The Story

We’ve been toying around with FX Camera for a while now and thought we should share its charms with you, fellow ‘droider. FX Camera is essentially another in a long line of effects-based camera apps that allow you to add myriad digital effects to your photography. And that line just keeps getting longer, so what does FX Camera do that the others don’t?

The Experience

FX Camera’s splash screen also neatly serves as a menu for the camera’s effects. Choose from ToyCam, Polandroid, Fisheye, SymmetriCam, the Andy Warholizer, or the drably named Normal – which predictably just allows you to use your phone’s camera as nature intended.

Two things stand out so far: 1) it’s not immediately obvious on startup that you have to scroll horizontally to access three of the six camera options and 2) the normal option makes this an app you could potentially use to replace your existing camera shortcut. Which is a good thing.

The filter names are fairly self-explanatory, the two most notable being the SymmetriCam – which is good for approximately six minutes of face mirroring japery at any one time – and the Warholizer, which delivers a Lomo-esque, four-shot, heavily colourised effect. Fisheye, the Polandroid and the toy camera-emulating Toycam do exactly what you’d expect them to do.

In terms of options, hitting the settings icon gives you individual settings for each effect, allowing you to customise colours, shapes, light sources, etc for each effect, while ‘common settings’ allows you to adjust the way in which you take snaps, whether the flash is on, off, or auto. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

So while we’ve been tinkering with FX Camera for a while now, we can’t help thinking that despite its superior user interface, it lags behind current camera effects favourite Little Photo in the sheer flexibility stakes. That said, Little Photo is a better post-snap effects tool than a camera app, so perhaps there’s a place for FX Camera in our hearts after all…

The Bottom Line

FX Camera doesn’t boast the sheer number of effects of some of its rivals, but as a camera app that could oust your existing Android camera shortcut, it’s a very good bet indeed. And it’s free.

Additional Info

Version reviewed 0.7.2
Requires Android 1.5 or higher