Hipstamatic’s ‘sticky’ new features

I’ve always been of two minds when it comes to “retro” camera apps. Hipstamatic was one of my first, and remains one of the few still on my iPhone 4S. The recent upgrade gives me a reason to start using it all over again: Instagram support.

Aside from Facebook, Instagram long surpassed Flickr and other photo sharing services as the best way to share your photos. And teaming up with Instagram keeps Hipstamatic relevant at a time when everyone has jumped on the retro bandwagon.

Also in an attempt to make the app “sticky” (to keep you using it), Hipstamatic now offers contests for photographers interested in proving their Ansel Adams chops. A leaderboard shows who’s on top, the prizes available, and the back story to why the contest is running. An upscale restaurant chain, for example, is trying to get its patrons to photograph their meals to beat the company’s own in-house photographer for a chance to win Hipstamatic filters. Filters is where Hipstamatic really makes its money – the app isn’t free ($1.99 as of publication) and neither are many of the filters you’re accustomed to getting elsewhere.

But as one of the pioneers of in-app purchases, creator Synthetic also offers different types of film developing and lenses. If you bought Hipstamatic when it first came out, do yourself a favour and upgrade (for free) to the current iteration: it’s substantially faster, offers organizational tools, and can upload to all the major social networks and its own “Hipstaccount” service.