Camera+ for iPad
Our favorite iPhone camera brings its best tools to iPad
$4.99 Developer tap tap tap, camera.plus Platform iPad Requirements iOS 8 or later
Camera+ is one of the best iPhone photography apps, but its iPad version had lagged behind in terms of the latest and greatest tools – but no more! Version 2 of Camera+ for iPad updates the app’s look to be more modern (though still eschewing the standard iOS style for its own interface), and crucially includes a new set of tools called “The Lab.”
This includes high-quality adjustments ranging from sharpen and blur tools, to color and tone tweaks, to effects such as film grain. It also includes Clarity Pro, the special filter that has always been the app’s ace in the hole. The basic version of this filter boosts contrast and vibrancy to turn even the roughest phone photo into a smart-looking snap. The Pro version lets you adjust the individual aspects of this filter, so you can apply the same effect more subtly to boost better photos.
Not only have these great new tools been added, but they include support for Apple Pencil, so you can apply them selectively – though the implementation is poor, sadly. You can choose different brush sizes, but not how hard the edges are. You also can’t see which areas you’ve selected (or deselected, since the default is to apply the effect globally, then let you erase sections) clearly – there’s no colored overlay as you draw, which makes precision extra hard. Still, the photo tools themselves are great, though lack the precision of something like MaxCurve. Its camera mode is also good, with easy manual settings.
the bottom line. A very fine set of tools, but it’s a shame the brush support is weak. Matt Bolton