I find myself using my point and shoot camera less and less these days. Don't get me wrong, I know that the iPhone is certainly not the best camera in the world and that my Canon ELPH can take better pictures and offers more features. However, the reality is that I'm either shooting with my professional DSLR or my iPhone. If it's an important event then I break out the big guns and shoot with my Nikon D700. If it's just casual in the moment photography then quite frankly I'm just going to reach for my iPhone on my belt, snap and send the shot!
Gorillacam aims to add the missing features to your iPhone camera
Now there is no software in the world that can overcome the hardware limitations of the iPhone camera. However, Joby (the makers of the Gorillapod tripods) have done a really good job in bringing some features to the table that can certainly make shooting with your iPhone more fun and to possibly get shots that you otherwise couldn't get. This app gives you: A Self-Timer, Time Lapse, Continuous Rapid Fire, Auto-Save, Press Anywhere (great for doing self portraits), 3-shot burst, Grid Overlay (rule of thirds), bubble level (very cool), and sharing right within the app.
Best of all it's FREE! 
My favorite is the Press Anywhere feature! If you've ever tried to take a photo of yourself and a friend with your iPhone you know how hard it is to hold the phone, pose and reach around and press the exact spot on the touch screen to snap the shot. With the Press anywhere feature you can basically "press anywhere" on the screen to take the shot. This also would have been handy the day I handed my iPhone to a lady to take a shot of me and a friend and she ended up shooting a video of us instead. So weird.
The Bubble Level is a cool use of the built-in accelerometer to make sure your shot is level
To make the best use of the Self-Timer, Time Lapse, and Continuous Rapid Fire, you're going to need a tripod!
Of course this is what Joby really does best. They just so happen to make one specifically for the iPhone 3G/3GS called the GorillaMobile (about $40). You can see my review of it here.
A couple of things to make it better
The app is great and I've had no problems using it. However, there are a couple of things that I'd like to see. First off saving the images seems to take longer than it should. Certainly longer than using the built-in camera and I'm not sure why? Next and this is something that they are already working on and that is the ability to take advantage of the the iPhone 3G's selective focus.
The Bottom Line
This is a great free App! No reason not to get it now. If you really want to make it sing you should also get a GorillaMobile. Also keep in mind that the GorillaMobile can also be used to hold your iPhone for watching videos and it's a standard tripod too for small point and shoot cameras. So you get a great multipurpose device.
Gorillacam
Gorillacam gives your iPhone the features that you miss from your point and shoot camera such as a timer, time lapse mode, continuous rapid fire, and even a bubble level.
- Joby, Inc.
- Get on App Store
- Free
All info was collected on 20th January, 2010 when the app was reviewed.
About Terry White
Terry is the co-author of The Best Selling "The iPhone Book" 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions. He has been active in the industry for over 25 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, Inc., Michigan's largest Macintosh Users Group, host of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and a technology writer - Terry White Tech Blog.
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