Could December 13th be Hipstamatic D day?

On Tuesday the 13th of December, Synthetic, the people behind the very successful Hipstamatic app will be holding an informal media event, they are calling "Making Analog Digital Again". The event will be held at their offices in San Francisco, and according to reports on other websites, Chief Executive Lucas Buick will announce a new product, which I predict will be the Hipstamatic D-Series, a new app that they recently talked about and described as "a disposable film camera for the iPhone".

In the recent interview with Pocket-lint, Lucas described the app as being like an old disposable camera, whereby you have to shoot all 24 exposures before you can view the results. In the interview Lucas also said, "It’s an opportunity to bring back the idea that you have this roll of film and you shoot with it, and you think about what you’re seeing in the moment, more so than snapping a photo and looking at it, deleting it or taking another one. It really is a completely different way to experience photography that a lot of people have forgotten about, but it wasn’t so long ago that people don’t remember it, and that’s the key."

Want to know more about this announcement from Synthetic? Then make sure you check with us on the 13th, where I hope to have a full report on the new app.

Comments

[JR]

I already get borderline infuriated waiting for Hipstamatic to process high-quality "prints" for 15-20 seconds, or whatever. This idea sounds absolutely inane to me.

Don't get me wrong, I like analog-inspired ideas, I just don't think 24 exposure "film" is good inspiration. In a case like this, you should take what is good--the strengths--from new (speed, accessiblity, etc) and old (look, feel, emotion, whatever). Leave the bad parts like price and waiting in the past.

[chris / interealtime]

JR: I agree. If they want to go that way, maybe after your 24 shots you should wait a week while the film is 'sent off' for developing and returned back in the post. And then make sure half of them are spoiled or out of focus.

The whole point of the hipstamatic craze was that we brought back the nice parts - the film that aged but in a nice way, the light leak that added something special. And left behind all the bad parts and the 95% of shots that aged badly or were ruined instead of enhanced.

And yes, hipstamatic is incredibly slow. I write camera apps myself, and if I'd written something as slow as that I'd be ashamed to release it. An iPhone (at least since the 3gs) is capable of doing these effects near instantly.

[Dave]

I agree. I feel like if people wanted to wait for pictures that we wouldn't have advanced to the technologies we have today of digital. I'm excited about a new hipstamatic product but this wreaks of FAIL.

[Andre Clemente]

Wow, waiting 10-15 seconds is infuriating. It was an issue before when you couldn't multi task while developing. But now, just do something else on your phone while waiting. Besides, It'd take just as long to load the shot in whatever post-processor, select a filter or whatever and save it. Hipstamatic shots are 99 percent better unedited anyway.

The biggest problem with it is how much battery it consumes. Shoot a hundred Hipstamatic shots on a photo walk and you're battery is practically dead.

[Stefan Haehnsen]

I would be delighted, if they released Hipsta 227, coz 226 was the release that started to work unstable on my Ip4 with iOs4...

[Mr Timney]

Oh my who would ever shoot 100 shots with Hipstamatic on a walk. Wow that is dedication to an overrated app in my opinion. 95% of the time nothing beats the default camera & post process & edit, crop etc after. I rarely use an app that doesn't support importing & post editing of your own images. I'd rather capture an original unedited photo that I can edit however I see fit after. Than to miss a great shot to have it saved with a poor combination of lens/films & wished I never used Hipstamatic in the first place.

[trochou]

They totally got the concept right in my opinion. The fact that it takes 15 seconds to view your shot forces you to really compose your photos and avoid shooting like you don't care.
And when you see a pic that has a Hipstamatic frame, you know that there is no crop, which makes it more "real".
The idea to shoot 24 exposures before you can see them pushes the concept further, and I love it.

[Richard Bailey]

Hasn't this already been tried with some other app, or am I imagining things? Apart from that I think the whole idea is lame and I can't help thinking it is just Synthetic clutching at straws trying to make more money out of us. Why on earth don't they give over some development time instead to the long ignored Swankolab.

[Andre Clemente]

I totally agree with Trouchou. Yeah, it forces you to think before you shoot and properly compose your shot. If you "missed" a shoot because of poor composition or wrong choice of lens and film, then that's your own fault. I mean, how easy is to take a crap shot, just crop it how you want and post process it to death so that it can look cool.

[rcg]

I stopped using this app shortly after I had bought it.

If Synthetic cared at all bout photo composition then they would make the Hipstamatic preview screen much bigger. That way people could actually compose a shot.
Yes, this app is good at making practically any picture "pop", which has nothing to do with actually composing an image into any personal style of visual art.

[Max Berkowitz]

El Stupido!

[Fred]

they need to make the leap over to Android the users on the Android community would eat this app up! everyone that i have met uses a bunch of cam filtering apps they dont know which one to use now that instagram is making the leap i think its about time hipstamatic jumps ahead to increase its users.... thats my take anyway