Nowadays, a good camera is not exclusive to only a high-end phone; there are plenty of great mid-level phones out there with pretty great cameras, thank you very much. However, sometimes, the stock camera isn’t enough for your imagination and artistry to run free. At those times, select an app from the following list and start clicking.
Camera ZOOM FXApart from being a pretty good app, Camera Zoom FX has a great feature – instead of just letting you use a bunch of preset filters/effects, it lets you create your own filter by picking the effects you like. Of course, there are nice preset ones as well, but just think of all the possibilities with choice! A personal favourite, the app is also fast, lets you take stable shots and includes time-lapse, HDR, a timer and burst modes. In fact, this is one of the very few apps for Android that comes close to giving you the kind of shots processed by iOS’s Hipstamatic.
DSLR Camera ProAh, a good DSLR. We all desire one, but not a lot of us can afford a great one, and still lesser have the patience and strength to lug it around. This app does its best to convert your phone’s camera as close to one as possible, though. Of course, you can’t expect the exact same quality, but this app is much better than most other DSLR cam apps for phones on the market. Just like a DSLR, the app lets you fiddle with the white balance, ISO, exposure, set the focus area, et al. You can also ‘geotag’ your shots and add effects. All features, of course, are hardware dependent.
Open CameraA treat for us open source lovers (of course, if you really are one, you should have this app already), Open Camera is a famous, highly rated camera project. It has a great set of features – from face detection to ISO and White Balance controls – that rival those of many DSLR camera apps. It even includes an option “to optimise GUI for left and right-handed users”. As great as the app is, the developer has included one disclaimer: there isn’t much support available for CyanogenMod (CM11) as “CyanogenMod doesn’t appear to offer any means of testing without a real device (e.g., no emulator AVD images, no remote device testing)”.
Paper CameraThis one has been around for quite a while and is a mass favourite – despite the fact that it has only one filter. However, who am I to diss what the junta clearly adores? (Not that this app isn’t a personal favourite!). You can use Paper Camera to give a funky, cartoony, papery effect to all your pictures – just open the app, frame your shot and click.
