I'm typically not a fan of cell phone cameras, especially not the iPhone 3G S's, which at its current 3.2-megapixel resolution has a hard time producing even mediocre 5 by 7 prints. I recently took a trip to Portland, Ore., and decided that I'd try documenting the entire trip using only my trusty iPhone and a handful of apps from the app store.
I came away with some interesting results – and a couple of apps that blew my socks off. Below you'll find examples of a few must-have photo applications that add value to the otherwise lackluster iPhone camera.
Hipstamatic
Here's an app that can make pretty much everything you shoot look like a piece of art. It's also a look at how one company is using in-app purchases to make a mint on the go. The purpose of Hipstamatic is to use a variety of virtual lenses and films to create photos that mimic the instamatics of old. The results are astonishing.
In these days of HD everything, we entertain a hunger for the simpler times and Hipstamatic feeds off that nostalgia. The initial app goes for $1.99 at the app store and includes a couple of lenses and films that amount to some interesting effects (think old Kodak cameras). However, I guarantee you that once you've tried those couple of starter lenses and films, you're going to want to try the rest of them. The rest of them cost 99 cents a piece. By the time you're done, you've paid right around $9.99 for the suite of apps and lenses.
The results speak for themselves. I had fun tramping around Portland with an eye for anything vintage, and I plan to drop them into my photo book as smaller thumbnails to complement the rest of the photos I took on my 10-megapixel Canon.
Pano
Of all the photo apps I tried on this trip, Pano got the biggest reaction from friends and family. Pano allows you to take panoramic shots with the iPhone and it does an incredible job of it. I've talked with people that have tried other panoramic apps and they've reported that this is indeed the best one out there.
The magic of Pano is really in the app. The process is pretty simple. First you take a series of sequential shots, guided by Pano's transparent overlays, which lead you into the next shot of whatever vista you're trying to photograph. Once you're through, Pano does the work of merging all your shots into one panoramic photo. In the shot below, I was able to get a pretty good look at all of Pioneer Square in downtown Portland. What's really great is that the resolution is good enough that you can actually print these at a decent size. I dropped one into my photo book that covers at least a half of an 8 ½ by 11 page.
ToonPaint
I hang out with a lot of characters (har har) and few photo apps will do them the kind of justice that ToonPaint does. This app makes Marvel comics out of all your friends and acquaintances. When you've got the picture you want, you can even color it in with a pallet of brushes and colors. See below for examples of ToonPaint. 
ToonPaint can be had for $1.99 at the App Store.
Snapfish Mobile
So once all my photos were shot, I wanted to be sure that I had them all in the right spot for laying out my photo book. Snapfish mobile worked seamlessly as a way of caching my photos while on the go. When I returned home, all the photos from my trip were safely stored on Snapfish's servers and waiting for me to lay out my photo book.
As far as I'm concerned, Snapfish has one of the most complete lines of photo products on the Web. You can order mugs, jewelry, blankets (yes, blankets) and photo books all designed with your very own pics. The complementary online site is easy to use and makes it simple to share single photos or entire albums.
Apps Make the iPhone a Camera
When it's all said and done, the apps I downloaded for my iPhone actually brought me to a kind of peace with the limitations of the camera itself. Even my friends with a Droid Incredible and its 8-megapixel camera couldn't have done some of the cool things I was able to do with the iPhone's measly 3.2-megapixel camera. Although I'll never make a framed 8 by 10 out of any of the cool photos I got from Hipstamatic, I was able to make some pretty interesting collages for my photo book.
Besides, won't Apple and company be throwing in an 8-megapixel camera with that next-gen iPhone coming out in June? Let's hope so!