There is a reason why Camera+ stays at the top of camera app picks, tap tap tap keeps making the app better and better with each major update. Granted, sometimes it’s a while between them, but still. Today Camera+ 3.6 came out (the iPad version was updated as well with the same features) with a few cool features and the usual fixes.

From the iTunes page, here’s what’s new:

Front Flash

First off, we’ve made the impossible possible: we’ve managed to add a flash to your front-facing camera. That’s right… you can now take pics of yourself in total darkness! We predict that the number of duckface photos taken around the world will increase by an order of magnitude as a result. We apologize in advance.

Horizon Level

Are you that person who never takes a straight photo? Well, with this new level, you’ll never have to feel the frustration of taking a crooked shot again. And where levels in other cameras look like something out of a flight simulator, we went for a much different approach. We channeled the ghost of Jonathan Ive(s), said the magic phrase, “AL-LU-MIN-I-UM” three times, and this incredibly simple, elegant, and nonintrusive Horizon Level was the result.

Live Exposure

We didn’t forget all of you advanced iPhoneographers with this update. With the new Live Exposure feature, you get all the details of your shot before you take it. You can now see how exposure parameters like ISO and shutter speed change in real-time as you setup your shot. You always strive to take the best photos and Live Exposure in the new Camera+ helps you achieve them.

Accurate iPhone 5 Framing

An added benefit of Live Exposure is that on your iPhone 5, you now get 100% accurate shot framing. With Live Exposure turned-on, there’s absolutely no viewfinder cropping so What You See Is What You Shoot (or WYSIWYS, because the world doesn’t have enough acronyms).

Many, Many Camera Improvements

As great as Camera+ shooting is, there’s always room for improvement. We really wanted to provide the best shooting experience, bar none, with this update and we believe we’ve done that. Anything that didn’t feel 100% perfect was given a good overhaul. The end result is well over a dozen improvements that add-up to the best shooting experience on any camera.

Various Minor Improvements

Yeah, we’ve been calling this update Operation ÜberCam but we didn’t just limit ourselves to camera improvements. We’ve taken a look at all areas of Camera+ that could use a good tweaking here and there and made a bunch of small changes that lead to a much better overall experience for you.

Various Bug Fixes

Ah, it wouldn’t be software if there weren’t bugs in it. We’re always trying our best to make Camera+ as bug-free as possible and this update is as close to that as ever. Thanks to all of you who report any bugs you find to us as this really helps us achieve this goal.

 I gave all these new features a shot (:D) this morning and here’s how they did…

Front facing camera flash. It certainly works and I bet you might use it in a pinch, but flattering? I think not. How tap tap tap got it to work is flash the iPhone screen with solid white at 100% brightness just before or as the shutter releases ( couldn’t really tell because the shutter sound comes after the flash). Here is a self portrait in my bathroom (because it has no windows):

Yes, I did a little filtering on it. You can see that the result is going to be pretty grainy because Camera+ really is pushing what the FaceTime camera can do. But…it works.

The “is it straight and level” guide is neat. What you need to do is first make sure the grid is on (I’ll cover the settings menu in a sec) and the if you tilt your iPhone off kilter you’ll see one of the grid lines go white (as opposed to gray) and show you how off you are. Here are some examples. First picture of my iPhone taking a picture of my screen. I added an arrow so you can look for the white bar (it’s a wee hard to see):

Now here is a screenshot from my iPhone showing the same (a little clearer I think):

At the bottom also notice the exposure information that is new with this version as well. Here’s how you turn on these features. For horizontal level and exposure (and grid, which you should be using already…remember my iPhone photography tips) just tap the MENU button and turn the options on:

For the front facing camera (FaceTime camera, technically is what it’s called) you’ll find the usual flash control button area:

Finally for us iPhone 5 photographers, the view finder (with exposure info turned on…which I don’t understand why) is 100% accurate—WYSIWYS (What You See Is What You Shoot according to tap tap tap).

That’s it! Camera+ has been off my home screen for a while (the shame, the shame) while I’ve been playing more with Hipstamatic. It’s back now and I’ll be putting this app through it’s paces in short order.

Via tap tap tap