SwipeTap

When I first used the CameraBag on my iPad the first thought that came to my mind was, “why had I not gotten this app for my iPhone?” CameraBag isn’t perfect, but it’s super fun to use and play around with. 

The iPad doesn’t come with a built in camera, so this app might make more sense as one that would be mainly used on the iPhone since that device does have a built in camera. Still, CameraBag is very useable on the iPad if you sync photos to your iPad. 

CameraBag is a photo filter app that emulates cameras and film characteristics of yesteryear. It comes with 10 stock photo filters, including: Helga, Colorcross, Instant, Magazine, 1974, Lolo, Cinema, Silver, 1962, and Mono. 

Using the app is very straightforward. You select the photo from you iPad photo library that you’d like to apply the effect to and you’re set. CameraBag automatically starts off with the Helga filter. From there, you basically just swipe either to the left or right to select the next filter. There is also a drop down menu that you can tap and then select your filter of choice. You can also mix and match filter border and crop options. 

CameraBag recreates the magic of film in a fast, intuitive, minimal interface: choose a photo, choose a filter, and you’re done. 

Digital cameras have replaced film for all but the most die-hard photographers, but something was lost in that transition. Before the digital era, a photographer’s choice of camera and film had nearly as much artistic impact as the subject matter. Rediscover the fading, tinting, blurring, chemical processing techniques, and “happy accidents” which gave film photos life.

What’s the fun of adding cool effects to your photos if you can’t share it? Luckily, CameraBag allows you to do just that. There is an email option that you can tap and the photo is then saved and then placed into a new email message. From there you can send it to a specific friend, or maybe send it to autopost to Flickr (like I did with the photos in this post). 

If you want to just save your photo, you can do that as well. The photos are saved to an album in the iPad Photos app, which you can later sync to your Mac. You can save the photo using a number of different resolution options. 

What do I wish this app had? 

CameraBag comes with preset crop options based on the filter, but, I wish CameraBag came with true crop and resize options. As is, I can’t select an area of a photo that I want, crop it and then apply an effect. If you want to crop a photo and then apply an effect, then you need to crop in another third party app, like Photogene, and then jump back to CameraBag to apply the effect. 

I also hope we see a few more filters added to the app in the future. Some filters that are available on the iPhone version of this app is not available on the iPad version. 

Final Thoughts? 

CameraBag is an incredibly fun app to just play around with, especially if you love playing and modifying your photos. I found myself spending an hour playing with this app the first day that I downloaded it. 

Granted, everything you do on CameraBag can be done in Photoshop on any Mac. Doing it on the iPad just feels so much more fun. I’m not sure why, it just does. CameraBag is simple, easy and enjoyable and definitely worth checking out. 

CameraBag for iPad
Company: Nevercenter Ltd. Co.
Price: $2.99