There's a new app holding onto the number one Top Paid spot in the App Store and you may be surprised to learn that it's Camera Zoom, which has turned out to be a different kind of moron test for many unsuspecting iPhone photo buffs.
Camera Zoom ($.99) is a no frills photo utility that offers iPhone users the ability to zoom in and out with their iPhone camera in real-time using a 4x digital zoom. The buzz killer is the app's employment of digital zoom, which adds unwanted noise and blur to your photos unlike using a camera with an optical zoom feature. Image quality has become a bone of contention for many who've bought this app and were left to linger in disappointment.
Though Camera Zoom promises to auto-adjust, storing the best quality image on your camera roll after the shot is taken, the end result is still not as crisp as taking photos without the app. The big downside is that photo resolution is reduced to 600 x 800 or even less to 320 x 480 if you want pictures to be saved faster and less blurry. A harsh reality knowing that native photo resolution on the iPhone 3GS is 2048 x 1536.
My guess is that most iPhone users would rather pay for the choice to zoom when needed even if they sacrifice quality, as opposed to not having the option at all. Which may explain why Camera Zoom remains comfortably perched at number one in the App Store. You should also know that early reviews documented compatibility issues with iPhone 3GS, but a recent update has fixed that complaint along with a host of others.
From the surface, Camera Zoom appears to be a no brainer purchase because it's cheap and easy to navigate. The finished images fell way short of my own expectations, even when choosing not to zoom at all when snapping a photo through the app. There are no real surprises here, for $.99 you get exactly what you pay for in this novelty photo app and nothing more. Any moron can see that with no zooming required.