Customer Reviews

HDR Camera+

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Used on a Droid Bionic

While this camera application takes wonderful photos, it does have a few flaws that I and others have noticed.

I'll start with the flaws:

The app hangs mid shoot occasionally. This is a major flaw that needs to be fixed. While out messing with this earlier, it took 5 attempts to get a shot of outdoor flowers. Each attempt it would hang at either the first or second shot. I'm unsure why it's doing it but it seems to happen more with brighter colors from what I've gathered. Earth tones seems to take fine but whites and vivid colors are when the problems occur.

It's bad enough that you greatly increase your loss percentage from a great shot to not having a shot at all. Even when the app hangs, you cannot do anything with the photo on screen.

The next flaw is one that multiple people have mentioned, the shutter sound. This issue may be linked to my next issue which I'll get to after this. As it says, the option to turn the shutter sound off is broken. I have not found anyway to get it working so you may as well leave the shutter sound left checked "on" to help deter this potential problem for you.

The final issue I've found which may just be an issue with the other app that is running at the same time (endomondo). It seems more random than not, but while my other program is running for music and then taking a few pictures, the music is shut off. I've tried turning the shutter sound on and "off" to no avail. Again, this one may just be the other application and not HDR Pro.

The GOOD:

Beautiful shots are achieved with the use of multiple exposures. You can manage multiple contrast and color settings to help achieve the best style of photographs you want. Some colors do come out over saturated which some people enjoy that (I do for certain things), however you can tone it down to clear it out.

The shots aren't the quickest but they are fast enough to take a few seconds out of your time to stop and shoot. I haven't had issues with ghosting either. I took a picture of a tree with some cars passing by and as the photo processed I was worried that there would be ghosting in the final shot which it was showing at the time, however it cleared it up and just used to first shot for the vehicles while the still background got majorly enhanced. I was pleasantly surprised!

Finally, it's a simple idea and has been used before, but the touch-anywhere-on-the-screen shooting is just the cherry on top of the sundae. No more finger poking the screen trying to find the "shoot" button when taking a self photo.

Conclusion:

Like most things, there are positives and negatives and this application is no different. 4 star rating for it's simplicity and great features, however the flaws while big are just software issues that should be able to be rectified in a patch. Once those get fixed I would easily give it a 5 star rating assuming no more issues came with the update. I highly recommend this camera application but try out the free version first to see if YOU like it's feel and capabilities.

I love this app, auto-HDR *on* the smartphone while you take the picture, and no downloading to the PC? But it doesn't do a large size result -- it takes large HD photos and combines them...into a dinky, cropped picture.

So be sure to turn on the option to save the photos...so you can download them to your PC, so you can use your PC-based HDR software because of this app's cropping.

I have faith that they'll quickly fix it...for now.

Perhaps after they stop playing Gears of War 3 or whatever it is they're doing with all of their time and money...I hope.

I have HTC Incredible (1st generation) from Verizon Wireless.

This app took 3 pictures for each photo you want to shoot. Seems one is lighter, one normal, and one darker. All three pictures combines, using better one of three for each area into a final picture.

Pro: More details and contrast. Human eyes adjust almost instantly when the eyes dart from dark to light to dark ... while a camera has only one choice of brightness at a single moment to cover dark and light areas, so for a very constrasty scene, pictures come out either too dark in some area and too light in other area (for example, early twilight with beautiful sky and already darkened trees). HDR supposed to fix this, and HDR Camera+ definitely fixed this, and created much more usesable pictures.

Con: I would like to have more choice, such as 3 or 5 or 7 pictures combined into one - I would have and see more details. I would like to have control over range of over and under exposures, instead of fixed/automatic. I would like to be able to adjust the camera opening (brightness) as what is normal/average (instead of having auto exposure by phone's camera). Also, zoom control. My camera has zoom control in stock mode, but no zoom capability in HDR Camera+.

Overall, I like this app. I'm sure I will use HDR Camera+ much more than the stock camera app.

This app is a must have for anyone who has ever said this photo I took with my phone is blurry or it was too dark so its grainy or I have a hard time taking good close up photos or its impossible to photograph a moving object but just figured its a cell phone so what do I expect. This app will definitely please you. So good and so worth it. If I hadn't looked up what HDR is I'd assume this was sorcery.

odd that this app is really popular and wellrated on android market but orphaned here because the few reviews here are poor. the current sale price is a steal for this. very useful for capturing better low light pictures (takes 3 pics in a row and processes them). really made a difference on my phone's camera.

My Evo 4G has never taken very good pictures -- so I try anything that might help. This helps! The first picture I took is actually a good picture. It does what HDR should do; it renders high-contrast scenes closer to what the human eye sees/processes.

I've used a lot of different HDR software programs with a DSLR. Results are usually reasonable but never great. I don't expect this will app will ever deliver a great picture, but it sure beats what the basic phone camera can do on its own.

Nice to know I have another option when the big DSLR is home. I'm pleasantly surprised, and suitably impressed.

This app is fantastic, takes legitimate HDR photographs. To the idiot who said it takes more than 1 picture google what HDR is you fool. It's supposed to do that for a reason. Works perfect and doesnt even ghost if your hand moves a little. Works great in low light as well.

First off the speed this app takes the shots is horrible. There is a 3 second delay in between each capture. so if anything moves at all in the frame the final image has motion blur. Now with this new update it forces the camera to be badly out of focus on Droid X. I know it is this app that's the problem cause the stock camera app and a burst pic app both work perfectly.

You need a very steady hand, but it will do a good job of taking three photos and merging them together so you can see the dark areas without blowing out the well lit areas. Nice. But I seldom use it as I seldom have the patience to hold the camera that steady for that long and then wait for it to process the images.

Fast and effective, this is the best Android HDR app I've tried. My Motorola Electrify (same as a Photon) has less than average exposure control adjustments and range, so having this app lets me get shots in situations the regular camera just couldn't pull off.

Hand held shots don't require holding your breath for pearl-diver-lengths of time, like some of the other apps. You can shoot like normal with this app. Focusing is accurate, minimal haloing occurs. However blues are over saturated and slightly unnatural, even at the 'pure' setting. No artifacts occur except for occasional grain, even in daylight shots. This might be attributed to the camera itself, since the Electrify is pretty grainy when its sensor isn't given enough data.

There's plenty of controls in the settings, which I leave all at the default (middle) options except for 'Color Vividness' because of the blues alone. The different exposures can be saved for later manipulations.

I've tried a few others, including Pro HDR, which is a much better app on the iOS (my favorite HDR that I've tried on my iPod Touch), but the speed is unusable handheld and the effects are not near as customizable on Android. And the images don't go into the default gallery easily.

I'd give this app 5 stars, but the saturation really should have more control.