Two $0.99 iPhone 5 Camera Apps That You Should Try ASAP!

There’s something about the iPhone’s iSight camera that makes people really fond of taking pictures. Back in March 2012, Flickr announced that the iPhone snagged the first four places in their Most Popular Camera list with the iPhone 4 topping the charts. As of March last year, an average of more than 4,700 Flickr members post photos taken on the iPhone 4 on a daily basis. The iPhone 4S came second with almost 2,800 average daily users while the iPhone 3G and 3GS snagged the third and fourth place respectively. The iPhone 4 was also listed as the number one camera consumers used on Flicker, surpassing the number of users who used Canon and Nikon DSLRs.

So it’s not so surprising that a lot of iOS developers put a lot of time and effort into making cool photography applications. As of January 2013, photography apps account for 2.51% of the apps in the Apple App Store, and that’s no laughing matter considering the number of applications and the multitude of categories now available in the tech giant’s software haven. The huge amount of apps undoubtedly makes it harder for any iPhone 5 user to cherry pick the best iPhoneography apps out there. Well, here’s my two cents on that. Try these two new iPhone 5 apps to make your iSight camera more fun!

Steady iPad and Mac users may have already tried this app for other platforms but they have got to try it on the iPhone 5 as well. Just like other Polaroid-inspired apps in the market, Instant allows instant lo-fi or low fidelity photography through the iPhone 5’s iSight camera. The app stands out because it’s slick and cool and because the app is designed to really emanate the Polaroid experience from the UI to the visual and sound effects. You’ll definitely feel like you’re holding a real Polaroid camera in your hands. It also has a lot of film filters and effects borrowed from the 1920’s plastic retro cameras. And the best thing about this app is that at $0.99 (which is actually a limited-time-only rate because the app actually costs $1.99) you can take and edit Polaroid-like pictures and instantly share them across all kinds of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Tumblr!

If you’re looking for something weird yet cool, you definitely have to try this app! For $0.99, you can magically rotate your iPhone 5 without holding it! Sounds impossible? Cycloramic is a genius app that controls your iPhone 5’s vibration to rotate it 360 degrees! It can even let your iPhone 5 turn up to three times by using your smartphone’s sensors. And while it’s spinning on top of your table, it takes a video of its surroundings and gives you a 360-degree look of your living room or the people around your dining table! To use this app, you need to enable vibrate on your iPhone 5 and set it on a flat, glass surface (this will help your iPhone rotate). You also need to remove your iPhone case (so your iPhone can stand and balance upright). For now, the app only uses video mode, though developers of the app promised to update it soon to allow for 360-degree panoramic imaging! Also, the app only works on the iPhone 5 (versions for the iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S do not rotate).