Tag Archives: vintage film

Sochi Games Are Over, Do We Still Need The iPhone HipstaPak? Sure!

During the last Winter Olympic Games, the group behind Hipstamatic released a film/lens pak named after the Sochi city. It was interesting but would it live up to staying on the iPhone after the end of the games. As I looked over a few recents shots I took, it would appear it is standing up to time.

If you are a Hipstamatic iPhone camera app user, this is a HipstaPak with a lens and film bundle. Rather than a vintage film look, it produces images that have a feel like new film in a vintage camera (I shoot a lot with new 620 film in my Kodak Hawkeye so I recognized the results pretty quickly).

The photos provided by Hipstamatic show colors are still bright, with a cool light effect.

As usual, here is a couple shots I took with the combo so you can see the Sochi HipstaPak in real life usage:

If your a subscriber to the Oggl photo sharing app/service also provided by the Hipstamatic group. You have access to the lens/film at no additional charge (within Oggl, not the Hipstamatic app). At first, the lens/film bundle on Oggl under the name of Sochi was different than the HipstaPak in the Hipstamatic app. It has been corrected now, but you can see the above shot as it looked via Oggl below.

Oggl Retro Photography Sharing App and Service Updated With A Little From Everyone

Oggl, heard of it? It is one of the iPhone photos sharing service, that seems to have people that don’t know about it or people that use it. Few are between those two extremes.
The photo sharing service comes from the same folks that did Hipstamatic. Rather than just a few filters, Oggl gives the user access to the film and lenses that are available through the retro photography app Hipstamatic. Where Hipstamatic locks the image to the lens/film selected through the app when snapping the photo, Oggl offers the changing of those ‘filters’ to find the look the user was hoping for. Then, share it out to the world of Oggl users. There is a yearly subscription upgrade available.
The original Oggl had a unique workflow and limits on photos, outside of the changing filters after the shot. Now though, the service allows the importing of photos from the iPhone photo library, which is frowned on by the loyal users. Also, the UX has changed this week to be a more Flipboard News Reader type of feel. Will those changes chase away current users or add more new users?

The updated Oggl seems to be less about grouping of photos by the Oggl team around their challenges and lens/films used and more about groups created by users. These aren’t groups that people join, rather the grouping of photos for viewing under a few quick pick rule sets.

A nice addition in this Oggl update is a quick reference indicator showing how many likes and re-shares has occurred to photos uploaded by the account holder. Tapping each photo uploaded will show the quantity of likes, re-shares and who did each.

When a photo is being taken, the current (or last used) film/lens combo impact will be shown for a second then return to the unfiltered view. Choose one of the pre-built, custom combo or saved combo to see the impact again prior to snapping the shot.

Just sweep through the Oggl lenses and film options to see each one’s effect on the photo, save or discard. If a combo is used more often, they can be saved as a quick access. Also, when viewing photos posted by others, the combo they used can be added to the quick access options.

Yearly Hipstamatic RetroPak Released For Holiday – Discounted

Is this the fourth year Hipstamatic has done the RetroPak grab bag of film and lenses? Just announced is a discounted RetroPak Four with lenses and film that are normally only available through other groupings. “Discounted” is 99 cents for the whole Pak, where normally 99 cents would get you one or two films with a single lens.

Here is the RetroPak Four list, available within the app (7 films and 5 lenses):

Each lens and film detail can be reviewed. It is a Pak though so you get all or nothing, even if you own a few of these Hipstamatic add-ons.

In other news, Hipstamatic Releases Hongdae HipstaPak

Hipstamatic, the retro film/lens/flash app for the iPhone, released a new HipstaPak. It actually showed up some time ago. I upgraded, played with it, and forgot to tell you. The new HipstaPak is called Hongdae. As you may guess from the name, there is a line “Made in Korea” everywhere the pack is mentioned. Included is a new lens and film, no case and no new flash.

The example shots included from Hipstamatic –

The Hongdae combination drops the quality and adds a bit of noise. As you can see, there is some detail drop off too, but I like there is enough remaining to not end up with no recognizable bits. People, signs and landmarks can still be seen. So many times, age filter effects drop off too much which vintage photography didn’t do. As I usually do, here is the HipstaPak used in a shot I took:

Hipstamatic Retro Pak 3 on sale this weekend only!

After I discovered and posted about the new Silver Lake film/lens pak in Hipstamatic, I received an email saying that the whole RetroPak is on sale this weekend too. 99 cents for the full pack of 3 lenses and 6 films, purchasable through the app on your iPhone.

This is the complete list of the lenses and film in the RetroPak Three. If you want to deep dive into what each film and lens effect is, either view through the iPhone Hipstamatic app (tap on the shopping cart), or jump over to the Web Site where there are examples of many mix and matched for fun vintage effects.

Hipstamatic heads to Silver Lake with new lens and film pak

It’s been a little while since I have seen a new film/lens pak from Hipstamatic so this morning’s update was a nice surprise.

The new Silver Lake HipstaPak contains a film and lens that gives a histaminic 126 film era result. I shot plenty of those 126 packs of film and remember too well that any bit of bright light would burn all over the final image. Now, Hipstamatic offers a 99 cent solution to get the effect when shooting the image from the start rather than the mystery of those little cartridge film cameras.

New Black and White iPhone photography fun with release of Tintype SnapPak update

The iPhone camera app Hipstamatic has received a new film and flash updated called Tintype. The additional two vintage films and single lens are available via a 99 cent in-app purchase as a new SnapPak. The group offer a new take on black and white photography for the iPhone. One film leans towards the look found in a police mug shot while the other gives the effect of early photography colorization prior to color film photography.

The new Tintype SnapPak should prove popular with folks using the Hipstamatic app on their iPhone where more than just a lack of color is required in a photograph. The films and flash are all about setting a mood for the photo’s viewer similar to what was found in an old Kodak Brownie camera.

Hipstamatic brings back Wicker Park HipstaPak – This weekend only!

An update showed on my iPhone for Hipstamatic. Nothing special was listed. But, looking around there is a few new options and old friends are back.

A HipstaPak that was pulled a while ago, has returned to buy for those folks that missed the chance before. The Pak, Wicker Park, is a lens, flash and case (digital, not physical case). The lens is the Lucas AB2 which is popular for adding a brown glow to photos taken with it. Like I mentioned in the opening, the developers are trying to add some excitement to the Wicker Park pak as it is only available to purchase this weekend from within the shopping cart area of the iPhone Hipstamatic app.

When in the cart area of Hipstamatic, I noticed a new 99 cent (US) offering called PopTone CasePak.

The new Pak in Hipstamatic is ‘cases’ for your fun. Like the rustic case in the Wicker Park Pak, PopTone CasePak is a group of 5 cases that really pop with bright colors. They don’t change the functioning features of Hipstamatic, they are just for personalization and a lot of fun.

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