Varlens - DSLR in Phone

Every time I travel I carry a canon camera, my Ricoh gr3, my insta360 for video and my iPhone. I took a trip to Vegas last month and decided to only carry my phone for photos. I wanted to challenge myself to one tool. I asked ChatGPT for suggestions for camera apps that I could use like a manual camera, preferably with film presets. It suggested this one amongst others and I decided on this one. I was INCREDIBLY impressed with the film simulation options and bought the subscription instantly. TOTALLY WORTH IT! I use it everyday to capture moments with my son and use the same 3 filters. The DUNE filter is my favorite. The Chrome 64 is my second favorite. And the vintage there’s a monochrome one that I use that reminds me of film. I use others but those three are my favorite.

I spent so much time looking for a quality photo app that could do what other video apps do, which is apply filters baked into the image therefore eliminating post processing and making sharing/publishing much faster. Of course you can apply filters in post as well. Also you can import LUTs which should be available on all apps but hardly seen at this moment. This is all free as well. Premium sub gives you nice to haves imo but I would also like to support this team based on the quality you get at the free version. Wish more devs took this approach. Also the cost of premium is not an arm and a leg like other apps that gives you half, if that, upfront for free.

I’ve downloaded and tried pretty much every single “professional” camera app out there and this was the only one that effortlessly bypassed that dang “auto enhance algorithm” nonsense - Oh yeah we all know know what I’m talking abt. Taking Live Photos using this app with that “De-Sharpen” function on was such a bliss - finally an app that does the RAW Live photos justice!! No over saturation no over brightness no over contrast, everything remains natural, subtle, and beautiful — as they well should!!! This is gonna save all my future backlit photos /live photos from that over-processing nightmare, thank you!!!!!🥹🥹🥹Please, please, please keep this function until the end of time. Also was able to seamlessly switch between different formats, including +ProRaw!! Soooo so much easier than going back to camera settings to turn on that “Apple ProRaw”. One more thing worth mentioning, the interface is super elegant and friendly as well! Kudos to the team that created this, this is my first time ever rating an app, and I’ve been using all Apple Products for almost 12 years now — yes you are that awesome.