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iVideoCamera, an app from Laan Labs, is available for 99 US cents at the App Store.
What was it that convinced Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) not to include video recording in the original iPhone or iPhone 3G? Was it a battery issue? Did it not think the cameras in those models had enough megapixels to shoot a decent cellphone video?
Or did it decide it needed to save video recording until the feature was needed to sufficiently spruce up a new iPhone model? The original iPhone didn't need video to become a phenomenon, and the 3G turned heads with a faster network and more memory, plus it happened to coincide with the arrival of third-party apps. But by the time the 3GS rolled around, maybe Apple decided that a faster processor and a compass weren't quite enough, so it decided to sweeten the pot a little and activate an ability that the iPhone has technically been capable of all along -- video recording.
The best I can do is guess about the motivation, but what is clear that all iPhones, even the ones scooped up by 'round-the-block line waiters in summer of '07, are able to record video with the right application. One of those apps is iVideoCamera, a program that's been around the App Store for a while but was significantly improved recently with an update.
Big Improvement
I first noticed iVideoCamera last month, and at that time, it recorded video at a rate of three frames per second (FPS). It was awful. Playback didn't look like video; it looked like a flipbook being used by someone with severe arthritis. It made me think there was something wrong with my phone, or that there was some sort of major background process taking place and interrupting the flow.
I would have reviewed it then (I wouldn't have been kind), but the software's blurb in the App Store promised that an update was on the way to improve FPS and resolution. So maybe I was high on holiday cheer -- I decided to wait a while and see if this update ever came, and if it did, whether a real improvement would be made.
Now the update has come, and it is good, and my only question is why Laan Labs risked embarrassing itself with such a lame 1.0 version when a much better 1.1 was just around the corner? Was it something about appeasing the App Store approval gods? Whatever -- the update's free, and the price on the app itself hasn't changed, so if you have a 3G or original iPhone and there's a remote possibility that sometime, somewhere, under some context you might have the urge to record video, then iVideoCamera is a good hold-over.
Sharing Options
That said, at this time, iVideoCamera does not match the quality of the 3GS' native video app. iVideoCamera's frame rate has been upped to 10 FPS, and that's far and away more watchable than 3 FPS, but it's still choppy. It's kind of like webcam chat from five or so years ago.
Also, that frame rate appears to change depending on the image quality setting you've selected. Upon starting the app, you get three buttons: one to start recording, one to look at the rest of the videos you've recorded, and one to toggle between low and high image quality. The higher setting gives you 320 by 426 pixel images, what looked to me to be choppier motion, and recording time is limited to about 40 seconds per clip. The lower setting is lower resolution, higher frame rate, and less limited on time. Lower-quality videos looked OK when playing back through the iPhone, but really not so hot when exported to a desktop.
Once you've recorded your video, you're given options: export it to the camera roll, share it, watch it immediately, delete it outright, or record again.
Recording again will take you back to the main recorder page and place the video you just took into the app's own memory. Opting to export it to the camera roll places it alongside all your other photos. There it can be viewed, trimmed or deleted.
Choosing "share" will give you a screen of various utilities, social networks and video sharing sites that iVideoCamera is compatible with: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, TwelveSeconds, Vimeo, email and FTP transfer. You'll have to be a member and provide log-in info for most of these in order to use them.
This app probably sounds worthless to anyone with a 3GS, but Laan Labs claims it does have one thing on that phone's native video app: manual focus. Apparently, using Apple's own video app on a 3GS locks the camera's focus; iVideoCamera lets you adjust on the fly. If that's worth a buck and a measure of image quality to you, have at it.
One thing lacking in iVideoCamera is a zoom function, which at least one similar app, iVidCam, does provide. However, the image quality in iVidCam doesn't seem to measure up to iVideoCamera's. The only setting that gives you a full-screen viewfinder in iVidCam has a very low FPS rate, and the video playback doesn't seem to want to do landscape mode. Both apps do have optional over-the-air WiFi sharing with your computer.
Bottom Line
Perhaps the performance of iVideoCamera answers the question above as to why Apple held off on putting a vid cam in the original and 3G iPhones. Laan Labs says it's still trying to improve things, but maybe this really is as good as video gets on this combination of processor and camera. Even though it's better than what this app was doing a month ago, maybe that level of quality is not something Apple was willing to put its byline on. iPhone 3GS hardware is capable of doing the kind of video Apple signs its name to; anything less is merely tolerated as a third-party app. And iVideoCamera is less.
OK, I'm through dumping on this app by comparing it to something that runs on next-gen equipment. Despite all this negativity, I really did mean the five-star rating at the top of this review. iVideoCamera gives older-generation iPhones a useful function that they otherwise do not have, and at very low cost. The video you get out of it isn't as good as what you get from an iPhone 3GS, but we're talking one dollar vs. $200 to $300 for a new 3GS, plus a re-up on your wireless contract.
If you want video capabilities now but don't want to be stuck without a subsidy option when Apple launches its next iPhone, iVideoCamera should tide you over.
