OK, so I have just spent a whopping £1.79 on PhotoCalc in the iTunes store. There goes my morning cappuccino. Well, half of it anyway.
At first read, it looks like the perfect little application to have on my iPhone - Which I just love by the way.
I already use my iPhone for carrying around my portfolio, keeping sample images I come across containing elements of lighting, composure or just whatever I really like the look of in an image I see and make sure that I have with me as a little reference of keys should I need a little extra inspiration on a shoot (inspiration galleries if you like). I use it to record potential locations that I may see while I’m out and about, issue images and posts to blogs when appropriate, all-sorts of stuff. Basically it’s a fantastic tool if you’re a photographer. And even if you’re not. I even use it as a phone.
NB - I have seen in a couple of blogs indications that you need iPhoto to sync and maintain your iPhone. You do if that’s all you have. But if you have Aperture, don’t forget that you can also use that as the default application for managing your camera roll.
However, if you’re looking for a review - not yet I’m afraid. I quite literally just bought the app. It’s not even installed on my iPhone yet - but most certainly soon will be.
I just wanted to; along with others (Strobist reference to the app & a review on Wired.) make sure that you were at least aware of it. And, let you know that I and my team will be giving it a bit of a good thrashing over the next week or so, then reporting what we found, thought etc. here on the blog.
If you are already using it, please feel free to add your experiences and thoughts to this post and we’ll be sure to reference them in our review.
UPDATE....
Photocalc for the iPhone form the iTunes store - A follow-up review after buying it...
Executive Summary:
A little pointless for us sadly...
Why:
I have had my Canon 1D Mkiii for a while now and I have developed a sense of how the depth of field is going to work for me with each of my lenses. So, the Depth of Field calculator is interesting, but not really important enough to use regularly as I spot focus on what I want and recompose, check the screen and re-shoot at different settings if needed.
Now, for our Hasselblads - 503 & 903SWC, this tool would be fantastic as they are both totally manual cameras. So the figures given would be of huge use to us.
But. Out of the apparent thousands of cameras listed in the preferences, there were no Hasselblads. And after a quick flick through, the vast majority were point and click digital cameras or SLR digitals.
In my humble opinion, the true value of this tool is its application with manual systems, whatever they are. With digital cameras of almost any type, the ability to do a quick snap, check, change settings and re-shoot kind of negates the need for a number cruncher to run before pressing the shutter.
This tool is for planning a shot or shoot.
On the first use for a paid shoot, it didn’t to a simple, fundamental calculation I required. That being, in a studio at a given aperture on a given body and a given focal length, at a given distance what was my usable DoF going to be so I could mark it out on the set.
It may very well be able to do some very useful and quite amazing calculations for you - but for me, the first time I wanted to use its abilities, it failed. So sadly, I have to say, as I was really hoping this would be a winner, if you are looking to use this as it will most likely used - On manual camera/flash systems - you really need to check that your camera system is supported.
As it failed for me at the very first hurdle, that’s where my evaluation ended.
But, if they add support for our cameras (I don’t want approximate, that’s why I paid for a solution that was accurate), I’ll be a very happy bunny and buy a copy for the other guys in the team. And then give it a proper review.
Any chance of an update guys?
It has been long before I can find some useful articles about Your views truly open my mind.
Your do have some unique ideas here and I expect more articles from you.
Posted by: digital camera | July 20, 2010 at 03:53 AM