Hipstamatic used to be one of my early photography app. It consolidated my commitment into switching to iPhone from my Nokia E71. I had been using the iPhone ever since, appreciating it's camera.
Lately, the camera on the iPhone has lagged behind the newer Android smartphones, with the Galaxy S6 and the Lumia 930 coming to the fore. But what the other platform lacked was Hipstamatic.
Hipstamatic offered the element of unpredictability and creativity into mundane everyday shooting, since you would never know what your final photo would look like until after you committed to your shutter. The numerous combination of frames, lenses and film simulation also allow you to immerse into your own creative journey, ensuring no two styles would be the same.
Curating your collection used to be a problem in the past. So was the wait between pressing the shutter button and the final photo. It may take up to 5 seconds for "processing" of the final look, locking up the camera in between. This wait was now gone with the newer iPhones with its faster processors.
I left the app back in 2012 after using it to document my grandmother funeral. I kept looking back to the day every time I see the Hipstamatic icon, even not downloading the app when I purchased my iPhone 6 plus.
So, it had been some time. I started using the app again in the last couple of days and decided maybe I should keep it on the phone for the time being. It would be nice if I could just upload photos taken by other camera on the iPhone and process it through the app, with the ability to switch lens and seeing the product. Alas, that was not what Hipstamatic was all out. Where would the unpredictability go if you could do all that ... The essence of the app would then be gone.
So, I shall be flooding my Instagram, Tumblr, 500px - and may even be Flickr and VSCO - feeds with Hipstamatic in the next coupld of days. Back to the glory days!