What’s next for 645 PRO?

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Update, 26 April 2012: it’s arrived. Download the update from the App Store!

It’s only a couple of days since we launched 645 PRO, and here we are announcing Release 1.10. Why? Well, there are two reasons: fixing things and adding things.

Pretty much all Release 1.0 products have issues that get missed during testing. The more complicated the product, the more you can be sure this will be the case. Usually, they take a little time to appear, and they can then be pretty hard to pin down, especially as they often affect only a small percentage of people using the product. However, 645 PRO has been an unexpected “instant success”, which has—among other things—helped to telescope that process rather dramatically. We’ve been told about problems very quickly, and we’re working with a big enough data-set that its unusually easy for us to identify what’s causing them. And once you’ve done that, you can get down straight away to fixing them (or starting what is, typically, an iterative process of fixing them).

We’ve also received plenty of suggestions. Some are things we’d love to do, but will require a lot of development time (if they’re even possible). Some are impossible (and we’d love to implement many of those—we just can’t). And some are good, simple to implement, require minimal testing and leave you wondering: why didn’t we think of that in the first place—let’s just do it!

For example: quite a number of iPhone photographers use iPhone cases that include a tripod mount (our favourite actually has five—and no we’re not affiliated or connected in any way). What we didn’t realise was how many iPhone photographers used cases with a single tripod mount on the side of the case opposite the volume controls. Attach your camera to a tripod, fire up 645 PRO…and it’s upside down.

With Release 1.10 you can make it the right way up again. Just treble-tap on the Back Selector, and the whole app rotates 180°. Simple, really.

The new version of the app is already in Apple’s hands awaiting approval, and will be available for your iPhone as soon as it gets that approval.

Here’s a list of what’s coming:

  • dRAW TIFF option saves full—645—format, whatever the choice of Back (rather than cropped)
  • Both landscape orientations now supported
  • Grid, Meter, WB-L and Timer buttons have larger “hot zone”, so easier to press
  • Enhanced memory/CPU management
  • Fixed “black screen” for users trying to review/share images with Location Services disabled
  • Fixed two major battery drain issues that could be triggered under certain circumstances
  • Fixed minor formatting issue with Software metadata tag
  • Fixed Flickr sharing bug where descriptive text was were not being posted
  • Fixed Flickr sharing timeout bug for larger files
  • Fixed incorrectly capitalized camera name in metadata
  • Fixed intermittent crash when saving multiple JPEG+TIFFs
  • Camera control returned somewhat more quickly after shot taken
  • Updated dRAW LCD and saving tell-tales to read +TIFF, plus updated User Manual

There will, of course, be more enhancements (and, inevitably, more fixes) coming in the future as we continue to try providing you with the most powerful iPhone camera tools out there.

Comments

  1. Tal says:
    22 April 2012 at 17:16

    Great list of fixes and tweaks. I’ve been following the release on Twitter and must say that you guys really do engage and listen to your customers. Great job on a great app. Really looking forward to the next version.

  2. Marc Sadowski says:
    22 April 2012 at 17:28

    I applaud the fast turnaround for bug fixes. I waited to review the app just so that I can have a more complete experience. Well done and I can’t wait for the update!

  3. Rees Roberts says:
    23 April 2012 at 03:35

    Great camera. Wonderful execution. Just one small suggestion. Please provide a way to delete a picture you just took on the camera roll. I see no way of doing that. Keep up the great efforts.

    • Mike says:
      23 April 2012 at 06:41

      Sorry, but Apple doesn’t allow third-party apps to delete images from the Camera Roll (and we feel strongly that JPEGs belong there, rather than being saved to a private directory and then copied to the Camera Roll with a cumbersome extra step). If we could, we would…

  4. Bari says:
    24 April 2012 at 04:55

    I frequently check the app store for new camera apps (and filters) and usually, the camera apps don’t have much more to offer than anyone else. 645 Pro stands alone with its RAW/Tiff save option. Bravo! It didn’t take too long to go through the manual and pick up on all the cool features. I’ll be using this app a lot. Thanks.

  5. Peter says:
    24 April 2012 at 08:21

    How do you turn the clicks and beeps off? I find them very annoying!
    Enough so that I’m not using the app – I have tinnitus.

    I would suggest making a settings page. Switching between file formats by holding the grid button is not intuitive.

    • Mike says:
      24 April 2012 at 08:45

      As it happens, 645 PRO is designed specifically for the people who find such settings screens counter-intuitive, and is the result of a great deal of feedback from the working professionals and serious amateur photographers who have used our other camera apps. However, we don’t claim it’s for everyone! In the future, you can probably expect to see extensions of 645 PRO’s underlying technology in other, different apps with very different UI thinking.

      Your iPhone has a mute switch that you can use to silence the audio feedback, and you can also adjust the system volume to reduce the level; again, our testing showed that the audio feedback increased usability considerably, which is why we didn’t make it optional. If there is enough of a negative response we will, of course, look at providing an option to turn off the audio feedback.

      • Peter says:
        25 April 2012 at 10:26

        All cameras have menus. There is nothing counter-intuitive to a menu. I can understand that you want buttons for most things. But that doesn’t mean you cannot also have a menu for the same thing!

        Using the grid button to change the save file formats is not intuitive in any way, shape or form. Grid lines in the display and file formats have zero connection.

        I don’t want to use the mute switch to silence an app (any app). I rely on audio for other things so I don’t want to switch mute on and off depending on which app I’m running. A camera app is not the only app I use – I actually do use my iPhone as a phone from time to time ;-)

        But thats OK. 645 Pro is not for me then. Other camera apps are likely to pick up the idea of saving a tiff or low compressed jpeg soon. And thats the main reason (if not only) I wanted to try your app.

        • Mike says:
          25 April 2012 at 10:45

          It’s not intuitive to you. Others (many others, based on the feedback we’ve got) take a different view. And the great thing about the iOS ecosystem is that there’s plenty of choice!

          • Mike says:
            27 April 2012 at 13:03

            By the way, we’ve looked into this, and we will provide a mechanism to mute the camera sounds in a future update (with the obvious exception of the shutter-sound, which is Apple-mandated).

  6. Colin says:
    24 April 2012 at 09:49

    “Fixed two major battery drain issues that could be triggered under certain circumstances”

    Can you clarify please? My experience is that whatever settings are used, the battery drains very rapidly and the camera heats up. Do you expect to be able to reduce the battery drain to the level of other camera apps or will 645 Pro always be more battery hungry? This for me is key as I really like the app but can’t use it if it’s going to suck the battery dry. I’m also really uncomfortable having my expensive iPhone heat up to the point where I could fry an egg on it!! I’m no technical expert but that can’t be good for the hardware….

    Look forward to the next release, and a big pat on the back to you for the way you have responded to the issues raised by users. I really hope the app goes on to be a huge success.

    • Mike says:
      24 April 2012 at 10:03

      Even before Release 1.10 there’s a good chance you can improve both the battery performance and overheating of your iPhone if you completely close down all your apps via the multitasking bar, and then restart your iPhone. 645 PRO is pretty demanding on both the processor and the iPhone’s memory and if that memory is fragmented—which will typically be the case if your iPhone hasn’t been restarted for a while—then it has to work all the harder. Re-starting the iPhone “tidies up” the memory; all apps can then run more efficiently but the effects are more noticeable with those such as 645 PRO that are manipulating large amounts of data.

      There were also some code inefficiencies in Release 1.0 that have been addressed in Release 1.10. The overall CPU and memory management has been improved, and we’ve also identified two specific areas where we were unnecessarily loading the CPU and memory, and have fixed those.

      Oddly, the issues of serious battery drain (and also genuine overheating, rather than just getting a bit warm) only affect a very small percentage of iPhones, which can make it a hard area to debug. Nevertheless, we’ll continue build more and more efficiency into the way 645 PRO uses the memory and CPU (and everything else!) as 645 PRO evolves.

      Having said that, 645 PRO does a lot of real-time processing so it will draw more power than apps that don’t (although it’s not unique in that). Nevertheless, the battery really usage shouldn’t be so high that it’s a problem. And, of course, it hasn’t been for us or any of our beta testers, or we’d have identified and fixed the issue pre-launch!

      • Colin says:
        24 April 2012 at 17:01

        Thanks for that. I do restart my iPhone pretty regularly and courtesy of Mr Google I’ve found mixed info on the multi-tasking bar. Some people suggest that it’s basically a ‘recently used’ function rather than showing apps that are actually running in the background, and therefore closing them all does not affect memory use or power consumption. I have no idea whether they are right or not – any idea? Anyhow, I’ve closed all unnecessary apps so will see whether it affects the battery drain & heat issue. Looking forward to the 1.10 Release!

        • Mike says:
          24 April 2012 at 17:10

          It’s [deep breath] complicated in places, and this is something of an over-simplification that, I hope, communicates the key elements accurately!

          Most of the apps in the multitasking bar are in a state of suspended animation; some are doing some background processing (Music.app is perhaps the easiest example, if it’s playing something). The ones that are in suspended animation are probably not troubling the CPU but they may well—probably do—have remnants of themselves sitting around in memory.

          The key aspect is actually re-starting iPhone, which “tidies up” the memory. However, closing the apps first is a good way of making sure that iPhone only loads the bare minimum of stuff into memory when it starts up, and you can then launch the apps you actually want to run in an ordered manner that *can* help their efficient running, especially if (like 645 PRO) they do like a bit of memory from time to time…

          • Colin says:
            25 April 2012 at 18:35

            Hey – in these circumstances, simplification is good (I’m a photographer, not a techie!!) Thanks for the explanation which makes a lot of sense.

  7. ernie marton says:
    24 April 2012 at 15:43

    I can’t believe some of the whining. The reasons I’m using this app and none of the others is the fresh, professional bias (finally) that has been non-existant as far as I can tell on all other photo apps. If you don’t like it, there are plenty of others devs you can whinge to.

    Thanks for tip about memory clearing….doohh. Will a respring (jailbroken phone) be sufficient?

    Looking forward to the improvements – I’d like to use this as the main camera app but sometimes responsiveness is the priority (Apple- are you listening?).

    Keep up the good work. I’ve had a close look at some test shots and it almost has a film feel to it. Awesome! The B&W also looks good but I’m not brave enough to use it as a default as I prefer to tweak in Lightroom but your settings look promising.

    • Mike says:
      24 April 2012 at 15:48

      I doubt if a respring would have the same effect, to be honest. Not having a jailbroken iPhone handy, however, I can’t be absolutely certain. But the advice has to be a full restart, I guess…

  8. Michael Koch says:
    24 April 2012 at 16:47

    I really love the 645 PRO app. But will there be an option or film mode to save plain JPEG’s without film grain or any color processing?

    • Mike says:
      24 April 2012 at 17:02

      That’s not in the current plan. However, if the demand is there (there’s been a little, but not much so far…) then we’d be silly not to provide it. However, most of the core audience for 645 PRO seems much happier with the TIFFs as a source of unmolested image data (which is why Release 1.10 saves them without cropping, to make them even more unmolested).

      However, we will be developing other apps that use the technology behind 645 PRO. Ao we may be able do give you what you want in due course either in 645 PRO (if the demand is there) or another app.

      • Michael Koch says:
        24 April 2012 at 17:47

        Mike, thank you for your reply. I think it would be nice to have an image processing workflow with plain images on the device the images come from, i.e. the iPhone/iPad itself. Without the need to export the images to another system for further processing. I’d like to leave it all on my iPhone. But I understand your thoughts. As a developer I would argue the same way :-)

  9. Ian Charles says:
    24 April 2012 at 18:27

    Had a good play with it over the last few days and found what works best for me to get good results every time.

    Final conclusion: it’s a splendid app! Well done.

  10. Rem Tojak says:
    24 April 2012 at 20:30

    Please add an option to save jpg’s without In app “film look” processing. I see no way too turn it off. It adds grain and increases contrast making it unusable to me as I like to do all the postproduction myself. Of course I can use the Tiff+JPG option to have the unprocessed tiff but it have major drawbacks: You have to wait twice as long to have both of the files saved (and thats a really long time) and the second thing is that there’s no way to preview the Tiff’s on the iphone. I would much prefere to use only the jpg option and then develop the photos in other apps or on the pc.

  11. sherman levine says:
    25 April 2012 at 14:38

    I’m enjoying the app and looking forward to the update. My wishlist for the future…
    …Exposure bracketing (so we can do off-camera HDR on the TIFFs) ?
    …2-dimensional level (so we can ensure that the camera’s level vertically as well as horizontally)
    …A “real” stabilizer
    Thanks
    Sherm

    • Mike says:
      25 April 2012 at 14:42

      We’re looking into all three of these areas:

      1. is easy to kludge, but we’re determined to find a way of deliver real bracketing: +1 (0r 1.5, or…) Ev either side, rather than just a [waves arms] darker and lighter.
      2. is easy; we’re just working out the most useful and elegant way of implementing it
      3. is far from easy, but we do have some ideas…

    • Chris Poole says:
      28 April 2012 at 15:53

      Mike,

      Automatic exposure bracketing with -2, 0, +2 would be a cool addition.

      Thanks,
      Chris Poole

      • Chris Poole says:
        28 April 2012 at 15:56

        …and having said what I just did, we could always do a manual override on this but it requires taking extra pains to make sure we get the camera accurately re-framed as in the first shot.

        So, if it can be done without messing anything else up, then great. I will still use my DSLR’s for more critical work but I know lots of iPhoneographers would have fun learning how to do correct HDR that looks real.

  12. Sean Magnoni says:
    25 April 2012 at 20:34

    Any chance of adding an option to have all photos tagged with artist or copyright data similar to Hipstamatic?

  13. Kiril says:
    25 April 2012 at 21:49

    Just a small suggestion, can it be don to use the earphone + button to take a picture(as the native camera app). It is very helpfull it act as remoat trigger in low light.

    • Mike says:
      26 April 2012 at 07:34

      Apple is currently refusing apps that implement that functionality. If/wen the wind changes, we will put it in!

  14. Joe says:
    26 April 2012 at 18:22

    April 26th 2012
    I don’t see 645 Pro in the USA Apple App store. Did it get pulled?

  15. Joe says:
    26 April 2012 at 18:33

    Indeed I’m on an iPad but will now switch to my iPhone 4 to buy it.

  16. Joe says:
    26 April 2012 at 21:56

    Just spent a few minutes playing with it. The most features I’ve ever seen on an iPhone app and I own em all. And for those that desire manual features, of course you have to take a few minutes to read the built-in manual, which is short but well written.

    I will say my iPhone 4’s, area under the lens did got fairly warm, something I never felt before, not sure what would account for that?

    And yes, personally I wish the the setting for unprocessed JPEGs was available, as I love all the other features and doubt I’ll use the raw option much.

    As of this post I am not able to download the iPhone purchased app to my iPad 3, notice comes up “device needs autofocus camera”, which of course the iPad has. But this bug and the report to Apple was noted above.

    Anyways, much credit to the developer, I’m sure a lot of work went into this software, time and effort. And as someone else already pointe out, there has been very little new inspiring camera apps for a long time now. Maybe some felt there was little room for improvements or new features that would work on an iPhone, so this was very COOL to come across! GREAT job.

  17. Fabs says:
    27 April 2012 at 10:08

    Hello,

    I love the app, the photo quality and the control. I just downloaded the update, but it still doesn’t seem to “turn around” in the other landscape orientation. Am I doing something wrong? Is there an option for it that I didn’t understand? Or was that not fixed after all?
    The app is still great, but I would like to use it in the other orientation, since that’s more natural for me.

    Tx for the grab app and the support!

    • Mike says:
      27 April 2012 at 10:14

      Treble-tap on the Back Selector (that’s three taps) and it will rotate. It described on Page 21 of the User Manual (in-camera, or at http://jag.gr/645/assets/pdf/645_PRO_User_Manual_1-1.pdf).

      Please note there is a bizarre bug (which we’ve now identified and fixed) that makes everything go very odd if you open the User Manual while you’re in the “upside down” state. All I can suggest is that you don’t do that until the next round of improvements ships! We probably shouldn’t have rushed the rotation function out with so little testing, but the demand was so strong…

  18. Joe says:
    27 April 2012 at 16:07

    Has Apple given you any time frame on when they will fix the iPad compatibility issue? I even tried to manually sync your app from MacPro tower’s iTunes (my iPhone purchase) to the iPad manual USB cable sync, and got the same (this device needs a focus able lens) so it would not copy it to the iPad.

    I’m assuming that since the new iPad 3 is using the same sensor as my iPhone 4 that your app will work and the larger iPad screen might be cool with the small button interface. Thanks!

  19. Roger says:
    27 April 2012 at 16:29

    Hello,

    1st of all, great work with this camera app!

    I thought the issue with the heat should’ve been solved with 1.10? My iPhone 4s is still getting very hot after a couple of minutes. Is there still an issue with that? Can I somehow help you with providing some information?

    Cheers, Roger

    • Mike says:
      27 April 2012 at 16:38

      We’re still working on the heat issue, which only affects a very small percentage of iPhones (making it tricky to debug).

      However, the biggest culprit in many cases seems to be straightforward memory fragmentation – 645 PRO does an awful lot of moving big chunks of data around, and if the condition of the iPhone’s memory doesn’t facilitate that, it has to work (and work iPhone) much, much harder. That means worse battery life and more heat being generated.

      So the best thing to do is: close down all apps via the multitasking bar and then do a full iPhone restart. For many people that simple process turns “very hot” into “warm, but acceptable”. It also allows all apps (not just 645 PRO) to run more efficiently.

      But we are still doing everything we can to optimise 645 PRO in every way possible, too, and will have further enhancements in the next releases.

      • Roger says:
        28 April 2012 at 00:15

        Thanks for the answer. It still gets hot (I really can’t say “warm”) even if I follow the instructions to close the apps and restart the iPhone. Let’s hope for the next release.

  20. Michael says:
    28 April 2012 at 06:53

    Before the update my iPhone4 get’s much warmer than normal. But after the update 1.10, even in live preview for 15 minutes it get’s only hand-hot.

    One thing I found: When uploading to Flickr the image title I put in is lost and the image has the title “645pro”. Don’t know if this was before the update too.

    However, I love this app! Great work!

    • Mike says:
      28 April 2012 at 07:01

      Sorry about the Flickr bug. That must have crept in while we were fixing something else and will be fixed in the next release.

    • Mike says:
      28 April 2012 at 07:07

      Just to confirm that we have tracked down (and fixed) the Flickr bug. Again, our apologies.

      • Michael says:
        28 April 2012 at 07:16

        Wow, *that* was fast. Thank you very much and I’am looking forward to the next release :)

  21. Michael says:
    28 April 2012 at 19:11

    I want to make a suggestion. It’s the auto focus lock. I’d like it to stay locked, even if you tap on the screen for another focus spot. Now it goes off everytime you tap on the screen. The lock can go off if I do a double tap. Just my thoughts…

    • Mike says:
      29 April 2012 at 14:03

      I’m not sure how that would work. In order for the focus to work in the new location (so you can decide when to lock it) it has to be unlocked!

      • Michael says:
        29 April 2012 at 17:18

        Hmm, maybe it could work the way, that it keep the info “already locked” in mind and after tapping and finding the new focus, it locks again automaticly.

        • Mike says:
          29 April 2012 at 18:50

          To be honest I think that would be confusing to many people. However, I don’t think it’s actually possible with Apple’s current APIs, which may be more significant!

          • Michael says:
            29 April 2012 at 20:42

            What is confusing about a focus lock function that stays enabled even if I decide to change the focus point? The new focus point should be locked, easy as that.

            And what has the API to do with it? It’s just the extra step I do by hand. After tapping on the display for a new focus point I immediately tap auto focus lock. This last step can do the app for me.

            • Mike says:
              29 April 2012 at 20:59

              It’s potentially confusing because there is a disconnect between where the focus is locked (a fixed position) and the fact that that auto-focus is currently active. It may not be confusing to you but I believe that it may be confusing to many people. And I can’t think of a camera out there that behaves like that (which isn’t to say that it’s a bad idea, of course…).

              And the API issue is quite simple. To repeat: “I don’t think it’s actually possible with Apple’s current APIs”.

              In other words, I don’t think it can be done, because there is no supported mechanism to lock the focus to distance X, then remember that distance while the focus roams freely before being locked (or not) at a different distance. The auto-focus cannot be locked and active at one and the same time.

              We wish (along with loads of other developers) that there was such a mechanism (and there are loads of ways we’d use it!). But, currently, there isn’t. Sorry!

          • Michael Koch says:
            30 April 2012 at 13:02

            Mike,
            it seems that we are talking about different things. Or it’s my poor English. Sorry for that. :) I’m used to have a DSLR. Most DSLRs do the focusing (and exposure metering) when you press the camera shutter half way down. I use a camera setting where a specific button becomes the focusing button. So I’m able to point the camera to a spot of interest and then I tap the specific focusing button once. The camera auto-focuses onto this point and determines the distance and adjusts the lens. And now the focus is fixed (!!), as long as I am not tapping that button again. So focus is locked. I can now adjust the camera view by moving a bit to the right/left/up/down till the scene fits into the viewer. If I want to change the focusing to another spot, I just point to it and tap the specific focusing button again. That’s it. And again the focus is locked. It’s always locked this way. I change the focus but not the locked state of it.

            When I say “focus is locked”, by this I mean the lens is set to the certain distance the sensor has determined and the lens never move again until I want it to. Neither camera movement nor releasing the shutter will change that.

            For the iPhone, this behavior is pretty much that from the native iPhone camera app. Pressing a finger on the display for a moment determines the focus and exposure of that point and then locks(!) both. Now I can rearrange the view and then press the shutter release. Or I press my finger on another spot for a moment and then this new spot will be locked. This way it is always locked. Or, to be more precise, it releases the lock for the new focusing and then it lock focus again.

            645PRO is more advanced. Here you can lock focus and exposure separately. But the app doesn’t remember the state of the AF-lock button. If I tap on the display, the AF-lock goes off. The focus is then set to the new spot, the green marker appears. But the AF-lock stays off. If I now move the iPhone just a bit, it focuses again. I just don’t want that to happen because I already set the focus where I want it to be. So every time I tap AF-lock again. But it should go ON again automatically after the focusing is finished, because AF-lock was ON before. Even if it has to go off for technical reasons of the API, can’t it be set back to ON when focusing is finished? It’s just what the native camera does.

            So, for me the AF-lock button should be a switch. If I turn this switch on, then, after the app focuses on a new spot, it should lock AF automatically. If I tap on the display again, the app focuses on the new spot and lock AF automatically. And so on and so on.

            Sorry for the big text :)

            • Mike says:
              30 April 2012 at 16:26

              OK – thanks for the explanation. I do understand better now. Let me have a think and I’ll see if this is something that we can do (as well as if it’s something we want to do!).

  22. Richard Ellis says:
    28 April 2012 at 23:12

    Thanks for the above tips and the speedy release of the update.
    The more i use 645 the more i appreciate the thought and hard work you all put into the app.
    I think 645 is the first app that takes away the ‘make do’ tag that many 4s users often state, “it was the only camera i had at the time so i had to make do”. 645 gives the 4s a fresh new level of control and quality.
    The Spot metering and Exposure Lock are gems and when used, with thought and care, can guarantee a safe average exposure or a hard steep tonality.
    The large file jpegs are excellent quality and the tiffs are great in Lightroom.
    Hope to get some 16×12 black and white & colour prints from my local print shop and see how they stand up.
    Very impressive app – A Must Use for the 4s.

    Thanks again
    Rich

  23. Antonio says:
    30 April 2012 at 08:38

    Hello there.

    645 Pro seems to be a great app from all the reviews I have been reading on the web. I will donwnload it right now from the iTunes store.

    I just have one question : how does manipulating the photos on iPhoto work ? Same as a regular jpeg from my DSLR ?

    Cheers,

    Antonio

  24. Terry says:
    30 April 2012 at 16:26

    Great app!
    When will you implement vol button-shutter control?
    Please, this app would really benefit from it.

    • Mike says:
      30 April 2012 at 16:39

      As soon as Apple’s current policy (or current implementation of its policy, perhaps…) changes the we will add this. However, Apple is currently refusing approval to apps that implement Volume+ Shutter functionality, so our hand are tied…

      • Matt says:
        3 July 2012 at 22:47

        Hi Mike,

        Just noticed the latest version of Hipstamatic was released with the volume shutter feature enabled. Perhaps they used a different method to gain Apple approval?

        • Mike says:
          4 July 2012 at 06:24

          Matt: the last two releases of 645 PRO had the Volume+ Shutter Release enabled, and were approved. The latest release (with exactly the same implementation) was rejected, so we removed it. Go figure…