NEW B&W iPhone App for Real Photographers !!

PhotoJim · Jul 5, 2010

I plan to get this app, but I'm going to buy an unlocked iPhone 4 as soon as Apple deems Canadians worthy ("Coming Soon") as of this morning. No point putting it on my iPhone 3G if that phone is going to be semi-retired soon.

Sounds like good stuff! Hopefully I'll know first-hand by Christmas.

Scott_Sheppard · Jul 6, 2010

Jim...

Let us know how the iPhone deal works out for you.

Thanks

Scott

wfe · Jul 7, 2010

Can the data collected in the field be transferred to the computer or is stuck in the iPhone?

Ed Sukach · Jul 7, 2010

Scott_Sheppard said:
Steve:

Just because we shoot old school traditional photography does not state we have to live like its 1860 !!

Not only we don't HAVE to, but CAN'T - not completely. Although 1860 wasn't a particularly good year, we can choose the "good stuff" and shy away from the "Do it all for you so you don't have to LEARN" mind numbers ("numb" - as in "DOH!").

Some of us still work in charcoal, from time to time, when we can find empty cave walls.

lenny · Jul 7, 2010

wfe said:
Can the data collected in the field be transferred to the computer or is stuck in the iPhone?

Bill,

Thanks for asking. At the bottom of the photo page there is a button labeled "Export Photo". This will wrap up everything you've recorded about the image and send it to the email of your choice.

We also have a web site in programming that can sync to the iPhone app. The code is already done on the app, its just getting the site done...

Lenny
EigerStudios
Phototoolspro.com

ruilourosa · Jul 9, 2010

truly amazing things they do these days hey, but i really prefer to keep my cheap moleskine and my basic nokia (you can use it like a phone and even send sms´s) and save the money i would use to buy that i phone and get me a new lens, it does more for my photography, maybe a 65mm, or even a wooden camera, or even a 40 mm for my hasselblad, or something else really...

good pictures with your iphones

lenny · Jul 9, 2010

ruilourosa said:
truly amazing things they do these days hey, but i really prefer to keep my cheap moleskine and my basic nokia (you can use it like a phone and even send sms´s) and save the money i would use to buy that i phone and get me a new lens, it does more for my photography, maybe a 65mm, or even a wooden camera, or even a 40 mm for my hasselblad, or something else really...

iPhones here in the US are only $200, fairly inexpensive. (I appreciate that this is not the case in other countries.) $200 won't buy a wooden camera for or a nice 12" lens. I would also add that all but one or two of the photographers that are listed in the History of Photography used one camera and one lens at a time - for 15-20 years at a time. This allowed them to get very sensitive to the frame/aspect ratio they were working with. The idea that one needs a wide angle lens, a normal and a few telephoto's is pure bunk. (Except for commercial photography, of course.)

That said, this app is not for everyone. There are those who like to take notes and those who don't. For those who do, this has a lot of things to make it easy, and it can end up one one's computer where they can organize everything. Doing zone system exposure calculations, with bellows extension, reciprocity and filter factor adjustments is easy, and it ought to save a few exposures here and there from a miscalculation. I also think it's great for those who are beginners, to help them record important details to improve their abilities.

Lenny

munz6869 · Jul 9, 2010

I've been using my ipod nano for notes in the field - I have it sitting in my pocket all the time, and for each photo I use it to make a little video that I talk over - so without having to write or type anything, I have a good record of date, time, location, lens and camera settings, quality of light and so on. It's quick and super easy, which has been great when doing LF commercial work a bit lately. I have downloaded this new app for my ipod touch, and will watch it with interest, but the nano (which is so small and has one big go button) is so "don't have to think about it" handy...

Marc!

Poisson Du Jour · Jul 10, 2010

Voice memos on the iPhone haven't worked well for me...
The trusty notebook still rules for all exposure info. The iPhone's excellent for its stopwatch when making pinhole exposures.

...Plus—
the SMS is great for advance ordering fish n chips, ready "for the arrival of Commander Biggles" — it saves waiting around in an endless line of famished suburbanites! Tonight's order was a hoot, yum!

fotch · Jul 10, 2010

Whats an iPhone?

ruilourosa · Jul 10, 2010

photography is pure bunk...

vedmak · Jul 12, 2010

bummer, consumer reports does not recommend iPhone, may be I just stick to my Leica and Moleskine.

dbonamo · Jul 12, 2010

fotch said:
Whats an iPhone?

What size film does it use?

Jedidiah Smith · Jul 12, 2010

What I'd like to see is someone program an iPhone to . . . be A LIGHT METER!

There, you heard it here first. Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer, but I really think this is possible. The camera is there, the screen is in real-time (3GS has video) and I can't see any reason that you couldn't program that thing to give output from the camera's sensor of the current scene in terms of lumens or lux or whatever a light meter would need. In fact, you can watch the screen dim down or gain up depending on ambient light, so you know it's sensing this info anyway.

Now that would be cool to me...

lenny · Jul 12, 2010

Jedidiah Smith said:
What I'd like to see is someone program an iPhone to . . . be A LIGHT METER!
There, you heard it here first.
Now that would be cool to me...

Already done.... just search for light meter in itunes...

I wanted to do a full implementation of a light meter with zone visualization. But then again, we thought we would put it out and see who bought it - before spending another year in development. If we have a successful product, we'll definitely do it.

Lenny
eigerstudios

Barry S · Jul 12, 2010

I bought the app this weekend and it looks great. I love Moleskines, but the app costs $9.95, the same price as a single notebook. I figured it was worth trying and it has some advantages--like backing up the data to your computer. I have a few suggested improvements for a future version:

1) Allow decimal inches (to two places) for lenses, so you can enter a 4.75" or 13.5 lenes, for instance.

2) After setting the maximum aperture for a lens, the aperture wheel shouldn't allow you to pick a wider aperture than the maximum. Allow entry of a minimum aperture, too.

3) There should be a selector for filters, so I can spin through commonly used filters. In manual exposure mode, there would be an option to link to the final exposure. So you could enter metered exposure and the app would also display final exposure.

Camera
Lens
Filter (use to calculate final exposure? y/n)
Bellows (use to calculate final exposure? y/n)
Film and ISO

4) Add a bellows exposure calculator in manual exposure mode (see above)

5) Make GPS coords a hotlink to google maps and let app do a lookup to insert a location name next to the coords.

Thanks!

lenny · Jul 12, 2010

Barry S said:
1) Allow decimal inches (to two places) for lenses, so you can enter a 4.75" or 13.5 lenes, for instance.

I'm sure we can do this... we had rewritten the decimal period for a "Done" button and Apple disallowed it - so we are back to being able to have it in the next version.

Barry S said:
2) After setting the maximum aperture for a lens, the aperture wheel shouldn't allow you to pick a wider aperture than the maximum. Allow entry of a minimum aperture, too.

This is actually the "preferred" aperture - if I am following you here... rather than the maximum. It's used to default the exposure wheel on the photo page...

Barry S said:
3) There should be a selector for filters, so I can spin through commonly used filters. In manual exposure mode, there would be an option to link to the final exposure. So you could enter metered exposure and the app would also display final exposure.

Adding a filter selector would likely be very easy. There aren't that many of them...

Filter (use to calculate final exposure? y/n) Yes

Bellows (use to calculate final exposure? y/n) Yes
Film and ISO Yes

But these all happen before you get to the exposure selector.

Barry S said:
4) Add a bellows exposure calculator in manual exposure mode (see above)

There are a couple of different ways to do this. Personally I like the simple one. For example if you are using a 12 inch lens, and the distance from the ground glass to the lens is 12 inches, then there is no adjustment. If you are double the distance at 24 inches, you add two stops. If you are 18, then you add 1.5 stops. That's all I've ever done. That would be easy, but its so easy, why bother programming it?

Barry S said:
5) Make GPS coords a hotlink to google maps and let app do a lookup to insert a location name next to the coords.

Interesting - but what if you want to call it Las Vegas (or lost wages) and the location wants to call it Henderson (which it technically might be).

Barry - always happy to listen to suggestions. Thanks for taking the time. Some of these are quite interesting... We will ponder....

Best,

Lenny
phototoolspro.com

Kirk Keyes · Jul 13, 2010

I thought real photographers used rotary landline phones. And female photographers used Princess pushbutton phones.

Wait a second - I guess I've been hanging out with the large format photographers too long...

guitstik · Jul 13, 2010

I have the light meter app on my 3Gs but I wish that it would allow for limiting aperture and f/stop as I shoot a lot of vintage cameras that only go to 50 or 100. This looks like a promising app that may find it's way into my phone. Don't listen to the nay sayer's, they won't stop complaining about those dad burn horseless carriages that are running all over the place, they won't stop at this either.

ruilourosa · Jul 13, 2010

a notebook is high tec, just because it was invented earlyer it does not mean that it´s obsolete, neither thinking is obsolete, yes ithings may be a good thing, but really is it that hard to make some zone sistem thinking? is it hard to use a real meter? is it hard to carry a a pencil and a notebook (that does not crack when it falls over that sharp rock, that does not need battery, that handles well a bit of humidity, that does not crash, etc. etc.)

i believe most photographers get equipment happy, and it´s normal, i do to, but just when something really makes my pictures better...

i think that photography (in opposition to cinema) can be a one man show, simple, meaningfull, humane, organic, but if i start to forget to think and start to depend on more and more gizmos and ithings my pictures will get worse, i´ve been there.

me and a camera that does not beeps uau...

railwayman3 · Jul 13, 2010

It's good to have these apps available....the choice is down to the individual as to whether they are useful for their own circumstances and working.

I'm all in favour of "modern gadgets" if I benefit from them, but certainly not for their own sake or as the latest "must-have" item. In my own (non-photographic) business, there are many things which we can do better/quicker/more economically on-line and with PC programs which were never dreamed of even 20 years ago, but the old pen and paper still has a useful place. A case of the right tools for the particular job.

Mark Layne · Jul 13, 2010

Scott_Sheppard said:
Hello Everybody:.

One of my buddies Lenny Eiger just finished a killer app for the iPhone that I think all B&W photographers are going to dig !!

It's called PhotoToolsPro, and it has a bunch of features that just about every APUG user will need.

PhotoToolsPro has a very extensive note-taker feature that allows you to create a record of your photos, organizing them by trips and photo sessions. You can enter the details of your cameras, lenses and film, while creating defaults for everything from favorite film for this camera to preferred f-stop for that lens. This makes entering data on a photo page very easy.

On a photo page you can specify your holder and side, or a negative number. Of course it takes your GPS location automatically. You then specify your exposure - either manually, or you can put in your Zone 3 and Zone 7 readings - and it DOES THE ZONE SYSTEM CALCULATIONS FOR YOU! Can you modify them? Absolutely. Corrections for Reciprocity, Bellows Extension and Filter Factor or Filter stops? Of course!

Once you've done that you may want to take a picture of what you are doing; so you snap a pic with the camera and, well, you find that it's not really what you were shooting. So why not rotate it and crop it to match your photo exactly? Then you can add a note - with text or a voice recording.

How about a vibration sensor that could alert the photographer if the camera was moving - from a little too much wind, vibrations from trains and trucks; whatever. The iPhone is a perfect device for it because of its built-in accelerometer. You simply place the iPhone onto the bed of the camera, press 'start', and it will trigger an alarm if things are moving too much. The sensitivity is 100% configurable. This is a very cool feature.

It also has a level for the LF shooters. Want to make sure the back and front standards are at the exact same angle? No problem. Want to check to see just how much forward tilt you are adding? You got it - it's all there.

This app is totally configurable; from adding and removing fields from the entry screen, to specifying how many stops you think N should be for your development. It's got reference items (a treatise on a very simple approach to the Zone System) and Photo Tips from Lenny as well.

Here's the iTunes link:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-tools-pro/id374359605

I will have Lenny on the radio program here very soon.

In the meantime go look at this App on iTunes... it SMOKING COOL !!

You should really check this app out, It is truly an app for the rest of us... "Analog Photographers"

Thanks

Scott

Is it functional on iPod?

SeaRover · Jul 13, 2010

Great job on this app. Really handy, having all those capibilites in one device. I use to use the level & notepad separately but had to exit and re-start the other. Of course notepad didn't keep tract of my lenses & films at all. This program does it all & can take voice memos! The best part is the zone calc, very slick.
I have put my Mole skins aside as padding & will continue to keep my iPhone in my pocket.

M.A.Longmore · Jul 13, 2010

You didn't think we would notice ?

SeaRover said:
Great job on this app. Really handy, having all those capibilites in one device. I use to use the level & notepad separately but had to exit and re-start the other. Of course notepad didn't keep tract of my lenses & films at all. This program does it all & can take voice memos! The best part is the zone calc, very slick.
I have put my Mole skins aside as padding & will continue to keep my iPhone in my pocket.

Welcome Home SeaRover,

Noticed that you are kinda new here.
If you get a chance stop by @ The Intro Forum,
And tell us where ya been, and what ya been doin.

Ron

From The Long Island Of New York, and the
Long Island @ Large Format Group, right here on APUG
.

lenny · Jul 13, 2010

Mark Layne said:
Is it functional on iPod?

Yes, on the iPod Touch....

Lenny

NEW B&W iPhone App for Real Photographers !!

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