Last month, we saw the launch of Qik VideoCamera, an iPhone app that brings local video recording to both the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G (neither of which support video recording out of the box). The app’s release was significant given Apple’s longstanding ban on video recording applications, but it left something to be desired. For one, it recorded at a mere 7 frames per second — far less than the 30FPS the iPhone 3GS built-in video recorder can achieve. Today, Qik is releasing a new version of the app that more than doubles that rate to 15 FPS, and includes a number of new real-time effects.
Granted, 15 frames per second is still only half that of the iPhone 3GS rate, but the resulting videos will be far less jerky. And it may make the app the fastest recorder on the market — Qik cofounder Bhaskar Roy says that the fastest competing app only gets to 10 FPS.
Users will also be interested in the updated app’s new video filters, which include a Black & White mode, B&W with red highlighting, a filter that reverses red and blue, and a mirroring mode. The app also adds digital zoom, audio boosting and live brightness control. Roy says that the new filters are applied to video on the fly, so users don’t have to wait for post processing (he says you can also apply multiple filters at the same time). However, these filters do degrade the speed of the video capture back down into the 7-10 FPS range.
Note that Qik also offers a Live Recorder app, which allows users to broadcast their videos live to the web from their phones. There are also quite a few competing apps out there, like Ustream’s Live Broadcaster (which also does local recording).