As you may of heard, Facebook today released a new application for iOS devices aimed at making it faster and easier to take, post, and consume photos on Facebook. Developed by a separate branch of Facebook than the original Facebook app and the newly acquired Instagram, Facebook Camera offers some interesting features on social photo sharing.

How does Facebook Camera fair? Find out after the break!

For one, Facebook Camera does not work alone – instead, it works in tandem with your Facebook account. The application must be linked with an account in order to even launch and take photos – if you’re one of the two people left on the planet without a Facebook account, you’re out of luck.

After you launch the application, you’re greeted to what essentially amounts to a photos-only version of your Facebook stream, complete with the ability to like and comment on your friends’ photos. On top of that you have a row of your three most recently taken photos, as well as a camera button for taking new photos. Click on one of the recent photos and you’re taken to a screen that allows you to tag, crop, and post photos. Oh – and  a section to apply a variety of scenic filters. …sound familiar?

Yes, at it’s heart, Facebook Camera for iOS allows you to take a photo, slap on a filter, and post the photo to Facebook. If that sounds almost exactly like Instagram to you, you wouldn’t be alone – that’s essentially what it is. Rumor has it that Facebook was working on this application far, far before Mark Zuckerberg let the Instagram acquisition plans out of the bag, meaning the company was suddenly saddled with two applications that achieve one very similar goal.

Despite these oddities and coincidences, Facebook Camera for iOS does a fine job at achieving a similar goal. While the UI isn’t quite as streamlined or simple as Instagram’s, I found Facebook Camera’s filters to be more visually appealing and to provide a bit more aesthetic variety. All in all, this might be the better application for those who are solely in Facebook’s camp, but considering Instagram’s ability to share photos in it’s own social stream, Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, Instagram continues to smide out on top.

Either way though, Facebook Camera for iOS is a fine application with a unique UI and some pretty filters. And remember – whether it’s better or worse than Instagram, Facebook wins anyways – so may as well enjoy the ride.