“For the last several weeks, I’ve downloaded over a dozen camera and video apps for the iPhone, and though each has something unique to offer, I was particularly interested in finding the most practical camera app that would address the limitations of Apple’s built-in camera app. As of this week, I think I’ve found it – Jens Daemgen’s ProCamera.”

The excerpt above is from an article by professional photographer Bakari Chavanu, who recently tested the most popular iPhone camera replacement apps. In his April 23rd post, Chavanu compared over a dozen camera and video apps (ranked by popularity) and concluded that ProCamera was his first and ‘best’ choice. Here’s a summary of the main reasons why, in Chavanu’s opinion, ProCamera ‘bested’ the rest …

• ProCamera’s tools take the built-in iPhone camera app to another level and enhance your ability to take crisp, professional looking photos.
• ProCamera’s Preview allows you to turn off iPhone camera’s ‘automatic save’ and view each shot before opting to ‘save.’ Far more iPhotos are destined for the trash than a ‘saved’ treasure, and ProCamera’s Preview can be a big time saver (no pun intended).
• The Rapid Fire mode on ProCamera allows you to shoot a series of photos in rapid succession. This is particularly valuable when attending a sporting event or when capturing any action photos. Capturing that one great shot often necessitates a rapid fire function and ProCamera delivers.
• Video Cam. ProCamera’s well designed interface and icons simplify and clarify the transition from photo to video mode.
• While the list is too long to detail here, ProCamera features and post-processing tools deliver a panoply of ‘cool’, ‘fun’ and ‘functionality.’ Chavanu’s short list of ProCamera favorites includes: ProLab, ProCut, ProFX, Anti-Shake (stabilization), exposure adjustment, white balance adjustment, temperature adjustment, self-timer, volume trigger, social network sharing, + a built-in QR code reader.

Chavanu wraps up with a few final thoughts;

“While there are a couple of other advanced camera apps that I also keep in a home page folder on my iPhone, ProCamera is the one I’ve been using most often now for ease of use and its advanced features. Camera+ Pro and Camera Awesome are two other great options, but they both lack the preview shots feature that I find really useful in ProCamera.

Lastly, ProCamera is one of the few advanced camera apps that actually comes with a manual written in different languages. Though it’s not well illustrated, the developers do at least explain each of the app’s features. The ProCamera website also lists here what features are available on different iDevices, including the iPhone 3G.”

For a more detailed review of ProCamera, please read Bakari Chavanu’s complete article > From The Default iPhone Camera to the ‘Better’ ProCamera for Serious Shutterbugs