The best way to edit a photo is to not have to edit it at all: Capturing the shot the way you want it in the first place is preferable to even minor post-processing. Most of the photo apps I've reviewed are concerned with improvements after you shoot the picture. iPhone app ProCamera is more concerned about giving you the maximum control before you take the shot. It lets you change settings that are more commonly associated with D-SLRs than with smartphones, such as ISO, shutter speed, and white balance. ProCamera is a worthy addition to any iPhoneographer's toolkit.

Pricing and Starting Up

ProCamera is, by iPhone app standards, enormously expensive, but that's not saying much. At $4.99, it still costs slightly less than a Starbucks grande pumpkin spice latte. It's a reasonably sized download, at 89MB, so it shouldn't fill up lower-storage iPhone models. By comparison, Adobe Photoshop Express weighs in at 130MB, and requires a $9.99 per month subscription for full functionality. ProCamera requires iOS 10, and offers a companion Apple Watch app for remotely controling the iPhone camera. To test, I installed it on my iPhone 6s.

Interface

ProCamera's interface isn't that different from that of the stock iPhone Camera app, but it's more focused on control over the shot than on extras like Panorama, Slo-Mo, and Time Lapse. In fact, if you're looking for those, you'll need to stick with the default app. ProCamera adds an Exposure Value (EV) slider across the bottom of the screen, which is great for shots in which the camera hasn't set the exposure for what you want to show in the image. This is something I often use on my DSLR, especially when the subject has a bright background behind it.

At the top of the screen, you can see the actual EV value, along with a histogram, which tells you what proportion of your shot is at the bright and dark ends of the tone spectrum. As in the default app, tapping the screen lets you set the focus and exposure for your shot, and like the $2.99 Camera+ app, it lets you separate the two, so you can have focus on one point and exposure tuned to another spot.

Even cooler is the Shutter Speed option—something I've otherwise only ever seen on Windows Phone cameras. A small box shows the current shutter speed. Tap the box and you get a slider at the bottom to set it to whatever values are available.

More of ProCamera's shooting tools are accessible from the overflow menu next to the Shutter button. In addition to the focus and exposure options above, you can use the F/E Lock choice here, and the current focus and exposure settings will stick. This means you can, for example, lock the focus on a close object and then point the lens at a more distant scene, while keeping the close object in focus.

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ProCamera's Stabilization option waits for the phone to be still before snapping a photo. Brilliant. A slider in its settings lets you adjust how stable the camera has to be before the shutter snaps. It works best with a tripod. You can also turn off the iPhone's built-in stabilization, which is better for handheld shooting, but that doesn't deliver as sharp an image as ProCamera's stabilization. Camera+ offers an equivalent feature.

The right-and-left arrow icon next to the Shutter button lets you switch not only to Video mode, but to ProCamera's HDR and two Lowlight modes. HDR and Lowlight Plus are additional purchases, though you can try before you buy. The difference between Lowlight and Lowlight Plus is that the latter offers a tripod mode and a Lux button for an even greater light boost.

Manual focus is considered a Beta feature in ProCamera, and while you can get it to work, using it is much less convenient than Camera+'s manual focus, which presents a big slider across the bottom of the screen. With ProCamera, you just get the tiny slider next to the focus reticule.

Other shooting tools include Rapid Fire mode, which lets you quickly shoot multiple photos in succession, a tilt meter to help you level your shot, and the fairly standard self-timer. One thing missing here that's included in Camera Genius is voice shooting, which lets you fire the shutter by shouting. Another thing you can't do in ProCamera is set the F-stop, but neither can any other photo app for the iPhone.

ProCamera's white-balance tools are also excellent. You can either adjust the white balance using a slider or press-and-hold the AWB button to match it to a neutral gray card, or just to a white surface under the same light as the rest of your shot. It's a remarkable capability, and I saw obvious benefits in my testing.

After Shooting
Even though ProCamera is more remarkable for its during-shooting tools, it's more than capable when it comes to after-shot corrections and effects. It has a Lightbox option, which means you can view and organize shot photos within the app, rather than having them automatically sent to the iPhone's photo storage. You get the standard brightness, contrast, shadows, highlights, along with effects like Solar Wind and Magnetic Storm. You adjust all of these by swiping a finger up or down on the screen. Some effect groups cost extra, such as the one named San Fran and AWS nalog, which mimics film types.

A toggle lets you switch between original and edited view. You also get crop, rotate, and straighten tools. You can also apply its adjustments and effects to photos shot in the standard app, and some of these, such as Vitalize, in the Optimize group, are impressive indeed. Camera+ goes beyond ProCamera a bit by offering text overlays and borders, but for that kind of thing, I prefer to use PicsArt or Adobe Photoshop Express.

The Pro iPhone Photographer's Tool

ProCamera will please those who know something about photography. In fact, it offers the maximum level of control that Apple allows third-party app developers. Owners of the new iPhone 7 Plus, with its excellent dual f/1.8 cameras, may benefit from this app most of all. Nearly the same can be said for Camera+, another excellent photographer's app. Camera Genius, while offering some nifty shooting tools, isn't quite at the level of the other two. I haven't reviewed Camera+ in several years, so I'll hold off judgment on an Editors' Choice until I get a chance to update its review. The main differentiators are that ProCamera adds a helpful low-light tool, but Camera+ is better for manual focus. Either, however, is a great choice for those who want control over their iPhone photography.