Hipstamatic: "Cowboys & Aliens" and "Hornbecker"

This isn't exactly new news, but if you are a fan of Hipstamatic, then you may or may not already know that developers Synthetic Corp have released two new freebies.

First came the Hornbecker Lens, which is part of the Nike "NSW Always On FreePak", and then just a couple days ago, they released the "Cowboys & Aliens FreePak", which includes 2 new lenses and camera skin.

Whilst in my opinion these lenses are nothing special, they are free, and should be a welcomed addition to any Hipsta fans camera bag.

Comments

[yoshiyahu]

Us Hipstamatic people are having fun playing with the new lenses and seeing the effects... :) I have talked about learning to love Instagram in another thread. One area where it helps is with things like the new lenses. You see what others are doing with lens and film choice and how it works and get good suggestions. The same is clearly true for any app, but it's fun for us Hipstamatic types.

[jdh322]

I am not able to download any of these freepaks. I have in app purchases enabled and emailed the developers several times. Anyone ideas how I can fix it?

[minimalist]

I for one welcome more modern lenses with subtle effects like the Hornbecker (the Melodie lens released last Christmas is also great one as well). There is nothing more tiring than yet another fake retro effect that will inevitably clog my Facebook feed with random light leaks, faded colors and simulated film scratches. This is one of the reasons I can not stand Instagram as those retro effect are all they seem to have.

[Mark in LOndon, UK]

i had same problem getting the new lenses until i logged out of my account then back in an tried again. it fixed the problem.
i personally find these "lenses" a bit blah. hardly distinguishable from others we already have. come on hipstamatic - we know you can do great stuff so just do that and don't release stuff for the sake of it.
and for god's sake can we have importing from library finally and 'save original' as well. this pretending to be an old plastic camera thing is being taken too far. let's take the best of that world and marry it with the new and keep it real.
mark london.

[Graham Smith]

I completely agree with Minimalist and although I am not a massive fan of Hornbecker so far (doesn't seem great for outdoors, quite nice indoors with natural light coming thru) I do welcome more modern lenses with subtle effects.

I too am a little bored with the really messy scratchy effect and have disabled all of these type of films and lenses from my setup.

I absolutely love Hipstamatic but I still want it to look like a photograph, not a fan of the more "arty" effects.

[yoshiyahu]

You know, of all the things to complain about, there's one thing that people don't seem to be complaining about. So I'll do that. :)

What about the way that Hipstamatic, an app that everyone paid for-- some of us, with all the extra lenses, paying quite a bit-- seems to be more interested in serving as a platform for ads than giving its users a good experience?

I mean, ok, you get a lens or film, rather than just a simple iAd, but still. The lenses and filters that are being given away are free for us because they are ads for Levis, or Nike, or Cowboys vs Aliens. We don't have to use them if we don't want, but still -- how much do you have to pay a developer for an app for them to just respect you and give you a good app?

Again, when you have bought all the packs, you have paid a lot for Hipstamatic. And

Perhaps Hipstamatic needs to listen to its user base and spend some of their revenue from ads to make the app better with functionatlity people ask for.

[Mr Timney]

Here is a personal point I would like to raise against Synthetic Corp... Screw your free mediocre film & lens paks for Hipstamatic that you are creating in joint ventures with major corporations ie: Nike etc. What about SWANKOLAB ???

Swankolab is the biggest load of crap scam they ever pulled the wool over our eyes & have stolen all of our money with. Swankolab has/had the potential to become a must have filtering app... But instead "Uncle Stu" screwed us all with the in-app purchase of the Lifetime Subscription to free updates, filters, effects, chemicals etc for the additional cost.

We all bought the Swanklab app & the majority of Hipstamatic addicts also purchased the in-app additional subscription... But other than an update to fix discolored blotches from an iOS update... We have received nothing... NOTHING! The only thing we did was line the pockets of Synthetic Corp & got a slap in the face for our loyalty!

So while everyone still idolizes Hipstamatic, don't forget it's been over a year+ & our Swankolab dollars have only gone towards their Homes, cars, iPhones, iPads, vacations & egos. The paying consumers got NOTHING in return. I guess a Lifetime Subscription is useless when they could decide not to develop it further & easily remove the app from the AppStore unnoticed.

In my personal opinion it is PAST DUE for any Swankolab updates, functions, features!

No reason to support Synthetic Corp further if they can't honor their users.

[Suzé]

Amen Mr. Timney. Agree with all your points. I feel stupid for being duped with SL.

[Greg Mills - Concord, NC]

1) I like free lenses. If they come at cost of shoe company or a movie studio, I don't care. The model they've set up here is that new paks cost money. You can pay for them or Levi's can. If you don't like the attached branding, don't download the pak, Just please, shut up before your complaining kills this deal for everyone.

2) I hope they never ruin Hipstamatic by adding an import feature. If they do that it will become just another filter app. Hipstamatic forces you to think creatively before the snap. You're not getting that anywhere else, embrace it.

[zerozero31]

I've given up on Hipstamatic. If ever there was a case of "the emperors new clothes", it's Hipstamatic. Ditch it folks. Get yourself a copy of Filterstorm or PhotoToaster or Noir, then Camerasharp or 6x6 for taking pictures and away you go. Save yourself a bunch of money along the way.

[Josh Wardell]

Hey, if Canon came out with a lens that was covered with Nike logos and gave it to me for free, I'd be pretty psyched.

I've always loved hipstamatic's looks but never use it because it won't apply effects to camera roll images. And yes, I was told that was the point of swankolab, but swankolab doesn't have the same effects....not to mention Timney's true points.

[Nigel Reyes]

Nothing special? These extras are very creative. Sharp and colourful photos ahoy, folks! And besides, Hipstamatic are regular content suppliers and they run competitions too. Many others have long since given up. Top marks from me.

[yoshiyahu]

Nigel -- I agree with you on the lenses -- The Libatique lens has resulted in some really neat shots with several films, and the MattyALN combined with Alfred also has resulted in some great shots for me. And the Hornbecker lens, with Watt or the Nike films, is cool. And I agree, it's nice to have regularly updated content.

And ok, fine, advertiser-driven content is awesome. Give me more! Perhaps an American Apparel pack that makes everyone look waifish and renders their clothes as translucent.

And while I agree with Greg Mills that adding import functionality to Hipstamatic ruins the app, that makes Mr. Timney's point all the more pointy -- I bought Swankolab because I wanted the funky and quirky and fun Synthetic experience for processing shots from the library. And I paid for the subscription, and not much has happened on that front, at all... I can understand why advertisers don't want to associate with Swankolab with it's smaller customer base, so we can't rely on movie studios and shoe companies for Swankolab updates.

[mark]

hipstamatic got me into iphone photography a few months ago. since then this passion has awakened in me which ive never known about and here i am 2 months later, just bought an SLR because i've become a photography addict. now i go crazy with both my SLR and iphone, quite often taking shots of the same things with each. ie. one snap with the slr for the clean shot and 1 with the phone/hipsta for the character. i love both. i got swankolab as well and its nowhere near as much fun as hipstamatic. hipsta is a one of a kind app that you either love or hate, and i absolutely love it. nothing else comes close in terms of quality. i dont care about advertiser branded films/lens, the final images are easy to crop so no big deal.as for importing functionality, its both good and bad, and i've learned to deal with it. if it allowed importing it would defeat the whole purpose of the app. classic toy cameras of the past couldnt import photos! this is meant to be a toy camera!