AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

No, I'm not talking about enhancements for the photos your phone takes, but for the apps that enhance your use of your "real" cameras. We do not need another app to add animal ears and noses to our selfies.

I use "The Photgrapher's Ephemeris" to plot positions of the sun and moon at various times of day and locations. Find it invaluable in getting the right location and angle of light for a particular shot. It's only a couple of dollars IIRC, and I wouldn't be without it. There are weather-centric apps for locating areas with potential fog and lightning, but I haven't tried any of them.

"Light Meter" is a Lux scaled incident meter that uses the camera cell for measurements. Helpful in doing studio light ratios and other similar stuff to determine dynamic range in a scene. It matches my old Norwood Director almost perfectly.

"My Light Meter" is an app that can be operated in reflective and incident modes (I haven't bought the incident dome, so I can't speak to its accuracy there). I was genuinely surprised by how closely it matched my Luna Pro on most reflectivity levels, maybe even a little better on dark surfaces.

Finally there's "Shutter Speed", which is a shutter speed measure, especially useful for older film cameras. Like those above, it's very cheap. You can buy a plug in light to connect to your phone for more accuracy at higher shutter speeds, but the basic model graphs a sound recording, which you can use to pick out the points when the shutter opens and closes. I have a bunch of old Compur and Copal shutters I wanted to check, and this has worked very well, especially at slower speeds, where lag most often shows up on a mechanical shutter. I'm slowly working through all of my equipment with it, but so far, I have found it very accurate - comparing very well on a shutter I recently had tested and calibrated. The neat thing is that you can save each camera (or integral shutter lens) after testing any one speed, so you can easily pull up a list that reminds you that 1/500 is 1/3 stop over on your Rolleiflex and your Super Ikonta runs 2/3 stop slow at 1/15, but regains its accuracy below that. For film shooters and old camera lovers, this is wonderful, and reassuring if you're worried about any of your old gear. I plan to get the plug in light at my earliest opportunity, but you have to order it from Germany, in Euros.


What apps do you find useful? I had honestly never thought about it until recently, but I'm sure other Hoggers have some that they use regularly.

Andy

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Just "The Photgrapher's Ephemeris".
Also have acess to the weather radar maps so Ican see any storm activity.

BebuLamar

I have Nikon WMU software for remote release. I have Nikon manual viewer. I have light meter app that I don't use.

Steve Perry Loc: Sylvania, Ohio

I really like Photo Pills - loaded with info.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Looks interesting, Steve, thanks for pointing it out. I just downloaded it. I'll give it a shot for ten bucks!

Anyone have a preferred weather app? I've had The Weather Channel since I got my first smart phone, but it's so clunky and clogged with ads nowadays that I find it very difficult to get to my destination within the program. Radar maps don't always pop up cleanly, and that's what I generally need the most.

Andy

tomad Loc: North Carolina

PhotoPills, does sort of the same thing as The Photgrapher's Ephemeris but I find it more user friendly and DOF Calculator which shows tables for the depth of field "Near/Far, DOF Hyper(focal), and in focus distance In front of and behind focal distances for a given focal length and f stop.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

Don't have a 'Smart Phone' . Just a 'Bog Standard' one to make 'phone calls.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

As smartphone photography apps are identified would posters tell from where they can be obtained.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

I have a timer and the Massive Dev app.

rydabyk Loc: Florida Panhandle

Photo Pills has replaced my Photographer's Ephemeris but I still have "Magic Hour" and "Clear Outside". For weather I use "Storm Radar" and I still have the "Weather Bug". They're all available from the app store on my iPhone.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

I've got one of each. My Casio G'zone is weatherproof, shockproof, dustproof, waterproof, and probably bulletproof. It makes and receives calls in areas where my wife's smartphone is a paperweight, and still has compass, thermometer, pedometer, flashlight, and rudimentary camera. I've had it nearly ten years and it's a workhorse.

Since I don't need a smart phone to make telephone calls, I have an iPhone that has my email, applications, social media, and everything else I might need, even though it's an older model. It's small, the SE model, so I don't need a man-bag to haul it around.

It's kind of like a "multi-tool" - my Leatherman can do many things, but none of them as well as the proper specialized too.

Andy

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

Lee Filters Big Stopper and Canon Camera Connect are my only for Camera apps.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

I'm not familiar with Big Stopper. What does it do that you find useful?

Andy

Tadgo

PhotoPills, Really Good Photo Spots for photo apps. Weather apps I use Clear Outside, Light Pollution Meter and Star Chart for astrophotography.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

I don't have a smartphone. I'm so happy.