CameraBag Pro Review

CameraBag Pro is a Mac and PC software that provides photo and video filters. You can apply various adjustments and save your own settings as “presets.” What’s good about CameraBag Pro is the app supports both photo and video editing. If you want to know more, just keep reading this CameraBag Pro Review.

Previously, CameraBag was one of the most popular photographic filter applications for the iPhone. It was then updated for the iPad taking advantage of its larger screen for editing. It is one of the apps that has the best filters and is the most used by professional photographers. Now, let’s take a look at what this cool app has to offer.

CameraBag Pro Review | How to add filters to your photos and videos easily

Anyone looking for filters to correct brightness, color, and contrast will not be disappointed. The program owns various styles of these settings. The image result can be rounded off with vignetting and frames.

All functions are arranged in tabs on the right edge of the work area. There are areas of styles, corrections (adjust), frames, favorites, and quick looks.

Photo Corrections and Adjustment

The corrections include basic retouching, light, and color. Below the app, there are other settings for vignettes, grain, and color design. A small preview shows how the individual functions change the opened image. This preview is displayed when the mouse pointer hovers over the button. In addition to the preview of the effect, you can see a brief description of the functionality.

The corrections are done intuitively using a slider or an adjustable curve. For example, you can adjust the exposure, contrast, and saturation at once. There is also a histogram to check the settings or a pipette to set the white point.

The app works non-destructively: All applied filters and effects are lined up at the bottom of the work area in the form of small buttons. This position makes it possible to change settings you have already made, or even delete them from the list.

The color settings are not only used for the usual correction purposes. There are also many options for artistic color design. For example, it is possible to define a color in the Color Corrector, which you can set via a curve of various brightness ranges. You can choose between four staining methods.

Professional Photo Styling

Style options show different settings. You can set and use each style quickly, but the individual options such as color, contrast, or vignette are not displayed. Therefore, to access the settings of a style in a targeted manner, you should select the desired style from your favorites. All settings are available here at the bottom of the work area.

Quicklook

Quicklook provides an overview of all styles. Quicklooks are available for all styles, adjustments, frames, and favorites. Smaller thumbnails of the opened photo are shown full-screen with the corresponding changes.

Photo filters

A sequence of your settings can be saved as a favorite or in your own storage. All settings of the saved effect are still available for editing if you recall them again.

CameraBag Pro Video Editing Features

CameraBag Pro video editing features do not offer any retouching functions. The creation of a filter is done by literally stacking “bricks,” each representing a specific setting. You can activate or deactivate the bricks that are making up a filter to check their impact on the image.

The bricks have parameters that you can adjust according to the desired effect. The proposed settings are numerous and advanced to obtain a precisely desired effect. 

CameraBag Pro Review | Video Filters

CameraBag Pro does not know the concept of layers or local modifications. Filters are applied to the entire image, and for the whole duration of the clip, you process. We are afraid to regret it, but the editor is not complicated either. It allows you to add a frame, a watermark, or a vignette.

Once created, the filter can be saved for future use. It is then available in the “Presets” section of the interface accompanied by 203 other predefined filters. 

These filters cover all general needs and are also the result of an assembly of bricks. You can, therefore, study them, use them as a basis, or simply adjust their parameters according to your specific needs. 

They will then be saved as personalized filters. Like any filter created, they can be exported and then imported to another workstation, hypothetical synchronization with iCloud or any other cloud computing.

CameraBag Pro Review | Other features

Unlike most software in the category, CameraBag Pro allows the application of several filters simultaneously. You can, for example, use one of the predefined film simulations and then add another filter (predefined or created by the user). Again, we keep access to all the parameters of the bricks. 

Surprisingly, it is possible to process still images in the same way, CameraBag Pro supports all the formats recognized and managed by OS X, including Raw. The choice is more limited for video and only files natively recognized by QuickTime (MOV, m4v, Avi, mp4, or any MPEG file). 

No constraint on the resolution as long as it does not exceed 4K (which is already good). Finally, Quicklook gives a quick overview of the effect of the available filters along with its video preview.

The video is exported in h.264 MOV, MP4, M4V, ProRes 422 (MOV), and ProRes 4444 (MOV). Users can choose the output resolution and the degree of compression. 

Depending on the Mac used, the processing takes more or less time. For example, it roughly takes almost 55 seconds on a 2012 MacBook Pro 15 Retina (Core i7, 8 GB RAM) to export 10 seconds of 4K video with a moderately complex filter (four parameters, watermark, and vignetting). 

The result is excellent. The processing engine of the application performs on 96 bits (32 per channel). Finally, a batch processing mechanism allows the app to process all the videos and images at once.

CameraBag Pro is undoubtedly an exciting application for amateur and semi-professional photographers. Unfortunately, its non-integration as a plug-in to editing software can limit its interest for the pros. 

So, do you like to use this application? Let us know in the comment below!