Apps and gadgets for great photography

With the right apps, your smartphone is perfect (because it’s always with you) for play, creativity or more professional use.

Some stunning apps

Priime

A unique spin on the humble photo editing app that suggests filters for your shots based on the content of the image. It analyzes the color and type of photo (landscape, people, etc) to offer you filter suggestions. The filters are made by a community of selected photographers.

Manual

Lets you fiddle with almost everything: focus, white balance, custom temperatures, ISO, shutter speed, and exposure bracketing. Not an app for beginners but perfect for those who love to play around.

WhiteAlbum

Remember the excitement of waiting for manual film to be developed? This app gives you 24 pictures. You take one and it disappears into the film roll. When you have taken all 24, they are printed and mailed to you.

Whitagram

Ever had a great shot that gets cropped on Instagram? This is the easiest app for Android/iOS to upload the original size photo. It tweaks your landscape and portrait shots so that they fit, and it is free!

This is what the cool kids are doing

Action cam

It's all about the action cameras these days. Now even sports and news media have started to use them since they can go where regular cameras cannot. The bullet style, with the likes of Contour and the iON Air, is still popular, but it is hard to challenge the GoPro and their flagship model, the Hero4, although 4K video at 30 frames per second and 1080p at up to 120 fps may just be overkill for the regular user.

Drones

Welcome to the age of the drone. Remote-controlled flyers dominated the end of 2014 and now they are not just for paparazzi and film crews. There are simple models for beginners and more complex ones with customizable features. If you want to pretend you're Tony Stark, try the Iris+ from 3D Robotics. You can create GPS-guided flight plans and reconfigure them to do literally anything you want, like tracking your dog out on a walk.

Mirrorless vs. DSLR

Let’s clear a few things up – what’s a mirrorless camera? What’s a DSLR? Does it matter? Well, the mirrorless is just a digital camera with no mechanical mirror involved. A DSLR has a thicker body because it still uses a mirror. The jury’s still out as to which is best, just consider what you are using it for.

Team DSLR: Sony Alpha 77 M2

It’s been nearly three years after the A77 mark one and Sony hasn’t let us down. The M2 can shoot 12 frames per second for up to 5 seconds. That’s fast!­ ­Especially for the price. And the camera can refocus for every shot, even in burst mode.

Team mirrorless: Nikon 1 J5

Small camera, small sensor, but a balance of size, controls, design, and price. It acknowl­edges the age of the selfie with a 3-inch touchscreen, which can be adjusted and flipped for self-portraits. 20 MP, Wi-Fi, NFC pairing and video at 1080p.