Cameringo - another way to get filters onto your pictures

Cameringo is yet another entry into the photo filter game, and has some features that can help set it apart from other photo apps. Since Instagram made its way to Android, there has been an increasing flood of apps that put filters on top of photos -- for better or worse, depending on who you ask. Cameringo makes the likely smart move to not go head-to-head with Instagram's styling and social networking aspects, and instead just offers a set of useful settings and photo filters that make it compelling in other ways.

Read on past the break to see what Cameringo has to offer.

The Cameringo interface isn't anything special, but it does the job for this type of app. Camera apps can only have so many differences in interface if you want to have things stay familiar. You get a regular shutter key on the right, with a gallery button below it and a filter selector above. The gallery button will pull up a quick view of your last few shots and a button to the built-in Android gallery as well. On the left side you get quick options for flash and camera switching, and a settings overflow key to pull up more advanced options. There's tap-to-focus and tap-to-capture options, but there's no way to select a specific focus point.

On the filters side, there are dozens (and dozens) to choose from -- there are some collage options as well that shoot multiple styles and zoom levels at once. The filters button gives you a vertical scrolling list of 5 filters at a time, and the settings-style button at the top of the list lets you pin specific filters that you use most often. The filters are "live" and give you a preview of what the picture will look like before you take it. You can also apply filters after you take images, so you could try one filter then change it later. If you do select another filter, the original is saved also.

When you capture a picture, you get a preview where you can instantly discard it, share it or move back to capture mode. You get a preview of the last image in the top left corner of the interface, and when you tap it you get a larger view that will stay there while you shoot. The developer of Cameringo says this is a good option so that you can try and compose another image similar to it, but I didn't find it that useful.

The sharing key in Cameringo brings up a standard sharing intent window, with all capable apps. The sharing intents don't seem to be set up properly though, as clicking any of the app icons just take you to the app and doesn't bring the image along with it to post. Luckily Cameringo saves images into the Android gallery like any other app, and they can be shared simply that way. We'd be surprised if this bug stuck around long.

There isn't a lot to complain about here, even if some of the little quirks -- like the sharing menu -- detract from the experience. Cameringo is just $1.00 in the Play Store, which is a small price to ask for a smooth and useful app that adds filters to your photos with no strings (or social networks) attached.