Cartoon Camera for Android

I have recently started to look at various camera apps for Android, from the popular Instagr.am to solutions that are less popular but still pretty good in terms of functionality. Cartoon Camera is an app for Android 2.2 and up that is adding various real time filters to the camera while you are using it. This is different from Instagra.am which applies the filters after a picture has been taken.

The free version of the app ships with a limited number of filters and advertisement, the paid version, currently on sale for less than 1 Euro does not come with those restrictions. Once you have installed the app on your phone you can open it the usual way from the list of installed apps. When you start the Cartoon Camera app, you are directly taken to the "take photo" part of the app. The app adds a filter to the camera automatically and in real time, making it an interesting experience just to move the camera of the phone around a bit to check out how various items or locations in your surroundings look like.

The following options are provided by the app when you use it:

• Switch from the main camera to the front facing camera to take profile shots or use that camera to take a photo
• Take a photo
• Use the edge slider on the left or the color sensitivity slider on the right to modify the camera picture
• Use auto focus by tapping anywhere on the screen
• Select a different filter. A few, like Sepia, Color Drawing or White Strokes are available for free, while others are only available in the Pro version.

Photos that you take are automatically saved to your gallery, and if you have configured your phone this way, uploaded to the Internet.

The app had a few issues when I used it. First, you see on screen apps sometimes when you open it. This can be an offer to upgrade to the pro version or to rate the app on Google Play. This is in addition to the ads that you see at the bottom of the camera screen when you use it.

Sometimes, an image gets stuck on the screen, and the only option then was to exit and reopen the application to resolve the issue. At other times, it took a couple of seconds for the app to start up and it looked like it froze at that time.

Cartoon Camera is regardless of that a fun app to take photos with your Android phone. If you ever wanted to create a comic but lack the drawing talent, you might find it suitable to create that comic for you.