fbpx
Software

Quick Apple iPhone Camera App Review: Obscura

Chris Gampat
No Comments
05/24/2018
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Obscura app review product images 6

The Obscura app for iOS is a fun camera tool, but surely needs refinement

We’ve been playing with the brand new Obscura app in Beta mode for almost a month now. First off, it’s not at all going to replace Instagram for you as there is no social feature of any sort. In fact, it may not really even replace your regular shooting and editing process. But what it will do is provide you with a bit of fun at least at first. Though to be honest, you’re probably better off simply skipping this app altogether.

Features

Taken from the original email pitch to us:

Obscura 2 is a camera app designed for professionals and enthusiasts alike. It’s packed full of features to help you get the best images out of your iPhone’s camera.

This includes features like:
– An innovative control wheel, that let’s you adjust exposure, focus, ISO and shutter speed. It’s in easy reach of your thumb, shooting in portrait or landscape. And the iPhone’s haptics make it feel like a physical dial.

– RAW capture (with processed copies in HEIC or JPEG), as well as Live Photo and Depth capture.

– Gorgeous image filters, that can be used both in-camera, or applied to existing images.

– Quick access to your library, where you can easily share, edit, and view image metadata

– Customisable gestures

– Customisable volume button controls (use Volume Down to lock exposure, Volume Up to take photo, for example).

– Focus Peaking

– Gestural interface that makes it entirely usable with one hand

Ease of Use

Obscura is generally speaking a fairly intuitive app to use. When you boot it up there is the camera. It teaches you that to get to your library you need to swipe down. But if you just want to shoot then there are the more automatic modes or manual modes. Your exposure controls are overall very basic. While the app claims that you’ll be able to control the shutter speed and ISOs, I was never able to discover the specific capabilities that let me lock the iPhone’s camera to something like 1/15th and ISO 200. This, amongst many other features, were very disappointing. It will allow you to shoot stuff like live photos, in portrait mode, etc.

Once you shoot, you can edit by going to the library, selecting your image and choosing to edit. Your editing options are limited to the filters though. You can’t set your exposure afterward, boost the contrast, or even add to the sharpness. Obscura’s filters are okay looking, but nothing in comparison to RNI films’ options.

We understand that we were playing with the app while it was in Beta, so this may all change later on. We had other issues such as saving the images, saving a copy (and the image rotating as a result), and the fact that the DNG RAW files somehow or other didn’t open up in Capture One but did open up in Lightroom. It’s an odd app for sure.

Image Quality

Here are some sample images:

Conclusions

Skip Obscura. I couldn’t find anything particularly amazing about it; and it saddens me that there are less iPhone apps that try to do more with the camera.

app camera exposure images iOS iphone obscura
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
');
You might also like