Bokeh: A Book About Cameras (iPad App)

[voigtlandier]

I've written an app for the iPad called "Bokeh: A Book About Cameras". This app describes the internal workings of a camera with lessons on focus, depth of field, exposure, and zoom. It's targeting users who would like to transition from point-and-shoot to DSLR. I would greatly appreciate some feedback!

http://www.bokeh.arqball.com/


Thanks!!

[Colin Southern]

Hi Voiglandier,

What's your first name by the way?

I take my hat off to anyone who can write an iPad app! Is it available in the app store yet? (I'll grab a copy and take a look for you, but both my iPads are out on hire until next Monday -- they're in Brussels at the moment!)

Out of interest, if I wanted to have an app written that simply allowed the user to flick through "x" number of photos one at a time, how hard would that be? Have you dealt with the Apple store before?

[eribeiro]

voigtlandier,
The interaction capabilities are REALLY GREATand if one likes "the science" inbedded in photography, its quite a nice read. But, if I may, as a photography tutorial its rather basic. This is an opinion from a 20 minute read over of course. I'll read it more carefuly and come back both here at CIC and at the App store. I'll make Colin's words mine: I think its increcible to know that someone has actually written an app. If for the price, you will include updates and future developmens, than I hope it will become the Angry Birds of photographic apps. Congrats.
Eduardo

[voigtlandier]

Colin: My name is Jason and I work at Arqball, the company behind "Bokeh". I don't think the type of app you are asking about would be that difficult to make. There are a few "coffee table photo books" available on the AppStore that you should look at.

Eduardo: I agree that Bokeh focuses on the basics. Could you suggest some other lessons that you think would be particularly valuable to a beginner attempting to make the transition from point-and-shoot to digital SLR?

[eribeiro]

Colin: My name is Jason and I work at Arqball, the company behind "Bokeh". I don't think the type of app you are asking about would be that difficult to make. There are a few "coffee table photo books" available on the AppStore that you should look at.

Eduardo: I agree that Bokeh focuses on the basics. Could you suggest some other lessons that you think would be particularly valuable to a beginner attempting to make the transition from point-and-shoot to digital SLR?

Jason, I finished reading the whole app on Thursday, and played with it for a couple of days. Please my following comments have no intention of being unpolite nor negative, but rather a view of an app purchaser comparing the usability of the app vis a vis the money paid for it. Also forgive me for any English errors, for I am not a native speaker.

I am you target. I am trasnsitioning from a point and shooter to a DSRL. I had a SRL so many years ago, that I could not remember what an f-stop was. CIC was very very helpful in my process to decide upon which camera and lenses to buy.

The app is so basic that even I read and finished with any use for it in a couple of days (could have done it in a couple of hours if I had started on a Saturday afternoon). As I am myself very interested in history, I enjoyed very much some of the "cultural information" available in the lessons, but they do not have an impact in the use to the common user. Do not take it away, the historical and phisics of the text are in my opinion the best in the app.

Therefore, compared to so many other 1,99 usd app in the app store it would look like an opportunistic sale that will disappoing users a lead them do give it very bad reviews. As a free lite version makes great sense.

As you are a business, the paid app must bring more. Much more.
Controls: White Balance, Historigrams (spelling? sorry), Color (warm, cold), etc.
Techniques: paning, portraits,...

I guess what I am saying is that the expectation is a basic photography course. Maybe too much? I don't know, but this is what the wording in the app store leads your customer to believe. As it is, the feeling is disapointment.

Maybe this could be the lite version and different modules being added as your costumer develops through the "course".

Other members here can certainly be more constructive than me.

Best Regards,
Eduardo

[voigtlandier]

Hi Eduardo,

Thank you very much for the helpful and thorough feedback. We tried very hard to describe exactly what was in the book in the description on iTunes: "Bokeh is a new kind of book about cameras designed for the iPad that contains lessons on FOCUS, DEPTH OF FIELD, EXPOSURE, and ZOOM." We think that a particularly innovative aspect of Bokeh are the interactive visualizations which took a considerable amount of research and development. We agree that if Bokeh only included the technical descriptions then it wouldn't rise to the $1.99 value, but we do think it exceeds conventional instructional material with these visualizations and came up with the $1.99 price on that basis.

At any rate, we really like your suggestions for future content (white balance, etc.). In fact, several other people have also made similar suggestions and we are busy preparing a revision that will incorporate some of these novel aspects.

Warm Regards,
Jason

[Nass]

If you want feedback from people then you should give them a free copy. Otherwise this is just blatant advertising.

[eribeiro]

If you want feedback from people then you should give them a free copy. Otherwise this is just blatant advertising.

Nass, let us give Jason the benefit of the doubt that he/his company will allow us to update our apps for free.

[voigtlandier]

Hello,

I'm happy to announce that Bokeh will be free on the AppStore tomorrow (5/11) and Thursday (5/12). We would greatly appreciate some more feedback and reviews on the store. Also, everyone who has purchased this version will get a free upgrade to the next release.

Best,
Jason

[Nass]

Thank you! I'll take a look at it and give feedback for sure.

[logara]

I tried to download it but it is not free. Maybe it has to do with the difference in time zones. Sorry.

[voigtlandier]

Iogara,

Sorry to hear about that and yes, it is probably a time zone thing. Bokeh was indeed free until midnight EST on 5/12. We gave away a lot of copies

Best, Jason

[Nass]

Hello Jason,

I downloaded and went through it, and I'd agree with the comments made. Fab interactivity, but extremely limited. Although the segment might appear large, I'm not sure if there's much of a market for so basic an app that really starts right at the beginning. There's no shortage of websites and information about such basic concepts, and my hunch is that very few people in the 'enthusiastic amateur' niche need this level of tuition.

Personally I liked the more technical stuff, looking at the circle of confusion reminded me of trying to work out the thickness in mm of the hyperfocal distance with a reverse lens mounted on a normal one. It might be worth adding some sort of "send us your questions" doodah inside the app to do market research on what problems people actually have and solving those rather than doing tuition from the ground up.

Other than that worked fine, no download or runtime issues at all.