Camera360 Ultimate: EasyCam - app feature review
Sep 12, 2015
[This review is based on Camera360 Ultimate V7.0 on an LG G2 with Lollipop 5.0.2.]
I use my mobile phone camera for snapshooting. I want to turn the app on and have it come up quickly, then frame, focus, and click. When I want to spend my time on getting everything adjusted just so before I take a picture, I'll use my DSLR or compact. With my mobile phone, I want good results from an absolute minimum of time and effort. That includes avoiding post-processing whenever possible.
Camera360 Ultimate (C360U) is my app of choice, and that's almost entirely due to its EasyCam feature. Yes, C360U comes up quickly and is easy to frame, focus, and click. But where it stands out is how nice the images look when using EasyCam. I used to use C360U's "save original" feature as a backup, but I quit doing that some time ago because the results from EasyCam were so reliable.
Of course, it helps that C360U gives a live preview of the EasyCam result before I even click the shutter. This is one big advantage over Perfectly Clear, another camera app that provides automatic image adjustment. With PC, you see only the original, unprocessed image in the viewfinder; you won't see the adjusted result until after you've taken the picture and waited for the processing to complete. (Another advantage is that C360U is free and PC isn't, but $3 US is hardly an impediment.)
Here is one set of comparative images. The first is the original capture from the standard Android Camera on my phone, the second is the same capture processed with C360U's EasyCam, the third is the same capture processed with Perfectly Clear, and the last one is a separate capture taken with VSCO Cam but exported with no processing. VSCO Cam has its own (always on) capture processing, but I've never been particularly thrilled with it -- it seems to emphasize lightening of shadows, which can be useful for some snaps but mostly just makes snaps look more washed out.
Original image as captured by standard Android Camera app
Same image as processed by Camera360 Ultimate's EasyCam
Same image as processed by Perfectly Clear
Similar image captured by VSCO Cam, unprocessed
I use C360U with EasyCam for maybe 90% of my mobile phone snaps. It's simple, quick, effective, and I trust it.
By the way: with V7, they've finally made C360U return a full-sized capture when it's used as a camera "intent" by another app. Earlier versions returned an Instagram-sized postage stamp picture. Because of that, I wasn't able to make C360U be my default camera app. Now I can.