# Amateur Photographer Magazine — user reviews > 78 indexed App Store user reviews of Amateur Photographer Magazine by Kelsey Publishing Group, rated 4.20/5 from 26 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/amateur-photographer-magazine/id542233123/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/amateur-photographer-magazine/id542233123.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 19 · 4★ 2 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 4 ## What do users think of Amateur Photographer Magazine? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 👍 Great magazine content - 👍 Informative and useful - 👍 Convenient digital access - 👍 Easy to navigate (sometimes) - 👍 Good for photography enthusiasts **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent bugs and glitches - 🐛 Poor image/text resolution - 🐛 Unresponsive interface - 🐛 Slow loading times - 🐛 Issues with purchasing/downloading - 🐛 Frustrating user experience - 🐛 Inconsistent performance - 🐛 Annoying ads/prompts - 🐛 Poor presentation of images - 🐛 Device rotation issues **Commonly reported bugs** - Page six always opens blurred - Library page always opens in portrait - Purchase goes through but no download - App requires iOS 11.2 or later, incompatible with older iOS - App crashes often - Pages don't turn, returns to same page - Flickering pages make it unreadable - Zooming in zooms out automatically - Images pixelate when enlarged - Slow to load each time - Unresponsive - Error messages - Sticky interface - Not working - All previously downloaded issues disappeared - Cannot download latest issue even with subscription - App doesn't recognize subscription - Zoom function broken after update - Resolution does not improve after zooming - Detailed tables/small font unreadable when zoomed - Pictures show white line grid - Editions don't recognize annual subscription - Bad image resolution (pixelated) - App crashes when downloading new issues - Cannot get anything at all (no past/current issues) - App does not work at all after recent upgrades - App does not work with iOS 8.0.2 - App only shows preview edition - Stuck in review screen - Continuously asks to rate, does not allow other actions - App only shows page for rating, cannot read download - Accessing from Newsstand is frequently impossible - Selected issue goes immediately to survey - Survey is not accessible and aborts to advertising - App is prone to bugs, especially after iOS updates - Unable to download issues - App stops working after subscription period - Zoom broken - Grid on some pictures - No Retina Display Support **Most requested features** - Improve image presentation and zoom - Fix bugs with page loading and navigation - Allow preview of single issues - Improve device rotation handling - Add more 'how-to' content - Implement a scrapbook/bookmarking feature - Geo-sensitive ads for overseas users - Improve customer support responsiveness - Ensure compatibility with latest iOS versions - Allow users to filter purchased/downloaded issues ## Newest reviews (11 of 78) ### 2/5 — Not bad but.... *2021-03-05* The general presentation is excellent, however there are a couple of really irritating bugs. Page six always opens blurred for some bizarre reason. You have to swipe past it and then back again to get it sharp. The library page always opens in portrait orientation, even if your device in in landscape, so you always have to pick it up and twirl it around to get it in landscape. Not a biggy, but after several months of doing it, you’d be amazed just how irritating it can become. ### 2/5 — Poor upgrade *2017-10-18, version 6.0.0* Slow to load each time, unresponsive and a backward step. Will not be subscribing again. ### 2/5 — Poor. *2017-09-04, version 5.1.0* Don't waste your money. Their South African call centre staff were great when the app stared charging me 2 months into years subscription, but the tech support is nonexistent. I had mailed both tech and the magazine directly about my issue, neither ever got back to me. The call centre did issue a refund though, which I will now be spending on a publication that actually wants to keep it's longterm readers! ### 2/5 — Images still very low res! *2017-02-06, version 5.1.0* A recent update has improved the look of the menu system which is great. But the app's main problem is still there in that whilst text is fine, images are so low res to the point them become pretty useless for things like lens sharpness tests and as for reading charts, forget it! Also half the front page it still taken up with a subscription advert even though I have one!? Please sort it out as it really detracts from what could be a great app ### 2/5 — Not really a digital app *2017-02-02* Amateur Photographer is an excellent magazine- provided you buy the print version. I can't recommend this app because it's not really an app at all. As a previous reviewer commented it's little more than a photo'd reproduction of the print edition. No attempt has been made to provide an app adapted for good tablet viewing unlike the many v good apps available for newspapers and other magazines. It's so bad that the tips on using Photoshop etc are pretty useless when the diagrams are illegible! I'm using an iPad Pro 9.7 so it's hardly due to low res screen. This is simply because the publishers are too mean to adopt a proper app. Ain't good enough! ### 2/5 — Preview on iPhone please! *2016-12-10, version 5.1.0* The ability to preview (or at least enlarge the front cover) would be greatly appreciated on the iPhone app and would certainly help sway my decision to buy. ### 2/5 — Great Magazine - Poor Application and support!! *2016-08-01, version 5* Like many other reviewers - I'm now at that stage where I think that a quality digital version of the magazines that I'm interested in is essential if they want to survive. Most of my reading is done ad-hoc and rarely at home where the paper copy sits. I tried subscribing directly with the publisher but as stated by others - it's these old paper publishers are the worst at this. Unfortunately, Time Magazines (my magazines.co.uk) are no different!! I thought subscribing directly would provide a few extra pennies per issue into the actual magazine but after 3 weeks of phone calls and emails, their support team failed to get me access to my membership account or any of the issues. Turns out their subscription does not start until a month after you sign up!? Rubbish!! Their price promise to match or better any other subscription offer turns out to be fake; Buyer Beware!! Their 'special deal' of £19.49 per quarter is more expensive than Apple's £5.99 per month - go figure; one for Trading Standards I guess!! At least Apple was instant and effective. Now onto the actual App - it's really basic with virtually no key features, and no matter what way you subscribe, the banners to subscribe remain regardless. There is no way to filter the view to just show those issues you have purchased or access to, or, to only display those you have downloaded to the tablet. Resolution and flow could be much better - especially on my iPad Pro. Finally, other magazines I subscribe to offered the option to pay a one off payment to have access to all the back issues - that is after all the beauty of digital. I hope that the actual AP staff read this review in addition to the publishing house - it is after all the future of their magazine and lively hood. Photography has gone digital and so must magazines. Come on AP - wake up and see the future! ### 2/5 — Lots of improvements to make *2016-07-27* I don't buy hard copies of magazines any longer, preferring to read them on my iPad and iPhone. I'm frustrated by magazines that think a functioning app is a nice to have. It's essential! Established media firms tend to have the worst reputation in this area. Unfortunately, on the iPhone, this App crashes too often to give a pleasurable reading experience. It's also very hard to separate the magazines I have downloaded because I want to read/re-read/refer to from the others without lots of scrolling and peering at small text. Come on AP, get your act together. ### 5/5 — Excellent app *2016-07-22* I love the app. I have a subscription to the hard copy of the magazine which I read at home, but love the fact that with this app I can also download as part of my subscription digital copies of the magazine so I can take them on the go. Also handy for keeping back issues as I sometimes remember there is an old article I want to look back on, so I don't need to keep the hard copy if I don't want to. ### 5/5 — An excellent app *2016-04-05, version 4.4* The Amateur Photographer App works well. It is easy to use, the magazine is easy to read to flip from page to page. One good point is that it's possible to buy just one edition of the magazine, no obligation to subscribe. A user friendly App easy to us, even for the over 65's! ### 2/5 — Avoid *2015-10-30, version 4.4* Having paid around £70 for a years subscription, about three weeks ago I was no longer able to download the magazine. Unless I paid for it! 3 weeks on I still cannot get the magazine I've already paid for. Customer service a total joke. My advice - by a print copy and avoid this app ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — only worked for one download *2020-08-20* Tried to do a second issue, says the purchase went through. No way to download it. just get a preview screen. No answer from support email sent earlier today. Will update my review if problem fixed. ### 1/5 — Back-hander? *2020-07-21* 'Requirers iOS 11.2 or later'; I'm stuck with iOS10. Given you are not displaying the latest issues on the old app I guess you don't want to sell any more. Actually I haven't bought a single e-magazine on this paper-weight since that awful rubbish piece of software the publishers fobbed us off with a couple of years ago. At least a paper mag remains mine. Q Magazine seems to have gone down the tubes, who next I wonder. As far as elppA is concerned it only takes one cook to spoil the broth. Old-school coder. ### 1/5 — I’ve cancelled my old subscription and won’t renew here *2020-07-03* Tried to buy a single issue with the new owner’s app. Payment processed successfully, says you are “all set”, then shows me a preview of the issue with an offer for me to buy it; no downloading, nothing. Went through this twice, same result. Also this app has some very frustrating behavior with device rotation. Navigating back to the main page results in a return to “normal” vertical orientation even though orientation lock is on. Frustrating. What are the chances that these two things are the only major problems with the “new” app. The new owners have a long way to go before getting my money. ### 1/5 — New version is rubbish *2020-06-30* The new version doesn’t allow you to zoom into a double page spread, so photos spanning two pages can’t be enlarged as one. Touching the page brings up a navigator bar which is quite annoying. Latest edition is not visible. Avoid. ### 1/5 — Disappointed *2020-05-12* This is review of the application, not the magazine, which remains the best photography magazine available by a long way. I returned to the tablet version after already having abandoned it once before. I wanted to save paper and i hoped it had improved. It hadn't. Regularly fails to load, and most irritatingly, even when moving away from it for a very short while (e.g. to look at a referenced Instagram account) it invariably returns to the cover page. Surely it is possible to retain the user's current page. Sadly I have an annual subscription but will be seeking a refund shortly, so I can return to the reliable paper copy. ### 1/5 — Broken experience *2017-11-17, version 6.0.1* Just installed the latest updates 1) still incredibly slowwwwww 2) when in full page mode it cuts off part of the page, forcing me to continually move the page up and down 3) where's the preview gone? All I get now is a view of the front page before I decide whether or not I want to buy - magazine buyers get to browse before buying!! all in all still a backward step...... ### 1/5 — Not fit for purpose *2017-10-31* First, the good news. It’s visually more appealing than the previous version, which did look a bit dated. Unfortunately, there is far, far more bad news than good. When I first installed it, I found that all my previously downloaded issues of AP had disappeared. It would not download the latest issue, even though my subscription still had a week to run, but offered to sell it to me. I bought it, and still could not download it - I later found out I had to restore my purchases. So now I’ve paid for an issue I don’t need. I’ve since renewed my annual subscription, but it doesn’t seem to know that, and still wants to sell me a subscription even though I can download it. Once downloaded, the experience of using it is truly awful. It crashes often. Pages don’t turn and it keeps going back to the same page for a while. It often flickers in a way that makes it unreadable. If I zoom in to make the tiny text easier to read, a few seconds later it zooms out again. I’ve never met an app that behaves like this. I never want to again. Trying to enlarge images just pixellates them. Has anybody actually tried to use this app before unleashing on the unsuspecting public? In its present form, it is simply not acceptable. However good the magazine itself may be, and it is, there is no point subscribing if it’s ruined by its app. ### 1/5 — AWFUL *2017-10-31, version 6.0.0* What astounds me is the previous version of this app was much better. The recent changes are just dreadful. For example, you can't get a full page of the magazine to display on a i Pad Pro (12.9 inch version) like you could with the old app. I know of several subscribers to Digital AP who have cancelled their subs. Unless it is improved I'll be joining them. Did AP really pay developers for this rubbish? ### 1/5 — And just when you thought this app couldn't get any worse... *2017-10-13* Oh dear, unresponsive, still no hi-res, still unforgivable for a photography app, error messages, sticky, and actually plain not working. Awful. Basically fire anyone associated with this rubbish. Did you, Amateur Photographer, pay for this flop? What a load of absolute disastrous rubbish. There's nothing good about it. And if you put it in the context of what is actually a half decent magazine, the contrast is even more stark. The magazine staffers must look at this and be frankly ashamed. As a photography magazine I expect high resolution reproduction of images and content. This is only a reproduction of a scanned version of the magazine. If there is a small photo on a page and you pinch and zoom all you will see is pixelated blocks in the image. The magazine also explains some photoshop techniques with PC screenshots of the settings used, and will say "use the settings shown" in the tutorial. However if you zoom in to see the settings they are literally impossible to read. If you are going to produce a magazine fit for iPad, particularly one about photography, ,you need access to high resolution imagery. I think this magazine is owned by Time so it's not like it's a small company with no access to resources, this is part of a global publication company. Very poor and it fit for purpose. The articles are good as are the equipment reviews, but if you're interested in photography and images then steer clear. ### 1/5 — Am photographer *2014-12-11, version 3.5* Very slow to download and only ran as foreground thus stopping all other activity. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great mag, poor presentation *2022-05-10* I love AP and have read it on and off for years. But the present is this app does not do it justice. The whole point of a photographic magazine is the presentation of great images. It is impossible to look at this images properly especially when they are a double page spread. Other apps do this better (see the Sunday Times) - click on the image and it goes to full screen. ### 5/5 — Love the App and Magazine *2020-11-01* The magazine is great and extremely informative, nonetheless I would love to see more how to and top tips. ### 5/5 — Amateur Photographer when Locked In. *2020-05-01* I have read Amateur photographer for several decades. As I travel a lot, I buy at stores rather than have a subscription; that way I am up to date and don’t have to wait a month or three until I get home. But Covid 19 has made it difficult and dangerous for someone of my age to go into newsagents or paper shops. So I decided to buy editions to read on my iPad until the lock down is ended and it is safe to return to normal shopping. Wonderful to be able to read my favourite magazine. As I read my daily papers on-line, I am used to used a screen and this is the perfect answer. Sign up, fellow photographers. That way you will not miss out on a great magazine. ### 5/5 — Best for reviews *2019-03-24* Great info weekly and useful news A magazine which I have read for nearly 40 years ### 5/5 — Consistently Excellent. *2019-01-01* AP, as it is often called, is a consistently excellent weekly magazine that always has something for the whole range of photographers. If you are into landscape, portraits, macro, street it’s for you. If you shoot with a Hasselblad or a cheap mobile phone there will be something of interest to you. Highly recommended. ### 5/5 — Massive improvement! *2018-09-03, version 7.0.0* Praise where praise is due. I hated the previous version of this app but this iteration is a huge improvement. It is now a real pleasure to use. It fits the screen properly and I like the way you can move across the page and appreciate a double spread. Well done guys. ### 5/5 — Great *2017-03-28, version 5.1.0* This magazine has always been in the forefront of photography, I started reading it in the early 70s and still reading it today. The app makes the magazine convenient and easy to read anywhere and if you wasn't to keep copies for future reference they don't take up any floor space. ### 5/5 — Utter rubbish *2016-12-02, version 5.1.0* I bought it on my phone to read on my iPad. You can't! It won't recognise my e mail or password. Can't read it on my phone so ended up buying the magazine. There's no help and no contact address and the app is just terrible. Wonderful magazine I have read for 30 years but avoid the app at all costs. ### 5/5 — Great app, great magazine *2016-10-07, version 5.1.0* A good app that delivers a superb magazine for we amateurs. ### 5/5 — Convenient and informative! *2016-08-09* This app is brilliant for me, as I have stacks and stacks of magazines at home (including Amateur Photographer) and for months I've been meaning to switch to digital as it's becoming a bit of a hazard while I run out of storage for my photography magazines. Amateur Photographer has been one of my favourites for a long while now, being a weekly magazine helps that and now I know they have an app it's the best! Now I can take my subscription on the go and read whenever and wherever. Brilliant! Thank you for providing this app for your viewers. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-05.*