An Impossible Dream made Possible

Stocks of Polaroid instant film are now dwindling, but The Impossible Project, having taken over the last Polaroid production plant in 2008, have today started selling their first instant films. Interestingly they are black and white and one, PX100, is in SX70 format which never existed in black and white when made by Polaroid. I still have an SX70 camera somewhere so I might give this new film a try (I never thought I'd say that ever again).

Hipstamatic film & lens combinations test

I have been testing every combination of Hipstamatic lens and film, you can buy with version 150, in a none too scientific way. Iwas bored waiting for the next tube train to Leicester Square, so I started taking pictures of the London Underground roundel logo tiles at Highgate station. Being red and blue on a white background this was hardly the best colour chart to test, and certainly not under optimal lighting conditions (hence the blur). However it has given me a set of reference images that will help in predicting, to some degree, the possible outcome of my choice for any shot.

For those who don't know how Hipstamatic it is not like other iPhone photo apps in that you take a picture with a choice of "lens", "film" and "flash" to apply a set of transformations upon the image. There is no post-production processing choices and you cannot change your mind afterwards. This is fine if either you are happy with the randomness of applying creative filters (you can shake the phone to allow Hipstamatic to choose the film and lens) or you know what effect your choices will have on the pictures, so hence this little project [1].

The plain vanilla London Underground tile

So here they are 48 (+ 1) pictures of the same thing - 6 lenses and 8 films. I have not included the flashes in the test as this would have taken many delays on the Norther Line to complete [2]. The plus one is the standard shot (above) taken with the default iPhone camera, no post process, except cropping to square format, and otherwise taken in the same non-scientific manner. I've grouped the pictures both by lens and by film, and you can click through to the full-size image in my test set on Flickr

The Lenses

Lens: John S

One of my favourite lenses and especially in use with Kodot Verichrome film. This one comes with the basic Hipstamatic.

Lens: Jimmy

Jimmy seems most useful for lightening images and increasing contrast when used with the black and white films BlacKeys B+W and BlacKeys SuperGrain

Lens: Kaimal Mark II

Lens: Helga Viking

I particularly like this lens with Float film, but I also use it with Ina's 1969, Kodot Verichrome and the BlacKeys films.

Lens: Lucifer VI

Lens: Roboto Glitter

Worth looking at the full-size versions of these images as these thumbnails don't do justice to the effect.

The Films

Film: Blanko

Film: Ina's 1969

Film: Kodot Verichrome

Film: BlacKeys B+W

Perhaps the most useful comparison of lens effects with a film is with black and white films as there is a much more subtle difference in choice of lens.

Film: BlacKeys SuperGrain

Film: Alfred Infrared

Film: Pistil

Film: Float

I love the through the viewfinder effect

[1] It is a lot easier with other creative iPhone apps to demonstrate the different outcomes with post-production transformations on any one picture.

[2] There are 288 possible combinations of flash, film and lens for all available add-ons for Hipstamatic 150