If you are a geek like me and also in possession of an iPhone, you most certainly have looked around at the various photography related applications available. I have been trying my hand at two of them, CameraBag and CameraKit, and wanted to share my thoughts with you should you be in the market to purchase one yourself.

First, I must say that neither of the applications are expensive and I have not had any regret with my purchase. Their prices are so low, both listed at $1.99, you could walk away with both for next to nothing. Second, please do not read into this as an end-all be-all review or critique. In the end, these are merely just fun applications and should be used as such.

CameraBag is probably the most simple to use, as it allows you to swipe through various settings and see the results immediately. There are no settings to adjust other than scrolling through and selecting what you want. CameraBag has the following settings to choose from: Helga, Lolo, Magazine, Instant, Mono, 1962, 1974, Cinema, and Fisheye.

For comparison purposes, here is a photo I took with the iPhone. You can see why I picked this. $3 for “in” is a good deal, but you through in the “out” too, and all day, seems like a win-win.

Here are some of the screen settings for the image in CameraBag:

Here is a bit larger image with the “Magazine” effect applied.

CameraKit offers some similar effects, but the control panel is more involved.

As you can see on the left, in the applications general settings, you can change the output size, cropping, as well as turn on the ability to save the original and altered version. On the right are the settings that appear when taking the photo or editing one you have already taken. You have such options as film, vignettes, flash, x-pro, etc.

For an example, here is a quick and dirty self-portrait, making a Chick-Fil-A run.

And after a few quick tweaks, here is the same photo after processing in CameraKit

For another quick test, here is a landscape shot from a recent road trip. It came out a little on the dark side…

And after some processing, here is the same image

Which one do I like best? For me it’s a tie. I like both. For some photos, CameraBag processes them better, and for others CameraKit does the job. Both are fun and reasonably priced apps and I do not think you could go wrong with either. If you own an iPhone and are trying to compare and price shop between two $1.99 applications, then perhaps you shouldn’t have bought an iPhone to begin with. I say buy both and have fun!

Related -
Best iPhone Apps: Photographer’s Kit – http://www.appadvice.com/applists/show/iphone-photo-apps