Feb 3, 2009 05:50 AM
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ClearCam is the latest iPhone app to go live on Cydia, home for the jailbreak apps, and turns your 2MP photos into 4MP ones by stitching 6 normal photos into one super photo.
Similar to the manner in which Gigapan created the 1474MP image of the inauguration, Occipital's ClearCam works its magic by creating a composite image using 6 iPhone photos taken in succession. This allows the photo to have the resolution of a 4MP image. And since the UI has infinite multitouch scale, you can zoom in as far as you want (a bit gimmicky, yes, but I did the zoom gesture 50 times, and it took 50 pinches to get the photo back to original resolution).
Essentially, you choose to snap a photo, then it runs off 6 of them into a directory. Then there's a two step process for enhancement. First you hit the button to align the photos, then you hit the button to enhance photos. It takes about 30-40 seconds in total.
Though the resolution is larger, it's worth noting that the image quality does not appear to increase substantially when viewed normally. Instead, the image—especially text—appears a little sharper and readable when zoomed in, and any obnoxious blur is eliminated for the most part. Files sizes are around 2x bigger than the normal image taken with the iPhone camera. Occipital says there's still room to improve as far as enhancement goes, but they need to work on keeping the file size low, first.
In addition to creating 4MP photos, you can also select quick capture mode, which fires off 6 images in 2.5 seconds, selects the best looking one, and discards the rest.
As for deciding to release in Cydia as opposed to the App Store, Occipital felt like the rapid shot mode would be rejected, and they didn't want to remove the feature from the app. So they've turned to the jailbreak community instead.
As mentioned earlier, ClearCam is available now through Cydia, and after a 15-day trial, the full version can be purchased for $10. [Occipital]
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