There are countless photo filter apps out there for iPhones (and other smartphones – I’m just not sure which apps are cross-platform), each with their own pros and cons. Instagram is undoubtedly the biggest, with Hipstamatic following somewhere behind. The logos certainly don’t mark them too far apart, so what are the key differences?
The logos: Hipstamatic on the left, Instagram on the right.
The basics
So we all know the drill with Instagram: take or import a photo, choose one of 19 filters, each with an optional frame, add focus and contrast if you want to pimp out the snap and share to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc.
Hipstamatic’s a little bit different, and although I’m biased, takes a bit more skill. It offers different lenses, films and flashes and you select a combination of the three (or two – flash is optional) before you shoot. Once a photo has been taken and developed, you can’t go about changing the look.
Cambridge – Lucas AB2/GS-O/Tasty Pop
More combos than I’ve had hot dinners
I’ve had Hipstamatic since the start, and at the last count, had about 30 lenses, 10 different software flashes (for effect only, the actual camera flash can be turned on as well) and 30+ films – a mixture of colour and B&W. And 21 camera cases, that don’t have any purpose other than to alter the appearance of the app interface.
I’m not going to do the maths, but there are thousands of different lens/film/flash combos, meaning that it is exciting to take a photo and never be quite sure what it’s going to come out like! And there’s the option to shake your iPhone to randomise the selection.
It’d be pretty annoying to take photos of important occasions or events and find the results are never much good, so the bright thinkers at Hipstamatic added a favourites function (or ‘favorites’, the Yanks) a while ago, making it easy to switch between trustworthy combos. And you can name them, maybe depending on what situations they’d work best in: low light, for instance, or sunset, sport, beach, and so on.
Lenses, films, flashes and cases are released in ‘Paks’, sometimes free, sometimes 69p. There are GoodPaks, where money goes towards a cause, FreePaks, that are free and Hipstapaks, where money goes to Hipstamatic HQ. As a general rule there’s a Pak of some sort every month or so, sometimes themed to co-incude with a movie release or something.
Hipstamatic UI: The Americana Lens and Old Glory camera case.
The betrayal
I have to admit, that I stopped using Hipstamatic for a few months earlier this year – I downloaded Instagram and it kind of took over. It’s not that I ever thought it was better than Hipstamatic, just easier. It’s great if you’re wanting to take a quick photo, you can just snap one on the standard camera and then import it later on when you’ve time. Anyone can do it (my mum is living proof of that – she posted her first Instagram picture to her Facebook earlier today), it’s really easy and the effects can be quite nice.
Another plus of Instagram is the front-facing camera option (for all those cheeky bathroom selfies). I’m sure the developers of Hipstamatic will have had countless requests from users to add a front-facing camera function (how hard can it be?!), but four years after the app was released there’s still nothing.
Share and share alike
And Instagram undoubtedly has the edge on the social side of things, despite Hipstamatic trying to play catch up over various updates in the past. Oggl is Hipstamatic’s new social photo app to rival Instagram. The tagline is “capture and curate your life through photography”, and it is a very slick and well-designed app, but I think a lot of people will still share photos to Instagram from it (an in-built option), relying on Instagram’s well-established social media presence to reach the masses. I won’t say too much about Oggl here though, I think there’s another blogpost for that…
So ultimately, if you fancy yourself as a bit of a skilled iPhoneographer, Hipstamatic’s your bag. By all means have Instagram for those post-night out edits, but generally Hipstamatic gives you greater satisfaction when you do it right.
Hipstamaddicts Anonymous 
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