Fhotolens gets updated, faster image capturing and bug fixes in tow

By George Ponder
last updated

Fhotolens is a Windows Phone 8 photography app that applies a fish-eyed lens effect to your camera.  Fhotolens also has an HDR mode to give your ultra-wide shots a High Dynamic Range.  The app has been updated a few times over the past few weeks, building upon a rather appealing Windows Phone camera app.

The most recent update was pushed out today and takes Fhotolens to version 1.2.0.  The update adds a few performance tweaks, bug fixes, and a new image viewer.  The performance tweaks increases the image capturing speed two fold.  HDR capture still takes a bit of time (keep in mind you're capturing three images) but standard shots are noticeably faster to capture and process.

The 1.2.0 update also adds:

  • Support for Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Dutch, Finnish, French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Italian, Hindi, Punjabi, and Polish languages
  • A new image viewer with rotate, scale and move features
  • 2way URI API protocol to support 3rd Party apps taken to v0.2
  • 512MB Windows Phone bug fixes for the Nokia Lumia 52x, 62x and 72x phones

Fhotolens

Fhotolens Image Viewer with Edit Button

One nice feature that came aboard with the previous update is the ability to review the last image captured within Fhotolens.  If you need to edit the image, a control button sits at the bottom of the image viewer that will send you to Fhotoroom to fine-tune your image.  The initial release of Fhotolens sent you automatically, which made quick reviews of images a little cumbersome.

The latest update to Fhotolens adds a bit of appeal to an already nice Windows Phone 8 app.  If you are looking to bring a fish-eyed lens effect to your Windows Phone camera, give Fhotolens a try.  There is a trial version available with the full version currently running $1.49.

Fhotolens is available for Windows Phone 8 devices and you can find your copy here (opens in new tab) in the Windows Phone Store.

QR: Fhotolens

George Ponder
George Ponder

George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.

10 Comments
  • For those wondering what the 2URI protocol is, here is a video example of how it works. This demo app was built from scratch in less than 20minutes so not only fhotoroom will be able to use fhotolens as an external camera app. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylMASpR4A0E
  • Finally you manage to release in Indonesia! Thanks!
  • I kept my promise ;)
  • How does the fish eye work in this app? Couldn't see it anywhere!
  • click the gear button and a slider will appear with more options. Just move the slider up and down. All the settings are behind the More button.
  • As Debbie said I'm startled that a stay at home mom can make $7424 in 4 weeks on the computer. have you read this web page w­w­w.w­o­r­k­s­7­7­.c­o­m  
  • Cant see the fisheye lens
  • It is interactive real time fisheye lens, so you can adjust it. Click the more (gear button) and there is a slider that appears which allows you to adjust the lens curvature/fisheye look. v1.3 is just about finished which addresses many of the recently reported bugs and you can expect a lot more still to come but v1.x is mostly focused on making sure everything works correctly and is stable on all WP8.
  • Nice, however I'd rather prefer having manual focus than a zoom function that works like a fisheye.
    Secondly, I noticed significant heating of the phone when Fhotolens is active. Hope this will be fixed soon.
    All in all looks promising, although for now it is pretty scarce on features.
  • What you are refering to zoom is the fisheye not zoom, we just zoom less .35 scale factor when max curvature is applied. We do pinch to zoom. This is true of all camera apps which are left running for longer periods of time and not possible to do other than reduce the amount of things happening in the view finder screen. The features are limited deliberately to keep the app focused but you can expect more, it does have bugs but have released 3 updates in its first 10 days of being public with another update just about to be submitted to try address these as fast as possible. Here is a list of features you will not find in the Nokia Pro Camera that are in Fhotolens Interactive RealTime Fisheye HDR file creation (capturing 3 exposures, aligning them, merging them and saving final output) Split Exposure Metering and Focus (bug in portrait already fixed in next update v1.4) Image Viewer that doesn't require Rotation Lock to prevent you from tilting your head. Finally this is all stackable so you can create a HDR - Fisheye - Macro (single click) which there is not a single app that does this on either iPhone or WP, so yes this is hard and i am trying my best to put all together. 2way URI protocol (dev stuff but still very unique to fhotolens) I really believe in WP and am working very hard to push the platform as much as my skills will let me by trying unique stuff.