Toy Camera app

So the camera on the iPhone is pretty good, but is not the best. You can tell it is a cell phone camera and the photos can often look a little dead. So I bought app for the iPhone called "Toy Camera" by Japanese developer Takayuki Fukatsu for fun. All it does, which I usually can't stand, is apply some photo filters to the picture you just took to make it look like it was taken on a cheap toy camera of various types and with various films. The thing is, it seems to really make the photos better! There are a few reasons for this I think, primarily because that it adds a film grain which hides some of the typical (and ugly) digital blur caused by tinny cellphone lenses and sensors. I like the more subtle color modifications, like low saturation, which act to warm up the often flat default shots. But the more extreme ones like high contrast black and white are fun too.

All this made me wonder though, in 40 years will there be a "cell phone" filter to make your crisp photos look like they were taken on an early iPhone? Ah nostalgia...