Facebook Pulls Camera App Out as Instagram Deal Pends

With some hoopla, the Facebook Camera app hit the iTunes App  Store on Thursday.

A fairly simple app, it syncs with a user’s Facebook account, offers a variety of Instagram-like photo editing tools, and allows for the upload of multiple photos at once. It also geotags photos and collects all of the photos uploaded by friends in one stream that’s viewable within the app.

The app’s editing tools allow for cropping and adding effects like “coffee,” “highlight,” “neon” and “bright.” Before or after they’ve been edited, the photos can instantly be posted, either one at a time or in groups, to Facebook.

Notably, however, the app does not give the option of adding photos to existing albums or creating new albums — something that Facebook users might find frustrating.

The app is a good beginning, but it does have its problems, Internet marketing expert Brian Carter told MacNewsWorld.

Facebook released the app just as it’s in the process of purchasing the popular photo editing and sharing company, Instagram, and it’s not exactly clear why the release came when it did.

“It’s a great start, social and simple to use,” said Carter. “It’s not perfect — you can’t post to an album or create a new album. Some people are unhappy with requiring a location for the photos.”

It’s a strong offering from Facebook, said Todd Bailey, vice president of marketing and digital strategy  at WebiMax.

“I am impressed,” he told MacNewsWorld. “I find it easy to use. The batch share is a feature that Instagram lacks. The filters are not quite as good as Instagram’s, but overall the speed and the ability to do the batch share are impressive. It’s a good app for Facebook.”