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

While I’m generally leary of under the radar apps that are discounted to free, Lens+ is a refreshingly nice surprise. It’s an easy to use retro camera app with a bunch of filters that look great. I’d say it’s not a bad app at it’s normal price of $1.99. Right now, it’s been discounted for a very limited time to FREE. Grab it now. The App Store link is after the jump. >>>

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One of my most-used iPhone photo gizmos is my set of Photojojo magnetic lenses, especially the wide angle lens. With its natural vignette, lens distortion and lack of edge-to-edge focus, it’s a great lens for creating genuine lo-fi effects on my iPhone.

If you’ve got some or all of the popular Photojojo iPhone lenses including the wide angle/macro, fisheye, and 2X telephoto, keeping them secure when carrying them around can be a problem. Although they’re small, you don’t want to risk dust or damage by carrying them around loosely in your pocket.

Photojojo has solved this problem. They now have a custom case that fits the set of lenses and accessories that they offer.

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iPhone 4 lens micro-scratch

I have both an iPhone 4 and 4S. Some people prefer to use their iPhone 4 models without a case… “naked.” Others like the protection and look that a good case adds.

I’m a case guy. While the iPhone 4S is designed to take real world bumps and scrapes, I prefer the protection that a good case offers. If you use a “naked” iPhone 4 or 4S, chances are good that your back lens cover has micro-scratches. How do I know? I found out the hard way.

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If you find yourself wanting a wider field of view from your iPhone’s camera, the iPro Lens System (iPro Lens website link) is a combination wide angle + 165° fish eye and iPhone 4/4S case system. The wide angle lens adds over 40% to your iPhone 4 or 4S’ field of view. The 165° fish eye lens creates that unique fish eye distortion and grabs more available image than any “fish-eye” photo app can.

The iPro Lens System is worth a look and definitely worth adding to your holiday wish list.

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UPDATED 06.07.11 @21:10: Now with pricing info. =M=

UPDATE 06.10.11 @10:15: RetroPak One is now available as an in-app purchase in Hipstamatic for $1.99. It contains the DreamCanvas film and Salvador 84 lens from the Dali pak, the Tejas lens from the SXSW FreePak, and the Melodie lens from the Levi’s GoodPak. All four items had been discontinued. Hipstamatic says this will be your last opportunity to get this gear. RetroPak One will be available for three days, through Sunday, June 12, 2011. After that, they’re gone for good. =M=

UPDATE 06.10.11 @16:00: This morning, I checked my Hipstamatic before updating this post. At 10:50 or so my time, RetroPak One was available in my Hipstamatic — see the screenshot in the thumbnail. It was supposed to be live by 1:00 PM Eastern Time today. ¶ Many readers have reported that RetroPak One is still not showing up in their HipstaMart hours after it was supposed to be online. At 4:00 PM Central Time, all I get now is a “Loading…” screen where it stays stuck. I’m looking into this and will report here anything I’m able to find out. Keep checking back. =M=

UPDATE 06.10.11 @20:30: I just heard back from Hipstamatic. Here’s what happened: “It was actually Apple’s servers that were having the issue. We talked to them this morning and they were on it. We’ve been waiting all day for the email saying we’re good to go but didn’t hear back. At this point it looks like it’s working so we are going to send out the push in a little bit.” ¶ It looks like many of you have already downloaded the new RetroPak. It should now show up in your HipstaMart. =M=

For a variety of reasons, many Hipstamatic users have missed out on some of the limited edition HipstaPaks that have been released over the past year.

For one weekend only, June 10-12, 2011, Hipstamatic are re-releasing some of the discontinued gear in the very limited edition Hipstamatic Retropak One.

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8X Telephoto Lens from Photojojo. Photo by Stacy Anderson

The iPhone camera does not have a true zoom lens per se. It has a digital zoom. That means that the camera lacks the actual lenses to “zoom” you closer to your subject. Apple’s Camera app achieves a similar effect with a software zoom effect by cropping and resampling on the fly. As you zoom in closer — asking the iPhone do more with essentially fewer pixels — your images become noisier and fuzzier.

An optical lens will nearly always give better results than a digital zoom. If you use the iPhone camera’s digital zoom often, you may want to consider purchasing an external optical zoom lens. The 8X Telephoto Lens for iPhone from Photojojo is a good — not perfect –optical telephoto lens for a value price.

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UPDATED: Now with revised shipping dates and correct availability dates. =M=

I love shopping the Photojojo store. Just about everything in there is designed to make camera geeks go “Want!”. This week, my latest want is their new 8x Telephoto Lens. Announced back in February, it finally ships this Friday, April 29, 2011 (iPhone 3G/3GS version ships a little later), but they are accepting pre-orders for the lens now. UPDATE: This little beast has actually been available from Photojojo since February. It’s on backorder and now both styles won’t be shipping until Thursday, May 5th. =M=

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UPDATE: Now with Tejas lens sample photos! =M=

UPDATE 02: The new SXSW FreePak featuring the new Tejas lens is now live and available in HipstaMart! Start your downloads — make it yours. =M=

Just in time to celebrate Texas’ Birthday and SXSW (South By Southwest, a huge music showcase down the road in Austin, Texas), Hipstamatic are releasing the new SXSW FreePak.

The new FreePak is available for a very limited time and contains the new Tejas lens and the commemorative Cowgirl camera case. The SXSW FreePak is only available through March 20, 2011 and then it’s gone. It’s a free in-app download, so check to the HipstaMart section of the app later today and grab it soon! It becomes available today, March 11, at 5:00 PM (Central Time)

If you’re in or near Austin, Texas for SXSW, find Hipstamatic. They’ll be there all week with some really cool events planned. Click past the jump for lens sample images and more info. >>>

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Did you get one of the Toda-Seiko mobile phone lenses for your iPhone? Those are the ones available from GIZMON, USBFever, and Photojojo store. The Photojojo lenses are pretty cool with glass optics that stick magnetically to your iPhone. Unfortunately, the steel rings do not stick well to the glass case of an iPhone 4.

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Edgar Cuevas, who publishes the iPhoneogenic blog, recently purchased a T-20 2.0x Telephoto Lens for mobile phone. The T-20 is a low-cost, magnetic mounted telephoto lens made of metal — probably aluminum — and optical glass.

The device works on iPhones as well and Edgar took his new toy for a test drive. His complete review of the device appears on his other blog, Edgar’s iPhone Film Lab.

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