Hipstamatic – Nostalgia for the iPhone

Remember those orange and blue tinted photos from the Seventies, filled with moustached men in flares and women with daisy chain headbands? Ever thought they’d end up on the iPhone? Nah, me neither. They have though, in the form of the Hipstamatic app ($1.99).

Hipstamatic allows you to take photos through your iPhone camera, choose which lens you want, flash, and even film type — there’s even an in-app store (of course) to purchase more styles of each at 59p/99¢ each.

Once you load the app, you’re greeted with that familiar plastic back, bright yellow button and flash slider, as well as a small viewfinder — you’re almost tempted to put your eye up to it! I took a few pictures with the standard setting first, giving me a fifties style picture — light blue and green hues with plenty of shadows. Not being a photography buff, I have to say everything in this app impressed me. After seeing plenty of friend’s pictures in Facebook made by this very app, I wasn’t up for taking any old picture. I wanted interesting photos that really brought out the nostalgia in these old photographic styles.

Selecting the lenses, the standard choices are John S, Jimmy, or Kaimal Mark II — with the extra options being Helga Viking, Lucifer VI, and Roboto Glitter (that one sounds interesting). I had good fun finding out the different styles of these, eventually settling with Jimmy as my favourite — producing a real old style 70’s effect. Then with the Flash you only get two standard options — Standard (there we go, pretty self explanatory) and Dreampop which adds even more colour into your finished photo. The extras include a bigger range of gels and a Berry Pop multi-coloured pack including a lens and film. The films are a bit less exciting. There’s Blanko, Ina’s 1969, and Kodot Verichrome as standard, then Black & White, SuperGrain, Pistil, and Float as extras. I tended to stick with the Ina’s 1969 as I really liked its polaroid style.

Once you’ve picked your bits and pieces, you’re ready to bring all the memories flooding back. A notice states the camera is ‘warming the transistors’ before you get to slide the flash on and I noticed when you first open the app you’re greeted with ‘wiping off the lens, please wait’. Oh iPhone, I’m not used to you being so…dated! Then after taking your picture you have to wait for it to be “developed and printed,” which I did get quite impatient with. It’s not like your classic iPhone camera where it’s instantly in your gallery. You have a wait a couple of minutes for it to “develop” the photo into your library. From there you can share by emailing or posting to Facebook, as well as creating albums to separate all your styles.

For me the app is a bit of fun but I’m pretty sure I’ll get bored with it soon, after its novelty has worn off. For the more serious of fans, you can enter a monthly contest to win prizes for your best HipstaPrint at their community.

The app is, of course, not as good as the real deal but it’s certainly cheaper than buying a hipster cam in a trendy store and a handy way of keeping your prints together to upload in batches. We’re all tired of scanning polaroids aren’t we? Hipstamatic is available on the App Store for $1.99.

Charlotte is a freelance writer from the UK based in Central London. If she's not out shopping for shoes, you'll most likely find her reading books and posting musings on Twitter. She loves everything Apple and is permanently attached to her Macbook, iMac, and iPhone, but she dislikes red onions and that weird tummy feeling when you drive over speed bumps really fast.