Three Most Used Camera Applications by Korean Students

Many of Koreans use camera applications, and many international students who visit Korea are fascinated by the applications they use. For those who are puzzled about what are the differences of the applications, and want to download an application just like a Korean student, here are the three main camera applications used by Korean Students. They are Candy Camera, Snow, and B612.

1. Candy Camera

Source: Candy Camera

First up is Candy Camera, or 캔디카메라 in Korean. It has many filters you can use, and if you just want an application that has many filters, this is the perfect application for you. Here are some details.

Source: Candy Camera

This is what you see once you download the application. From The bottom left are ‘Album’ where you can access your photo album, ‘Video’ where you can change to video mode, the big circle for the camera shutter, ‘Sticker’ where you can put stickers on your photos, and on the far right are ‘Filters’ where you can change the filters of your photo. Above are from the left : Timer, change to edit screen after taking picture, take picture with touch of the screen, grid, blur, Vignette, Flash, and select of frames. On the top left is the settings and on the top right is the button for changing to selfie mode.

Here are some examples of the filters Candy Camera has.

Source: Candy Camera

You can see that there are many filters. You can choose the filters by going into ‘Filters’ the three circles on the bottom right. Or if you want to experiment, you can just swipe the screen sideways to make the filters change randomly.

Also there is a variety of stickers that you can put on the photos.

Source: Candy Camera

If you forgot to use the filters or stickers, or if you want to use filters or stickers on pictures you have already taken, there is a way. You can either edit after taking the pictures, or you can go into ‘Albums’ on the application and edit there.

Source: Candy Camera

This is the screen when you edit. From the left there is ‘Edit’ where you can change the basic settings such as brightness of the photo, ‘Filter’, ‘Sticker’, ‘Beauty’, and ‘Share’.

Source: Candy Camera

You might have noticed that there is the Candy Camera logo on the pictures you take. You can easily delete that by going into settings. In settings you can also decide if you want to automatically save the pictures you take, and more.

Source: Candy Camera

Candy Camera is also able to take videos. As you can see you can take a maximum of 6 minutes and 21 seconds on the application (it may vary). You may also set a timer on the application for a maximum of 15 seconds to take better pictures.

2. Snow

Source: Snow

Snow is an application that is famous for its various face masks. It is one of the first camera applications in Korea that had face masks, and it uploads its face masks often. Also it senses your eyes and tends to make them bigger. If you want to take funny and unique pictures, Snow is the right application for you.

Source: Snow

This is the first screen you will see on Snow. The bottom left is ‘Story’ where you can share the photos you take with your friends on your story. The bottom right is ‘Chat’ where you can send the photo(s) you take to a certain friend. It can be said that it is similar to Snapchat, however not many Koreans use the ‘Story’ and ‘Chat’ function. Above the shutter are (from the left) ‘face masks’, ‘backgrounds’ and ‘filters’. On the top are ‘new features’, ‘album’ and ‘change to selfie mode’. It is different from Candy Camera that it has facemasks and backgrounds, but does not have any change of frames or a timer. Snow does have a video mode; you can take videos by holding the shutter for a long time.

Source: Snow

In the masks section, there are all kinds of masks that you can choose from.  A funny hotdog to a cute cat. Playing with the masks makes time fly, and also is very funny when you experiment.

There are also masks that mess up with your face.

Source: Snow

Although there are many fun masks, the funniest of all are the face swaps. Here you can change a normal picture of Emma Watson and Rupert Grint to a picture where they change faces. Or even make both of them into Rupert Grint! Snow works on more than two people, so it is fun to change faces amongst a bigger number of people.

Source: Snow

As like the Candy Camera, there are many filters in Snow. You can change by only selecting the filter you want at the filter section. Also you can change the background of the pictures you take in the background section as like the far right photo above.

Source: Snow

After taking the pictures, you can add some more things. From the right are buttons that change the seconds after the picture is exploded (like on Snapchat), put some stickers on, add text to the photo, or draw on the photo.

3. B612

Source: B612

Last but not least is B612. B612 is named after the star B612, which is the star that ‘The Little Prince’ in the book ‘The Little Prince’ lives. It was the leading camera application, but it gradually lost popularity due to Candy Camera and Snow. However, it also launched facemasks and backgrounds following Snow. B612 even has the timer function and changing picture frame function that Snow does not have.

Source: B612

This is the first screen when starting B612. From the bottom left are ‘Face Masks’, ‘Backgrounds’, ‘Play Chat’ which is a new photo chat service they developed, and ‘Filters’. From the top left are ‘Album’, ‘Changing Frames’, ‘Changing to Selfie Mode’, and settings.

Source: B612

In settings you can choose the flash, timer, blur, vignette, brightness, taking photos with touching the screen, and automatic photo save.

Source: B612

B612 has many masks also, from cat to kiwi to robot. The masks all change depending on your movement.

Source: B612

B612 also has many backgrounds that make your photos a different level. Filters to choose from are also plenty. B612 can be seen as a mix of all the good things of Candy Camera and Snow. However it is more complicated than Candy Camera and also some say the filters of Snow are better.

Today I have reviewed Candy Camera, Snow, and B612. Still, there are many camera filters Korean students use, such as MOLDIV, Foodie, and Analog Paris. It may be fun to try out all the neat applications during your stay. Maybe you can even take them back home, to share with your friends and family.

Article by Hee-sun from Korea, a Junior in Business Administration