Free effects app that will quickly become a favorite

CamWow is a photo effects app for iOS devices. It takes the input from the camera (front or back) and applies distortion effects with the resultant images saved or passed on to other apps. The CamWow app installs quickly.

The CamWow interface is simple to use. When launched, the screen shows the image from your camera in one of four panes, plus effects applied in the three other panes. You can swipe to the next or previous page of effects, always seeing your original in one pane. There's quite the variety of effects, from somewhat subtle to over-the-top, but playing around with the effects is quite a bit of fun. CamWow makes it easy to manipulate images with its simple interface, and a few of the effects will likely become favorites. We tested CamWow on both an iPad and an iPhone, and both worked well. We had a glitch transferring images under iOS 6, but we're betting this is fixed by the time you read this.

CamWow is a totally free app with no paid upgrade for more features. Compared to some costly effects apps, CamWow still stands out for what it is. Try it on your iPhone or iPad and we suspect you'll keep using it.