Real Digital Zoom App on 3Gs?

I've been trying out some of the Free camera apps looking for one with a decent digital zoom. Believe me I know digital zoom is not the same or nearly at good as real optical zoom, but we're stuck with what the iPhone hardware gives us.

The (free) apps I've tried so far just crop the image which to me is cheating and lame. Is there an app out there that doesn't crop and call it "zoom" feature? Paid or free, but free is of course preferred.

Here are the apps I've tried...

A+ Camera Zoom
Camera Plus
Zoom Agent Lite
Free Digital Zoom

 MacPro 1.1, 2 x 3GHz Dual Cores, Mac OS X (10.5.8), MacBook Pro, iPhone 3GS (3.1.2)

Posted on Jan 17, 2010 12:07 AM

Reply
12 replies

Jan 17, 2010 9:58 AM in response to modular747

That's true modular747, but most digital cameras that I know anyway go ahead and enlarge the image in camera to bring it back up to the native size. Granted the interpolation during enlargement sacrifices quality but at least the result is a 'full-size' photo without having to do the work afterwards in post, although the latter can be a little better since you have more control in post processing.

Of course in the end it's probably just better to avoid any 'digital zoom' anyway, but the convenience factor can be nice sometimes. So I'm wondering if any iPhone camera apps do the crop/enlargement (aka zoom) in the phone... ?

Jan 18, 2010 10:22 AM in response to modular747

modular747 - I think you replied to me that you never even used an iPhone before...

+"in fact I've never actually used an iPhone at all. I figured I'd spend my time BSing through this forum until someone figured this out. After 2800+ posts, you finally did..."

I guess you or someone else must have removed that post. If that's true then you shouldn't have written what you did describing a phantom feature of Camera Genius. I used your bogus info to purchase the app and now I'm stuck with something that doesn't do what I wanted. If you plan on continuing to give advice, please only post statements that you can back up.

FYI - contacted the company that created the app and they confirmed that it crops without resizing.

Jan 18, 2010 11:24 AM in response to smilingdog

Apparently, sarcasm isn't your thing. I was responding to your rude question asking if I "actually" knew what I had told you about that app.

Most of these apps will crop without zooming, if that's specifically what you want to do. However, they also "zoom" by enlarging the image. Of course, it requires the ability of the user to follow simple instructions and comprehend the process.

If you really don't want to bother troubleshooting your phone and want to fool yourself into believing that all these digital zoom apps don't even zoom, so be it. I'm done trying to help you.

Jan 18, 2010 5:39 PM in response to modular747

modular747 wrote:
Apparently, sarcasm isn't your thing. I was responding to your rude question asking if I "actually" knew what I had told you about that app.

Most of these apps will crop without zooming, if that's specifically what you want to do. However, they also "zoom" by enlarging the image. Of course, it requires the ability of the user to follow simple instructions and comprehend the process.

If you really don't want to bother troubleshooting your phone and want to fool yourself into believing that all these digital zoom apps don't even zoom, so be it. I'm done trying to help you.


I don't see how you interpret my totally legit question as rude. On the other hand, your response - what you call sarcasm - was kind of rude.

All I was trying to do was get a good answer from someone who had experience with some of these apps. I've found most people who respond here know what they're talking about, but I guess you're not one of them. As you wrote, some apps zoom without resizing the photo and some do resize... I was attempting to find one that did the latter. Troubleshooting my phone as you put it can only happen if I have the app, correct? Unless I purchase the app or try the free ones, I can't do what you call 'troubleshooting', correct? I'm glad that you're done trying to 'help' me since you haven't been any help so far.

Jan 18, 2010 6:46 PM in response to smilingdog

So, when you offer help to someone, telling him how something you use works, and his response is to ask you if your "actually" use it (implying that you were fabricating), you wouldn't consider that rude? Or is it not rude only when you are the one posing that question?

For the sake of dealing with the nonsensical misinformation in your post that might confuse others reading it, I will clarify this issue.

First, you seem to have no concept of what "zooming" means. To say "some zoom without resizing" makes no sense at all. When these apps zoom, the image you see is magnified and continues to fill the screen. If they were "cropping without resizing", there would be no magnification and you would just get a blank area around the un-cropped part of the picture.

That is exactly how Camera Genius, and Camera Zoom work, when I "actually" use them. When viewing the real time image, sliding the zoom slider magnifies the image while still filling the iPhone screen. The overflow portion not seen is cropped and not saved when storing the picture. This is why digital zooming is a gimmick - you actually lose pixels and resolution.

This also ties into the definition of image "size" vs. enlargement, which you don't use consistently or don't understand at all. The "size" of an image as it appears on a given screen is relative to how it's enlarged and displayed. The technical definition is the number and height/width ratio of pixels. When you digitally zoom, there are fewer resulting pixels and actual size is reduced.

Any app that claims tp maintain the same number of pixels after digital zooming is either saving the original un-zoomed image or interpolating phony pixels that don't represent real image information.

Message was edited by: modular747

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Real Digital Zoom App on 3Gs?

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