Chase Jarvis, a world-renowned commercial photographer, recently launched an iPhone application, book and online photo community to convince everyone that the best camera is the one that’s with you and absolutely anyone can snap a remarkable image. The app is aptly named Best Camera [iTunes link] and allows users to apply a dozen filters to existing images or take new snapshots from within the application.
Beyond just another photo iPhone app, Best Camera connects to Facebook, Twitter, email and the community created alongside the app. The accompanying community allows users to vote and share on images, but also see the process each photographer used to arrive at the final image. At the heart of this playful mobile application is a photographic philosophy that anyone can capture stories and beauty if they just challenge themselves to visually fool around.
Best Camera isn’t filled with groundbreaking technology, but it pairs a series of tools that are the framework for a vibrant and visually stunning community of images. As for popularity, after 8 hours in the iTunes store the app is #4 in photo apps and #33 among all paid applications. The book on Amazon is a number one “Mover and Shaker” and features photographs taken around the world by Chase Jarvis using nothing more than his iPhone and some filters. Chase Jarvis discusses the app in this brief introductory video:
[Special thanks to Alex and Chase]
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Picked up this app yesterday. I love it! So simple and to the point….
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Seems indeed like a great app. We have compiled a list of the top camera apps. but this one seems to be the most impressive http://blog.appsfire.com/appmix-the-best-camera-apps-for-the-iphone
September 26th, 2009 at 1:37 am
I’ve not tried the app myself, but from reading all the reviews, Jarvis sticks his own watermark on the images himself. Personally, I’m not willing to shell out $2.99 for an app like that. I hope he comes out with a “free” version with watermark and removes the watermark from the paid version. Until then, I’ll look elsewhere.
September 26th, 2009 at 3:52 am
I bought a copy to check out all the hype and it seems good value except for the watermark, that’s not appropriate. I’m taking the photos not Jarvis, it seems to go against his philosophy.
September 26th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
In regards to the watermark question, I’ve been using the app all week and I can confidently say there is no watermark. Where did you hear about that, Chris?
September 26th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
It never ceases to amaze me how cheap people are. $2.99!!! People like @Ouriel expect the world on a plate
September 28th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
I think what people expect, from the reviews that I have read, is that when they purchase something for any amount of money they want to OWN it. Now if people are using this app,taking the pictures THEMSELVES and then when they go to export it to face book its stamped with “Photo from Chase Jarvis’s Best Camera” somethings just not right with that. Imagine if camera manufactures did that sort of thing, with their cameras LOL. It’s crazy and its a turn off to potential buyers like myself. I won’t purchase it till I hear that it has been fixed and I was ready to purchase it until I read the reviews.
September 29th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Thanks for the review and feedback on Best Camera. I’m Scott from Chase Jarvis. I’m happy to report that a new version of Best Camera is now available in which we have corrected the bug in Best Camera that allowed Facebook captions to be changed to “Photo from Chase Jarvis’ Best Camera”. It was a bug in the form of dummy text that was plugged in during testing and never intended to be in the production version of the app. The version of Best Camera (1.01) that is currently available in the iTunes store repairs this oversight, and has been tuned-up to facilitate faster uploading and sharing of photos. As always, we embrace feedback from everyone, so feel very free to send any ideas of further enhancements to the support page on http://www.thebestcamera.com
September 30th, 2009 at 8:27 pm