Hipstamatic’s 235 update hit the App Store this afternoon and they delivered on not one but two highly sought after features: tap-to-focus (only in the zoomed-in view) and the ability to save fave combos of lens/film/flash.
With the update you’ll note that the zoomed-in (aka fullscreen) view now features a textured overlay reminiscent of looking through a dirty plastic lens. Don’t worry, this won’t show up on your photos. When you tap and hold on a spot to focus the overlay rotates, simulating the experience of manually focusing through a physical lens. Traditionalist fans argued against the idea of selective focus, pointing out it wasn’t available in the original Hipstamatic. But Synthetic’s implementation feels in line with the spirit of the plastic Hipstamatic, if not the real limitations.
Adding a favorite combination is as simple as tapping the little star underneath the viewfinder while using the setup you want to preserve. Accessing stored faves is done through the same star icon, which allows you to scroll between visual representations of your various setups.
So what, you say? These new features are no good if you can’t use them because Hipstamatic got flustered and stalled out “Winding Film”? No more! This update also promises to deliver improved stability, fixing the /facepalm-worth “Winding Film” freeze along with a bug that sometimes caused a crash on start-up (on iOS 4.3).
Additionally 235 adds “Hipstasave technology” which they claim will help recover photos that were being processed if the app does crash.
So, what combos are you going to start with? Let us know in the comments.
