Life in LoFi: iPhoneography | iPhone Photo News, Showcases, App Reviews

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UPDATE: Post now includes info about Red Giant’s International Plastic Bullet Photo contest. =M=

I don’t get all the commotion over at iTunes about some band that hasn’t released a new album together in over 40 years….

Okay, enough with the sarcasm. Actually, with all of the hoopla surrounding the cool release of The Beatles’ catalog on iTunes (Go Apple — both of them!), some of the other happenings in the App Store may have been overlooked, including the release of some new app updates. Plastic Bullet Camera 1.2 is one of those apps.

To celebrate the update, Red Giant, the developer of Plastic Bullet are giving away an iPad.

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CameraBag's new "Plastic" filter

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On the eve of the release of the iPhone 4, it’s time to check iTunes for update goodies. One of them is the venerable CameraBag. Version 1.85 was released today and includes a new lo-fi filter, “Plastic”. The new filter replicates a cheap, plastic toy camera. Plastic adds a nice vignette and warm tones to the image. It’s different than the app’s original “Helga” filter which also applies a vignette but more desaturated, cooler tones.

To view more more samples of the new filter, visit the Nevercenter blog here.

The update is live in the App Store now. If you don’t have CameraBag in your toolbox, you really should. It’s one of the older photo apps in the App Store, but in the opinion of many an iPhoneographer — myself included — it’s timeless and one of the classics.

CameraBag is $1.99 and runs on the iPhone 4.

App Store link: CameraBag

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PhoneGrafer

PhoneGrafer by emotionale is now available for free for the holidays through December 28, 2009.

PhoneGrafer is a camera app with a built-in self-timer, image leveling and an assortment of filters. You can upload straight to Flickr from within the app and the app saves some EXIF data with your photos.

The filter set is appealing. The Russian filter duplicates the look of a plastic toy camera, a Holga. I also like that you can add a color cast in the CMYK color space. The app supports iPhone 3GS file sizes and saves in full resolution.

Grab it now while it’s free!

App Store Link: PhoneGrafer

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Hipstamatic
Version 100

Bottom Line: Recommend

HipstaMatic

True lo-fi photography is not an exact art. Primarily because of the nature of the equipment (mainly mass-produced plastic or “toy” cameras), unpredictability is an essential element. Most lo-fi cameras have cheap, plastic lenses; many of them have imprecise cases that don’t completely seal, causing light leaks, vignetting, lens distortions and other imperfections. To the lo-fi photographer, these imperfections are desirable and add to the look of the image. It’s the quest for the happy accident.

There are apps that duplicate the images taken by classic lo-fi cameras such as the Holga and the Lomo — classic cameras widely produced and still easily found. Hipstamatic by Synthetic Corp is the first app to replicate the look of one of the rarest lo-fi cameras, the Hipstamatic 100, a square-frame 35mm camera most of us probably never heard of until now. I think the images this app creates are gorgeous and even though there are flaws in this first release, I love this app!

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