I just recently picked up a new iPhone and like most everyone else, have been snapping away with the camera and just a few of the many camera apps that you can buy for it.

Besides listing and describing my favorite apps, I've also posted some example photos. Unless otherwise noted, all of the photos were taken with the iPhone and processed on the iPhone by one of these apps.

Here are my current top 5 camera apps for the iPhone (listed in ascending order).

5. Best Camera: Best Camera is the brain child of photographer Chase Jarvis. It is a great application because it's more than just an iPhone photo effects processor, it's actually a complete ecosystem. With Best Camera you have the ability to take a photo, process the photo with some simple effects, and then upload and show off that photo on a number of social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, and the Best Camera photo site (www.bestcamera.com). However, it's definitely not my favorite. I've never felt the need to upload my photo to the Best Photo site and other applications have the ability to upload to Facebook and Twitter. Also, I just don't find the processing options that interesting. I've yet been able to produce any photos that I really liked using this application. However, you should check out the www.bestcamera.com web site to see what people are able to do with this app. There are plenty of really impressive photos up there, this app is super-popular, and Chase has an impressive career If you like the images that this application produces, and Chase himself has taken some outstanding photos with this app.

4. Camera Bag: The Camera Bag app is what got me using the iPhone camera on any regular basis in the first place. This was one of the first apps that I found which simulates certain camera and photo types. My favorite is the Helga. It provides just the right amount of desaturation and vignetting to make the image interesting. I can only assume that this is their version of a Holga image, although if you want a Holga image, there's no better way than to drop $20 on an actual Holga. Other interesting effects are the Lolo and Mono. A lot of these effects could be also made with the Best Camera app, but it's just simpler with this one.

3. Toon Paint: Toon Paint is awesome for something different. You first take a photo with the app or you can import a photo from your photo library, and the application immediately goes to work transforming the photo into a cartoon like black & white sketch. You can then color in your new cartoon as if finger-painting right on the screen. It takes a bit of work if you want to color it but I haven't seen anything else like it.

2: Hipstamatic: This application is similar to Camera Bag in that it simulates different camera and film types. The nice part of this application is that the interface actually looks like a plastic camera and the images have a very unique and somewhat authentic look. The not so nice part is that this app is really slow. It takes time to load, it takes time get ready to shoot, it takes time to process an image, and it takes time to switch lens and film options. Also, it only comes with a few base lenses and film types and if you want to add more, you have to pay extra. Oh, and one last problem is that this is the only application on this list that doesn't allow you to load photos from your library. Hopefully they will fix these issues in a future update.

1: Lo Mob: Lo Mob is also another camera emulation program. The difference with this one, and the reason I like it most, is that the images look fairly authentic. You can produce images that look like 35mm film shot on a medium format camera, images shot with large format cameras, polaroids, emulsions, and much more. I suspect that you can get tired of this one quickly since you are restricted to the effects provided, and have no ability to tweak them further. But for now, I love the way the images look.

There is one last minute entry which I've been playing around which requires mention; Pano (photo seen at top of page). It's an application which allows you to create panoramas on the iPhone. It's really simple to use and creates great little panoramas. I haven't done much yet, but I'm optimistic about the possibilities.

As you try out these or other applications don't forget to try and combine effects from different applications. I've included a few other images which have been processed through two or more apps. As an example, the photo of Dubai's famous Burj Al Arab hotel was shot with Hipstomatic and then run through Toon Paint.

Let us know what camera apps you are using on your iPhone.

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