Windows Phone 8 currently doesn’t suffer from a lack of high quality photography apps, but that doesn’t mean all are created equal. OneShot, which we’ve covered in the past, was one of the first indie apps to make use of Nokia’s new imaging SDK and today it received a major update.
Version 2.0 is now live in the Store and as the new milestone marker implies, there’s a lot of new features here to report. While OneShot’s earlier claim to fame was “live filters”, the new version tosses in many new tweaks and useful tools that has made it a highly recommended purchase.
OneShot version 2.0
- Fully featured photo editor that allows to edit effects of existing photos and to undo effects of photos that have been taken by OneShot
- You can now edit every photo in OneShot in order to apply OneShot effects of photos that you have already taken
- Photos hub integration
- OneShot extends the built-in photo viewer experience by offering a "Open in OneShot" function that allows to change effects even after a photo has been taken
- Zoom now fully supported using pinch-to-zoom gesture or the slider in the sidebar
- Sharpen/Blur in real-time was added to the sidebar
- New grids: golden ratio, 4x golden spiral, 1:1 grid
- Display of a photo's exif data in the photo viewer, also the app name the photo was captured by
- Double tap to reset: This allows you to reset single options in the sidebar by double tapping on them
- New favorite button
- Minor changes and bug fixes
That’s a whole lot to unpack, so let’s break the main features down for you.
The biggest new feature is the ability to now use OneShot for editing your images. Before, the app was very much like Oggl where you had to use it and a specific filter only at the moment you were taking the photo. Now, you can open any photo and by using the Windows Phone Edit button, you can send your image to OneShot for post processing. The editor has all of the same “live” features as the Lens app, so you can snap now and change things up later.
Speaking of the Lens/live camera view, you can now pinch to zoom to get a closer look before you snap the photo. You can also add grids, including square (great for Instagram photos) and golden ratio, to help frame things. When combined with the steady-cam detection, you should be able to nail that perfect photo.
The sharpen/blur tool is a first of its kind that we’re aware of. In essence, you can increase the sharpness of the camera live. For those of you who have complained about pictures being soft, you now have your answer. It works quite well and while we feel setting it to “3” is a bit much, knocking it up to “1” for sharpness does improve photo quality significantly. Of course with all sharpening you get a bit of noise too, so be careful.
The take away...
Before, OneShot was a fantastic live-filter camera app. It was one of the few where you can see exactly what your photo will look like before you take the picture. While we enjoyed it, not everyone felt they needed that and they were happy with post-processing. But version 2.0 of OneShot brings so much to the table that if you take a lot of photos, you should reconsider.
The live camera features now, including sharpening, zoom and grids, adds a lot of incentive for photo buffs. The added editor feature basically doubles the value of this app since you now have a two-in-one tool at your disposal.
Agree or disagree with us? Let us know in comments.
Head to the Windows Phone Store to here pick up OneShot version 2.0; $1.99 with a free trial. Windows Phone 8 Only including 512MB devices
