Almost DSLR Review

Developer: Rainbow Silo
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1.1

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Almost DSLR is obviously an App built for specific users looking for a few extra customized settings for their iPhone. I'll explain a couple of them here, and you can judge for yourself if this is something you feel that you'll need to take control over when it comes to taking pictures with your iPhone.

To be fair, the new Camera on the iPhone 4 is spectacular! Even if you're still using a 3GS, I know lots of iPhone users simply use their iPhone as their main digital camera, and as such, you'll sometimes want to be able to have more customization than is readily available in the built-in Camera App. The first and most useful feature of aDSLR has got to be the Camera Quality setting. Why this is not a feature built within iOS, I have no idea. But being able to choose at what quality/resolution you take your photos and video is a huge advantage. For the casual user this might be one of the only features you'll use in this App, but at least it does it well - it is selectable within the settings.

Everything else that this App does is available to toggle on/off some custom settings from within the Heads Up Display, like a dashboard for your screen while it's in viewfinder mode. You can toggle the details for the HUD on or off from the screwdriver icon. Lets get into the finer points of what this App offers.

The first few options are simple. Flash on/off or 'Torch' on/off (this is just the LED light continuously on, such as in video mode). Focus, just like the regular Camera app, is a simple single-tap to focus. The following features, however, are what this App is for. First, you have the option to turn the 'Mirror' setting on or off (to flip your photos once snapped). Next is the Exposure setting, where you can lock it, or have it continually reset. While (sadly) it's still impossible to manually set your exposure time/shutter speed using the iPhone Camera, here at least you can set your light-level based on your preference by double-tapping, and it need not necessarily be your focal point.

The same options, Lock or Continuous, are available for your White Balance, too. Having the camera constantly check & recheck on the White balance really helps maintain those colors the way they should be. Finally, you'll find the option to turn on/off Grids on your display screen.

There is more information on the HUD, basically giving you photo info and status info, but I'm going to be honest, I'm not 100% sure what all of it means.

I do take a lot of photos with my iPhone. However, unless you're looking to be very particular about your exposure and whatnot, this might not be for you. I've used this App several times to record lower-quality videos, and it really did that well. So since it's so inexpensive, it might be worth to pick up for that alone.

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