Praise for Vignette

[Lobalobo]

Had two complaints about the Nexus One Camera (which, in good light, takes remarkably good photos for a phone): First, I hated to have to press the shutter where the phone places it as it seemed a contorted motion; I wanted to be able to tap the screen anywhere. Second, I wanted in-camera saturation controls, so that I didn't have to process snaps I wanted to send to family or friends or to upload onto Picasa (and the in-camera settings were flat). Vignette, which costs about $2 solved both problems perfectly, and included all sorts of options beyond this. Can't recommend this software too highly. (Tried other apps that either froze the phone or didn't do what I wanted or both.)

 

[negreenfield]

I'm assuming you tried Camera Zoom FX? You found this a lot better? I haven't purchased one yet, I'm always waiting to hear more info on camera programs.

As for the picture taking, I just found this out and you may already know this but I'm posting for the sake of others that may find it useful, pressing the Trackball to take a picture is a great way of not having to use the camera button on the touch screen.

 

[Lobalobo]

I'm assuming you tried Camera Zoom FX? You found this a lot better? I haven't purchased one yet, I'm always waiting to hear more info on camera programs.

As for the picture taking, I just found this out and you may already know this but I'm posting for the sake of others that may find it useful, pressing the Trackball to take a picture is a great way of not having to use the camera button on the touch screen.

Yes I tried Camera Zoom FX but couldn't figure out how to use it (although I am not computer-phobic) and in any case couldn't see how how to adjust saturation settings (which is done in Vignette by choosing an "Effect"). Also, aside from Effects, the default image engine on Vignette seems to provide more vivid images than the N1 default, which is nice (because the Effect settings such as "Velvia" can be too much).

And yes I agree that the trackball is a good solution, but an option to touch anywhere in the screen is helpful too sometimes, depending on how you're holding the camera.

 

[SteveJones]

camera zoom fx is a much more rounded app with zoom, stable shot, facebook integration, famous friends, etc.

vignette does do some pretty cool effects though but on balance i miss the camera zoom features too much.

 

[Lobalobo]

camera zoom fx is a much more rounded app with zoom, stable shot, facebook integration, famous friends, etc.

vignette does do some pretty cool effects though but on balance i miss the camera zoom features too much.

Vignette will crop a photo once taken, I believe, which is the equivalent of digital zoom, though I confes that this is slightly less convenient. As for stable shot, I agree that this would be a great feature if it worked, but I find that it doesn't offer any advantage over the inherent delay of both the N1 native camera and Vignette. What would be truly a great feature is actual image stabilization using the phone's motion sensor, but I've yet to see a program for the N1 that does that.

 

[SteveJones]

camera zoom fx shows you a graph of how stable you are holding the phone using the phone's sensor.

once it is stable it takes a picture - works pretty well

 

[Lobalobo]

camera zoom fx shows you a graph of how stable you are holding the phone using the phone's sensor.

once it is stable it takes a picture - works pretty well

A handheld shot is never truly stable (particularly when the camera is held at arm's length). This is why image stabilization on devoted cameras is so popular now. My thought was that a phone with a motion detector could create true image stabilization (by adjusting the recorded image) but this may be too much to ask from even a good camera phone.