Snapture 2.0: The Review, The Video, and The Contest (Updated)

by Eric March on August 24, 2008 at 10:30 pm

NOTE: An update is at the bottom of the article regarding last-minute changes to the nature of the contest and slight change in the rules.

Last Thursday I posted about the release of Snapture 2.0 to jailbreak users via Cydia. I was at work at the time and hadn’t yet gone through the whole jailbreak thing on the 3G, so I couldn’t play with it right away. That night however, I corrected that situation, and of course the first thing I did was grab Snapture off Cydia to give it a shot — pardon the pun.

Now, you’ll recall once again that my initial impression to the first release of Snapture left me duly impressed. The built-in camera app should have had those features out of the box, but all we got was the most elementary of snapshot cameras — like a slightly better, digital version of the cardboard disposables you buy for ten bucks when you want to go on vacation but suck at photography so you don’t really care how your shots come out so long as they’re clear enough that you can point and laugh at that candid shot of Uncle Pontius you got when the crab he picked up off the beach decided to give him a titty twister.

Snapture appeared on the scene and immediately presented itself as a game changer for iPhone photography. Sure, the built-in camera takes pretty basic off-the-cuff shots good enough for the web, but hardly suitable for framing — maybe a really small frame — but anything that can help you take better shots with it is more than welcome, and Snapture did just that and more. With its ability to take successive burst shots in 1 or 2 second intervals, its photo processing queue allowing you to take your next shot without waiting for it to finish processing the previous one, its three image sizes, black & white mode, on-screen levelling assistant, all-screen shutter button, hideaway menu (in later versions), fully granular 1-3x digital zoom slider, and more, it was everything you needed to make the most out of the iPhone’s camera, and an absolute essential in any iPhone user’s digital kit bag.

Now Snapture 2.0 has appeared on the scene, and this time, it’s changing its own game. The hard-working and frankly brilliant folks at Snapture Labs have refused to be content with good, and have managed to outdo themselves in wonderful and unexpected ways. They’ve listened to user suggestions, improved the UI, fixed issues, and added some fantastic new features that repeatedly one-up its own predecessor. The results are an app that’s pushing hard for status as a work of art.

In fact, I’ve been so impressed with the latest release of Snapture and am so sure that anyone reading this will be too that I’ve worked with Snapture Labs to give away 3 (three!) Snapture 2.0 Premium licenses! We’ll get to the contest later. First, let’s get on with the review. After the break, I’ll give you the lowdown on all the features of both the basic, ad-supported version and the premium version, covering all of its many facets. I am accompanying the textual portion of this review with a video, because many of the features here really must be seen in action for the nuances to be fully appreciated.

The Changes
For the most part, there’s really no need to rehash the basic functionality of Snapture. Everything I wrote about in the original Snapture article and its v1.3 and v1.4 followups with regards to its feature set remain true in Snapture 2.0 — nothing has been taken away here, just improved upon and esthetically modified.

The most obvious changes here are the newly redesigned UI and the addition of some new features in the function strip. The image below is a composite of all three menu pages. As with version 1.3 and above, the arrow below the menu can be tapped to hide it and get it out of the way of your shot when it isn’t needed.

The other most immediate change newcomers to Snapture 2.0 will notice is the ad strip along the top and, by extension, the fact that the app has switched to a pay model for the premium version that will get rid of the ads, the opening nag screen, and unlock a few new (but most excellent) features.

I know there is a vocal component of the jailbreak scene that is, as you read this, currently unhinging its collective jaw in preparation for a tirade on its interpretation of the ethics of pay software in the jailbreak scene. (“Jailbreak software should be free,” “I’m just going to get it cracked because it’s wrong that it’s pay,” “They’re making money off the backs of the Dev Team without whom they could never write their programs!” and other such weak, nonsensical rationalizations that I’ve heard innumerable times before). To that component I say: Whew! Eat a damn mint! And also, if you think you’ll be able to get this kind of app in the App Store, forget it. The SDK doesn’t allow it. They have no choice but to release it to the jailbreak community, so if they want to try and make some money from it, more power to ‘em. I hope they do.

But I didn’t come here to rant, I came here to rave and make dumb jokes. Those of you who are bothered by the ad strip at the top will have to shell out to get rid of ‘em — but if you choose not to, Snapture is still exceptionally useful, and while you may not get a couple of its shiniest new features, you still get everything the original Snapture was and more, and you can use that freely for as long as you want. You may have to put up with tiny ads, but so what? You’re getting hands-down the best iPhone camera app in existence and one of the best jailbreak apps of all time for free. Don’t complain, or I’ll call Uncle Pontius over to show you what that crab taught him.

The Features
Here’s where it gets fun. We already know the basics of what Snapture can do based on its earlier versions, but there’s a lot more to it this time around, including updates on existing features.

The first thing is getting to know the icons, what they do, and how they work. Snapture features a pretty comprehensive and robust help system available in two ways. The first and most obvious is the on-board help system. You can get it to it by tapping on the “Info” button on the top-right, then tapping the Help button along the right. From there you’ll be brought to a well-appointed, picture-sporting help menu that goes over every feature by its icon and how to use it. I might also add that this is possibly the nicest looking help menu ever.

The second (but less descriptive) way to get help is through tooltips that hide behind each icon in the toolbar. Tap and hold an icon and a tooltip will pop up telling you what the function is, its available settings, and which setting is currently active.

To change the setting of a particular function, just tap it. It will cycle through its available settings, and the icon will change accordingly. The toolbar has three pages of icons, and you navigate the pages simply by tapping an arrow to either side of the toolbar. Like Springboard, there are dots beneath the bar to tell you what page you are on. Small things, but nice things.

Now that we’ve gotten to know how to get help and have shaken hands with the toolbar, let’s check out what this thing can actually do.

New Colour Modes
The last version of Snapture could do colour or black & white, which was a nice addition at the time. Version 2.0 has now been pimped out with two more modes: Sepia and Negative. Sepia makes your pictures look like they were taken with a vintage Baby Brownie or similar — you know, back in the olden days, before they invented black and white. Negative is just what it sounds — it turns every colour into its compliment (opposite, or negative) colour. Not very practical, but fun for a bit of artistic flair.

Pinch Zoom
Digital zoom can now be accomplished with the usual pinch gesture, which is pretty cool. As you pinch, Snapture will display your current zoom level with a granularity down to 1/100ths. Sometimes you just want to get a wee bit tighter or looser on your subject.

Enhanced Self-Timer
The same selectable time increments (2, 5 or 10 seconds) are still here, but the screen now displays a countdown from the selected time, and the ability to cancel the timer, and thus the shot entirely. Great if you’re trying to get in a group shot when Grandpa’s incontinence catches up with him again and he runs off to the can.

Geotagging
This is largely one of those under-the-hood changes you probably don’t think much about, but for 3G users, Snapture supports geotagging photos — just in case anyone was worried about losing that functionality by using a different camera app.

Background Processing Notification
The previous versions let you know that it was processing a photo with the usual spinning cog. This has been changed to a more subtle white pulsation of the “a” in the Snapture logo at the top. When it’s doing its thing, you’ll see it there.

Larger Background Processing Queue
In previous versions you were generally limited to being able to take about 3 shots in rapid succession before its background processing queue filled up and you had to wait for a slot to open before you could take your next shot. Not generally a big deal as it was fairly quick, but still a limitation. The queue has been expanded in this latest version, giving you the ability to snap off quite a few shots in succession without ever hitting the limit — in fact, after snapping off 7 or 8 pictures I still hadn’t hit the limit. I didn’t want to take any more because then I’d have to delete them all. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of background slots anymore.

Extra Shutter Button
In case you’d rather not touch the screen when taking a shot, the volume buttons have been commandeered to perform shutter duty. Plus, it makes it feel more like a real camera when you get to press a real button.

The Premium Features
Now we come to the real question: What does your hard-earned $8 get you, and is it worth it? Brother, let me just show you a few things.

No ads
We’ll just get the obvious one out of the way: The small ads at the top will take a hike.

Touch Zone
This is one of those small-but-awesome things that I love discovering in apps and really shows how much thought was put into how people use their software. Touch Zone is a shot primer, and is a way to take shots without tapping on the screen. Instead, you tap and hold anywhere on the screen that isn’t a button. A translucent cyan dot will appear under your held finger; this lets you know that your shot is primed. To take the shot, just lift the finger. If you decide you don’t want to take the shot after all (say, the cat you were hoping would make a funny face to the lens instead wanders off in search of something to kill — like your recliner), slide your finger outside the touch zone and the shot will be cancelled. Great for moments when you’re not sure if you’ll get the shot but want to be ready in case you do. The Touch Zone can be configured in three different sizes from small (about the radius of your fingertip) to large (about three times that).

QuickView
Best for last? Naturally. QuickView is the centerpiece of Snapture 2.0. It streamlines the way you take pictures with your iPhone in such a way that once you use it, you’ll never be able to live without it and wonder how anyone else does.

Once enabled, your most recently taken photos (for your current session) will be thumbnailed and piled on to a stack on either the lower left or lower right of the screen (configurable). The stack can hold your most recent 4 shots. If you tap on the stack, it will expand to reveal thumbnails of all four most recent shots. From there, you can tap and hold for a full-screen (more or less) preview of the image, in case you want to admire your work or see whether or not the shot is worth keeping. If it isn’t, lift to send the pic back to the stack, then tap and slide the offending image across the screen. You’ll be presented with the option to delete the image or cancel.

That means that, at least when it comes to your most recent images, you won’t have to jump over to your photo roll to view your images and delete the ones you don’t want. This can now all be accomplished right from within Snapture in a manner that it is simple, intuitive, and unobtrusive — it stays out of the way when it isn’t needed but it’s easily accessible when you do. If you feel you don’t want the stack at all, it can be disabled entirely, and reenabled when you want it back.

The Bottom Line
You all know by now that I already loved Snapture since its debut, so it should come as no surprise that I think Snapture 2.0 is da bomb and da shizznit and whatever the hell else the kids are saying these days. Snapture Labs took a great thing and managed to improve upon it in ways both handy, beautiful, and unexpected — the good kind of unexpected, not the UFIA kind. What they’ve managed to come up with is a camera app for the iPhone that manages to have features that don’t even exist in dedicated cameras — but should. It has grown far beyond simply being the camera app that Apple should have made, having now become one of the best arguments for the continued existence of the jailbreak scene.

So is it perfect?  No — nothing is, really, but I’ll be honest: It was hard finding something to retch about, and regular readers of my review columns should know that I’ll pick on just about anything.  The screen refresh could be faster, but that could very well be the iPhone not having enough horsepower to handle what’s going on well.  I’d still like to see a few more live pre-processing options like brightness, contrast, levelling, white balance options, and stuff like that, but those are just feature requests, not deficiencies.  The icon for the negative colour effect could maybe differentiate itself a bit more from the standard colour icon — but that’s nitpicking.  More than 4 recent photos in QuickView would be nice, maybe have them expand out into a second column when you open the stack, but again, feature request.  Frankly, there’s really nothing worth moaning about.  I haven’t encountered any bugs (yet), there are no functions that come across as counterintuitive, nothing got in my way as I got down to some serious picture taking — if anything it made a point of getting out of my way — and I have absolutely no issue with the aesthetics, so I have nothing I can get snarky about.  Damn them.

Is it worth the sticker price for Premium? Every last penny. But don’t take my word for it — take my other word for it in this video, where I’ll give the once-over for everything you’ve just read so you can get a far better idea of what Snapture 2.0 has in store for you by seeing everything in action in a practical (or at least inoffensive) setting.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

If you’re reading this from the iPhone, click here for the YouTube verison.

The Contest
Now that you’ve had a chance to get all up into every nook and cranny of Snapture 2.0 and should by now have deposited a sizable lake of saliva into your lap, how would you like a chance to win yourself a free Snapture 2.0 Premium license? Of course you would.

We’ve got three (3!) of them to give away courtesy of Snapture Labs, and we’re gonna make this one easy — no drawing or artsy fartsy stuff. All you need is a jailbroken device, the free version of Snapture, and you.

All we want for a chance to win is a screenshot. Nothing more, nothing less. Download Snapture 2.0 from Cydia, load it up, aim the camera at something and take a screenshot. (For iPhone 2.0 users, hold HOME, then press the POWER button; for first-gen users, hold HOME while flipping the mute switch) Aim at anything that catches your eye or is interesting to you. (No body parts that are best left concealed — yours or otherwise.) Your house? Of your town? Your back yard? You? Sasquatch? (Not the rubber kind) Maybe you’d prefer nature shots of flowers, trees, the sky, perhaps still life shots, pictures of empty candy bar wrappers — whatever Snapture’s viewfinder sees that pleases you, we’d love to see it.  The world is your light box, and we want to see what you see through Snapture’s lens.

That’s really it. Frame a shot and then take a screenshot from within Snapture and then E-Mail it to us at snapturecontest@touchpodium.com with the subject line “Snapture Contest Submission.”  (If you click the link you just passed, that will be filled in for you.)  Just attach your image to the E-Mail and send it off. It would be nice if you could describe what Snapture is looking at maybe explain where it was taken and/or what it is a picture of, just so we can describe it if it wins — but it’s not totally necessary.

But let’s get some pesky contest rules out of the way first:

• This contest is open to everyone in any city, town, province, state, country, planet, system, galaxy, cluster, or universe, of any age group, gender, colour, creed, race, social strata, religious persuasion, sexual orientation, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, or sub-species.  Except marmosets.  You’re still not welcome here after that last time.  I still haven’t gotten the stains out.  And Bill O’Reilly, just because.
• You can enter as many times as you like
• Your screenshots must be original and unaltered.
• Seriously, no pictures of your dangly bits.  Like, eww.  Keep ‘em clean and wholesome.  If your mother would cuff you for showing them to her, so will we.
• Contest deadline is 11:59:59 PM, Sunday, September 7th, 2008.
• By submitting your photograph, you are implicitly granting Touch Podium and Snapture Labs the right to use and display your unaltered screenshot on touchpodium.com, snapturelabs.com, and their affiliates, for any purpose, for an indefinite period of time.
• The winners will be selected by Snapture Labs staff.  All decisions are final.

In case you miss or forget about it, there’s a handy link at the nav bar on the top of the site entitled “Snapture Screenshot Contest” you can use to review the rules, submit your photos, and see other people’s entries as they roll in.

That’s it!  Grab Snapture if you have’t already and get snapping!

UPDATE: At Snapture Labs’ request, I have changed the contest slightly to a screenshot contest instead of a full-on photo contest, so please recheck the contest section for details.

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