CameraBag App: A different view of Akiba
One thing that I didn’t mention yet on this blog is that I own an iPhone. I bought it mainly for it’s capable web browser even though Safari crashes much too often. The camera has the same megapixel count as the one included in my last cell phone. Still, the one in the iPhone is much better.
It still is only a two megapixel cam that only does decent picture under very good lighting conditions. After trying out the Street Fighter IV arcade machine (Sagat is as mean as ever – no chance against him with Chun Li), I experimented with an iPhone application called “CameraBag”.
What CameraBag does is changing the photo after it was taken. Ironically, it tries to make the less-than-impressive pictures from the iPhone camera even worse, by simulating vintage or toy cameras. I think it works quite well, even if some pics still look too clean. Some of these simulated cameras have a cult following, such as the Holga. These and other cams can still be bought new for reasonable prices at stores like Village Vanguard here in Tokyo.
The exciting thing about these cameras is that you never know exactly how they ruin your picture, though each model has some characteristics. My very first digital camera often darkened the edges, over-saturated reddish color tones, changed the color balance towards blue or made other funny things. When I visited the same island again (Sylt) and took pictures with my current DSLR, I was almost disappointed by the clean and sharp photos!
So I can recommend the CameraBag software. I especially liked the Helga and Logo effects, while I think that the 1962 and 1974 effects could be improved. The only effect I was disappointed in was the Cinema one which is just a lame widescreen filter.
