camera

DxO Labs has named Samsung's Galaxy S4 a new winner in its mobile-phone camera tests.

The French firm, which specializes in camera optics and image sensor analysis, gave the new Android phone a score of 75 this week, edging out the iPhone 5 at 72. The top scorer is the Nokia 808 Pureview at 77, but that model is hobbled by its Symbian operating system, a commercial failure compared to Apple's iOS in the iPhone and Google's Android in the Galaxy S4.

Perhaps Nokia will have better commercial success with its rumored "Eos" phone, which … Read more

I'm a big fan of Sony's Alpha NEX-7 and NEX-5n mirrorless cameras. They're practically more lens than camera, but both deliver exceptional image quality and advanced features for their small size.

For the past month I've been casually shooting photos and videos on the NEX-7 and scouring the Web for advice on getting the most from this camera. One tip that really changed the way I shoot video is Camera Dojo's advice on matching shutter speed with your camera's frame rate.

In the above video, I'll walk you through the steps to optimize … Read more

With high-quality digital cameras on every smartphone and apps that make your pictures even better, just about anyone can be an accomplished photographer. Sure, you may not be an accomplished photographer in any serious sense, but you can certainly upload your images to photo-sharing sites to get them out to the public and receive feedback to make your shots even better.

As most people know, there are a number of popular services already out there that let you take your shot, add effects and other enhancements, then upload it for all to see. But the other thing that's great … Read more

This cool app will let you create great, filtered photos, but has too many ads. If you can get through the inevitable swarm of them to get to the actual camera, you can take some decent shots with Live Camera With Effects.

Before you can get to the app's camera, you have to sift through not one, but two different ad agreements. You can opt out of them if you want. Even if you don't, Live Camera With Effects will slide ads all over your phone, including the browser and status bar. As for the actual camera, it … Read more

This app inches so close to being the all-in-one photo app you need on Android. Sadly, it has some weird quirks and one glaring omission that make it just miss the mark. Magic Effects Studio Camera is still a solid editing app for your smartphone or tablet. If you like to shoot with your gadget, give it a shot.

One of the first things you might notice about this app is its layout. It's easier on the eyes than a lot of other Android apps, even though the ads it has often make some of the buttons disappear on … Read more

Pencil Camera offers one basic effect and an easy-to-use interface. Some users may find this too rudimentary but there is something to be said about applications that simply work.

At just over 1KB Pencil Camera may be the lightest application ever. Being so small, this app downloads instantly and functions amazingly fast. The user interface is very intuitive and well designed so that even beginners will have no problem operating the application with zero instruction. The main menu allows the user a few basic functions. First the user needs to choose a photograph from the gallery or capture it with … Read more

Photo Collages Camera allows the user to create a collage of images and then share the finished product via e-mail or on some of the most popular social networking platforms. It also allows the user to edit photos and add some basic effects and decorate the image with text.

Photo Collages Camera offers a clean and professionally designed user interface. A black menu bar surrounds the central image and high contrast white lettering accents the menus. Since the user interface is very intuitive, most users will enjoy the ease in which they can navigate the program. Unlike most other photo … Read more

Despite its poorly designed interface and lack of additional features, Adobe DNG Converter for Mac converts image files well, but will not likely appeal to average users who do not work with large numbers of image files.

Adobe DNG Converter for Mac is a free utility that enables photographers to convert the digitally unprocessed image files from many known mid-range and professional digital cameras to a more universal format such as Digital Negative. Download and installation completed quickly, but the application's size of nearly 500MB is overly large for its type. There were no user instructions, but those familiar … Read more

Otaku Camera makes any photo look like a still from an awesome comic book. In addition to adding style to your photos, it gives you headlines about anime, cosplay, and more. It's certainly a must-have app for any anime fans.

Otaku Camera only gives you a handful of generic overlays to start with, but offers almost hundreds of new things to download in its shop. These feature your favorite characters and stills from manga and anime like Tiger and Bunny, and Berserk. During testing, everything in the store was free. That makes it seem unnecessary to have it all … Read more