SophieLens HD gets access to the Camera Roll, lets you finally edit older photos

By Daniel Rubino
published

We’re big fans of SophieLens HD, especially since its major overhaul back in Abu Dhabi. The Windows Phone Lens app applies some really slick filters to your images and also adds nice overlays, like Wikipedia or location info. In that sense, this is way more than just another filter app for Windows Phone.

The last update a few weeks ago included the addition of two new filter packs, some bug fixes and UI adjustments. This week, the app has received another update, and it’s quite significant.

SophieLens HD 2.1.2.638

  • You can now edit any photos from your camera roll with SophieLens HD. Go to Camera Roll > ... > Edit > Select SophieLens HD
  • Fixed Clear Original photos
  • Misc bug fixes

That first change makes this app supremely more useful. Before, you had to shoot a photo using SophieLens HD to take advantage of its filters and overlays. While the app had a Lens component and it could be easily launched via its Live Tile, sometimes you wanted to apply its magic to older photos. With today’s update you can. By simply using the Edit function in the Camera Roll, you can add filters to existing photos, extending the reach of this app greatly.

The Clear Original Photos fix is to clear the memory of what are basically double photos: original and the applied-filter one. Like a lot of apps, SophieLens HD can save the photo taken untouched and one with the filter applied, leaving you some wiggle room for later edits. This button, found under Settings, now works properly.

Overall, SophieLens HD is a fantastic app. While there are many filter-apps out there that utilize “standard” filters, SophieLens HD has its own unique set and they’re really nice. Combined with today’s update we’ll be using this app much more for our daily snaps.

Head to the Store to pick up the latest version here. Windows Phone 8 only. Thanks, Sanjev S., for the tip

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

15 Comments
  • I love this app.. Really amazing and useful. Thanks Nokia for bringing this to the store.
  • About time!
  • My thoughts exactly...I prefer editing after so I have the original in it's full natural glory!
  • Microsoft and Nokia finally let Devs user their OEM API.... interesting! SophieLensHD, Whatsapp and Moliplayer PRO... looks like someone is beta testing :P
  • About editing photos directly from the Camera Roll or Rich Media?? Was always possible, but most of the developers dont use it!
  • What oem api are you referring to? Its not anything new if you are talking about editing photos from the camera roll
  • Videos :)
  • I've been using this app a lot lately. Thank goodness for the update. The filter selection is still in need of some work though.
    Why does it only show up in "edit" and not "apps" when viewing a picture? I rarely choose edit and for the most part the apps to choose from are redundant to those when you select apps.
  • If you want to apply filters and change around a picture already taken, the edit photo method is the most logical I would of thought
  • Why not both? As they display basically the same editing apps.
  • Finally.. I can edit and mess up with photos in camera roll using this app.
  • The quality is just AWSM! Very nice!
  • Been using this app since the MeeGo/N9 version. Super awesome.
  • The best! I love it!
  • I can't seem to add captions/story. But once I save a Sophielens HD version of the photo, I exit camera roll, go to saved photos, click on the "edited with Sophielens HD" text, only then can I add a story.