FxCamera is a free camera app for Android which works on every Android phone. Similar to Hipstamatic for the iPhone it comes with a variety of photo effects which simulate retro effects.
Pictures can be uploaded directly to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Picasa.
We took our trusty HTC Magic out for a quick photo shoot to demonstrate how FxCamera’s filter effects can breathe new life into an average camera.
ToyCam – Toycam (pictured above) comes which a whole range of fun effects designed to simulate the experience of taking pictures on an old box camera. You can choose various levels of vignetting and add a variety of colour effects to replicate the hazy dreamlike quality of soft focus shots. You can mix and match the various vignetting and colour filters.
Polandroid – As its name suggests, Polandroid takes shots in the style of old Polaroid cameras. You get a choice of three different colour filters (faded, aged and mono) and the choice of two borders. These borders frame the edges of your pictures and resemble the chemical envelopes of the original Polaroid pictures. You currently can’t add any text to the edges, but this will be added at some point in the future.
Fisheye – This takes a standard digital snap and then turs it into fisheye lens-style picture. As you can see below it’s pretty good for taking amusing pictures of dogs. At the moment you can’t combine the Fisheye lens with any of the other settings, so you can’t get fishy with a sepia or solarized overlay.
SymmetriCam – Create strange symmetrical patterns of flowers and approximations of that horrific Chris Cunningham-directed PlayStation advert.
Andy Warholizer – The Andy Warholizer does what it says on the tin. You take a picture of something and FxCamera immediately renders it as a pop art masterpiece. In a tribute to Andy Warhol’s soup cans, we took this picture of a tin of Lyle’s Golden Syrup (the closest thing to a can of Campbell’s we had to a hand).
Normal – As well as coming with all of the above fun photo features, FxCamera also includes a ‘Normal’ mode. This gives you access to some pretty basic photo effects such as sepia, negative and solarise, as well as allowing you to take standard normal shots.
For taking standard shots, this actually works a lot better than the default Android camera app, mainly because there’s a touchscreen control for the focus. HTC Magic and Hero users will know that the focus on the standard camera mode isn’t great.
FxCamera works really well and is capable of producing some great shots even on lower resolution Android phone cameras. Best of all, it’s free. A must-have app for all Android users.
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