Are you a fan of photo effects? There are big names in the photo-filtering industry such as Instagram, but like in every industry, every once in a while, a cool independent developer will come along and release a new tool that rivals the big guys. While FxCamera can’t meet Instagram in terms of community, it beats it by being nice-looking, as well as providing less-intense effects.

There are four main effects you can apply to photos taken with FxCamera: instant ToyCam, which applies a vintage, toycam style effect to photos; fisheye, which applies (of course) a fisheye effect; symmetry, which makes the photo symmetrical; and poster, which makes the photos look a little like comics, manga, or an Andy Warhol painting. You can also take normal, un-altered shots, but why would you ever do that?

Instagram can post to both Facebook or Twitter, but its main social network is itself. FxCamera isn’t like that: designed to share directly to Twitter or Facebook, it leaves you free to not sign up for yet another social network. And since the effects tend to be slightly less intense, it’s a lot less bothersome to those who don’t care for them.

FxCamera is much more laid back and much less self-involved than Instagram, and its primary integration with Facebook and Twitter rather than itself is much preferrable. It looks great, too, which is important in a photo app, and is overall definitely worth a download for anyone who likes to tamper with their pictures.

Price: Free!

Version discovered: v2.3.1

Requires: Various

Download size: 5.6MB

FxCamera on Play Store