preset, creative image processing, and flash control. In the center of the screen you see controls exposed from the tools gear icon, including some advanced features like anti-shake, burst (a rapid sequence of shots to “get the good one”), time lapse (interval controllable in dedicated menu), and video.

If you are amazed at how good stock photos from your N8 come out, try Camera Pro for N8 and prepare to be stunned. If you have a different model of Nokia smartphone check out Camera Pro instead. Both apps are available in Store for $2.99 (USD).

Maybe you aren’t quite ready to go pro, but you still want your photos to look as cool as can be … Well we have two quick ideas to share with you.

The first is called Colorizit, and like its name implies, this gives you a way to easily “paint” on top of your images, selectively adding color to different parts as you go.

Finished Colorizit images can be saved to the phone’s memory or, with a click of the appropriate icons inside Colorizit itself, posted via data connection to either your Facebook or Flickr pages as a way to share the work with friends and the public.

Colorizit by Gamelion (which is part of BLStream) is as clever and well-designed a mobile app as we’ve seen. And it’s not expensive, either: just $0.99 (USD) in Store. There is much more information about this easy-to-use Qt-based app, and how it works in the complete review.

Finally, how about a free photo-sharing app that will bring a smile to your face – and that of everyone else who sees the results you create, too. I’m talking about the new app from HLP International called Molome. This app is also exclusive to Nokia right now, and it is available for Nokia’s S60 5.0 devices and new Symbian devices like the Nokia N8. Since this is a Qt-based app, as our guest reviewer Micky Aldridge from Nokiausers.net noted, you will find that it is very smooth, speedy, and very easy to figure out.

To start, create your free account from the Molome website, then connect the app to your social media accounts (either Twitter and/or Facebook), and you can begin. Click the “Share” button within the app to take a picture using your phone’s camera – you will have the choice of toggling the flash On/Off, as well as using auto focus or macro settings. Then, you can then start adding a variety of filters to your photos within Molome (including color options, sepia tones, borders, the look of old paper or slide film and more – 16 in all for now), and upload the results to your Molome online account, which will then also share your photo to your social networks, it’s a simple as that.

To show you how much fun you can have with Molome, take a look at this really wonderful stop-motion video created by the developers, using a Nokia N8:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Molome is free to download in Store; and while it is new, you will find that loads of enhancements are on the way. Give it a try, and prepare to become a Molome fan!

What photo apps do you use on your Nokia device? Share your ideas in the Comments section below.

 

Source : http://blog.ovi.com/2011/04/15/ovi-has-apps-to-mak...