I never really thought about whether or not I’m able, or need to be able, to take pictures that are perfectly level. Apparently the folks over at Hunter Research thought about this a lot, and out of this pondering came gyroCam (99 cents) for the iPhone and iPod Touch (4th generation) running iOS 4.0 or better. This app uses the built-in three-axis gyro within the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4th generation to create an interactive interface allowing you to level the shot. Not something I ever really looked for in a camera app, however, I suppose it could be useful if you just can’t get away with eye-balling that exposure.
If the interface were a little more intuitive, I believe you could salvage this app, and pass it off as a nice tool for the photo tool bag, however the usability of this app is very low. The buttons are blue on blue, making them very difficult to read. In addition, some of the wording on the buttons did not really convey their function. In order to figure out how to work the app, I had to go look for the app page, and hope it had directions on how the app functions. Luckily it did.
On the good side, the app does indeed level the shot. It causes the frame to shrink, according to how far you are from level. Tip the camera until your picture fills the frame, and then hit the shutter release. There is also a landscape functionality for the camera, so the gyro will then work from a landscape perspective. Like I said, it levels pictures, but do you need it?
I thought the app felt clunky overall. It wasn’t easy to use, and seemed to be a solution to a problem that I wasn’t having. My pictures always look level to me! If you need to shoot level pictures, I would start hoping they make a new app. If you have nothing to use in the meantime, you might try gyroCam, and see if you like it.
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