Quick Look

• Transform your pictures from real life to cartoon
• See what the photo will look like before you take it
• Use Paper Camera as a personal camera

Paper Camera is officially my new favourite camera app! It gives you a camera lens that shows you how your picture will turn out before you take it, just like any digital camera.The difference here is that your photos are automatically turned into cartoon style or graphic drawings.

From Gotham Noir (my personal pick) to Comic Boom, the drawing styles are just what you’d expect to see in any comic book. The great thing is that you feel like you’ve made your own transition to the world of Sin City, and that any picture is the gateway to an alternative reality (we can only dream, right?).

The different lenses you choose define the type of picture you’ll come out with. Try Sketch Up, which is a pencil drawing type tool that takes your photo from reality to line drawings (think Aha’s Take on Me video in the 80s). Acquarello makes your world into a comic-style watercolour while Old Printer, as the name would suggest, is all about black dots on a white background. Quickly creeping up my top lens list is Neon Cola, which focuses only on the borders of objects you photograph and turns them, you guessed it, neon.

If comics and cartoons aren’t really your thing, don’t let that stop you from trying out the power of Paper Camera. It will give you interesting photos to post on social networking groups and create great talking points. (People have already asked me about my cool photo on Twitter, and while I was tempted to lie and say I drew the gorgeous pic myself, I know that all the credit has to go to Paper Camera.)

Photography apps like Instagram, Camera+ and Hipstamatic are really changing how people capture and share life’s moments. Is Paper Camera just another app to add to the download list? I think so. And at just one US dollar, why not give yourself a whole new way of taking rocking photos? Download it here.

Turns ons

• It’s just so creative!
• Different to the other photo apps
• Only costs a dollar
• Small to download

Turn offs

• More lenses. (What about adding Disney character options? Imagine me as Minnie Mouse!)
• Instagram-like share-with-social-networking options
• The saved photos are low res, so they’re great for Facebook, but too small for almost anything else.

Price: $0.99