disposable camera

Remember those days gone by of disposable cameras?

You got 24 shots on a camera and had no clue what was on there when you finally got around to taking it to get developed? What a fun time it was to see the goofy faces or memories captures on a grainy camera when you got the prints back.

In this age of digital, that feeling, for the most part, is gone. There’s instant satisfaction of being able to see the image you just snapped, whether it be by a high-priced digital SLR, a point-and-shoot or a camera on your phone.

Enter Hipstamatic Disposable.

This app is only on iOS operating systems, so iPhones or iPads or along those lines.

But this app is really cool. I won’t say it’s perfect — I’ve had some issues. But, overall, this has been a fun app to use and is worth taking a peek at.

The premise is simple — you have a disposable camera. And there are many to choose from (all with different feel and results — from a black and white camera to some “older” models that do different things with light etc).

One of the coolest parts of the app is that you don’t get to see any of the shots until the whole roll is completed.

The other cool part?

You can share!

For other users of the app, you can actually share the camera. Therefore, you all have the camera that is being used and are snapping away. When it’s done, you get all the prints. You get to see what your friends take and they see what you took. It’s very cool in that regard.

Let’s take a peek at this app.

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The screen is easy to navigate and get around.

This is the main screen area. You can flip through the cameras you have open by swiping the screen left or right. At the bottom, there are options to see cameras already developed, invitations from others, the cameras you have and can start/use, and the option to buy more cameras.

There are plenty of cameras to use.

This is a free app, mind you. You get some good cameras for free, but others can be purchased. Some have unlimited use, some others you purchase and have a certain amount of cameras etc.

You can also see how many exposures you have remaining on the camera in the lower-left corner of said camera.

This should be pretty self-explanatory.

The yellow button is what you use to take the photo. The little button (squiggly arrow) to the right is what you hit if you want to use a flash. Snap away. There is the left-to-right bar that is supposed to do different things to the images, but I honestly always forget about it, so I haven’t tried it much and can’t really comment on how well it works.

At the bottom, you have the exposures remaining, how many friends are involved with this camera, and then the button to take you back to the main page.

If you click on the “friends” part, you come to this screen, which tells you the details of the camera and which friends are involved.

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The app, in the beginning, was annoying as some things didn’t work well. I would finish a camera and half the photos didn’t show up. Further, it took more than a week for their customer service to acknowledge my complaints. Even then, it was just the “the app is new and we are working to fix everything.”

That’s fine, but when people take photos, they want to see the results. I’ve come to the conclusion that these images, despite the app continually being upgraded and becoming better, are ones I’ll never see.

And it’s a shame because I really wanted to see them.

That being said, it has become steadily better. The quality seems to be pretty strong, depending on what you want to do with the image.  The size I received when I e-mailed them to myself was 600×600, by far not the dimensions I would probably want if I was looking to print. With regular Hipstamatic, you can order prints. But I don’t see that option here. Still, I guess it seems a little more “realistic” if the quality isn’t perfect being it’s a “disposable camera.” But I would like the option for some higher-quality prints. I am, after all, taking images with a digital medium.

My only other major issue is the sharing situation.

One of the recent updates says it’s easier to invite friends. However, I can only seem to invite people who were in my list already. It used to be I could invite through Facebook, but I don’t see that option now. It would be nice if I could invite people through e-mail or Twitter or something like that. Not everyone with an iPhone has this app and not everyone I know with an iPhone is a friend of mine on Facebook. I don’t want to have to invite more and more people to Facebook just to be able to invite them to share a disposable camera with me.

If I am wrong about this and there has been a fix, I hope someone will point it out to me as I’ve tried to start several cameras to test it out and the options aren’t there.

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The images are way cool.

Despite the quality issues in regard to printing, to have them for e-mail or texting or something like that is wonderful.

My favorite camera, by far, is the BlackKeys 44, a black-and-white camera.

I really like the feel of these shots. The border around the image is fantastic and makes it feel like an old photo. But the lighting is a key part of these cameras. Take a peek at a few other shots that some people I shared the camera with took and see the lighting and difference of the feel of the shot:

It really does amaze me how the lighting really plays a big factor on these shots — and it truly delights me. I think it’s great that the disposable seems to adjust pretty well to things and it makes it look like a really cool image no matter what.

The color cameras are just a interesting.

The shots can give you a feel like they were taken years ago. The faded colors or the light coming into the camera — many things to give you a retro feel.

Such as this:

I love that look and feel. It could have been taken in the 70s or 80s!

Even better?

It gives you that memory feel. If you are regular visitors to my blog, you know each week I go into the vault for an old photo for Snapshot Saturday. This camera can give you that feel of the old “memory” photo.

Such as this one, taken by Mike:

And with the sharing possibilities, others get to share in the memories!

How great is this shot? It’s simple, has a slight blur and is something many parents probably have (something like it, anyway!). It’s a way to capture and keep so many memories and have that retro feel.

Not every image has to be sharp, in focus and in perfect color.

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Overall, I’m a fan.

I do hope Hipstamatic decides to open some of the sharing ways up so people can connect through things like Twitter and e-mail and not have to be Facebook friends. I’m pretty close with my Facebook stuff and rarely add someone who I don’t know in real life. It’s nothing against the other person, it’s just how I am with Facebook. I’m not in a race to have the most friends, after all.

But it would be so cool to connect photo wise with others from around the world, especially though social networks like Twitter or even Google+.

Until then, I’ll keep learning this app a bit more and using as much as I can. It’s a wonderful tool to be creative.

Have you used Disposable? What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave them in the comments below!