A while back I waxed lyrical about a fantastic Photography iPhone App named Hipstamatic, which I use almost daily and used extensively on my recent trip to Cambodia. Well I’ve just stumbled across another App named Instragram (a mash up of Instant and Telegram).
Unlike Hipstamatic which adds the effects to your photo as you take it (you have to wait as it does it, which can be frustrating as you may miss another photo opportunity) Instagram can add the effects after you’ve taken the photo, so you can use the built in iPhone camera app then add the effects afterwards. This is a very handy feature which I wish Hipstamatic would allow, or at least release another app that did this.
Anyway this is about Instagram, they’ve only been going three months and they’ve got over a million users already, impressive I hear you say, but what’s also impressive is that the App is FREE!! So you have nothing to lose by downloading it and trying it out for yourself.
But the thing that really sets Instagram apart (and something I think Hipstamatic should learn from), is the online community built right into the App… Instagram’s not just about taking cool photos and storing them for later, it’s about sharing your cool photos with your friends and the wider community right now, either on Instagram’s own network or on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Flickr, Posterous or Tumblr.
I’ve only been playing with Instagram for less than an hour, but it looks like fun, I admit it’s effects don’t appear as wild and as experimental as they are in Hipstamatic, but maybe that’s a good thing, depending on your way of doing things and the look you want to achieve.
