The Top 5 Essential Photography Apps For Your Android

Grab your Droid device and get shooting! Take your Android photos to the next level with some powerful, highly functional camera apps.

Image via Techlap.com

Fast Burst Camera – $3.99 – If you’re into high-action photography and want to capture moments in the blink of an eye, Fast Bursts Camera is for you! This high-speed camera application can take up to 30 photos per second on the fastest devices (lower-end Android devices can still take five to 10 photos per second.) Fast Burst Camera has zero shutter lag – as soon as you push the shutter, the picture takes. Hold the shoot button for continuous photography or tap quickly for single shots. Fast Bursts Camera works best in high light situations, but is a great way to capture a golf swing, photograph your son’s winning goal, catch all the action at a kids birthday party or catch your favorite four legged friend in action! The application supports flash, focus and zoom.

Instagram - Free – It’s the photo app that captivated a whole population of iPhone users, now available on Android devices! A combination photography app and social media channel, Instagram lets you take photos through the app (or take a photo from your library) and add a variety of filters and borders (17 in all) to create unique and beautiful images. Instagram includes blur effects to give your photos more depth of field and a great filter called Lux that lightens photos, brings out details and creates a more vibrant image – it’s especially great for photos taken in lower light situations. Photos can be shared through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare. What makes Instagram so unique (and popular!) is the ability to follow friends and comment on and like their photos. Instagram works with Android version 2.2 and above and support flash and front and back camera

PicsArt Photo Studio – Free – Indulge in your artistic side with PicsArt Photo Studio, the all-in-one picture editor and art community.  Edit your photos with crop, rotate and color adjustments, and add masks, frames, stickers and text to your photos.  Create masterpieces with artistic effects like Orton, Lomo and Vintage, or turn your photos into cartoons or stencils! PicsArt Photo Studio lets you share your creations on Picasa, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, WordPress or DeviantArt, or lets you send through message and email. The app also includes a live wallpaper feature, and supports 10 languages, including English, Japanese, Spanish and Russian.

Camera Zoom FX - $2.99  - This app is Editor’s Choice on LifeHacker, Gizmodo, Mashable and SlashGear, and it’s easy to see why. Camera Zoom FX is a powerful photography app, giving you the flexibility of a digital camera and the editing power of a personal computer editing program. The camera features Optical/Digital zoom (up to 6x), autofocus, white balance, and night shot. Multiple shooting modes are available, including stable shot, timer, voice activated shooting, burst mode, collage and time lapse. The camera supports native flash, front facing camera and silent camera. Import photos from your phone’s gallery, and process your in-app photos and imported photos with power post processing that utilizes non-destructive editing. Camera Zoom FX has almost 80 presets, color effects, frames, blurs and vingettes – from a fisheye camera to a Polaroid film frame, you can create almost any look and feel for your photography. You can crop photos to any size and even add props to your images. Camera Zoom FX supports Android 1.5 through Android 4.0, and includes tablets.

Instant Collage Maker – Free - Now you’ve taken your pictures put them into one images with Instant Collage Maker. You can combine several sized photos, add color and effects, captions and frames.  You can choose from a variety of templates, resize images and apply effects all in one place. Share your photos on social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook or set them as desktop images for your phone.

About the author: Steven Chalmers is a well-respected freelance journalist with years of experience covering all things tech. When he’s not writing, you can find him reviewing teleconferencing services from Intercall