A few years ago photographer Chase Jarvis answered the question “What is the best camera” with the rhetorical (if not obvious) answer The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You™. He then developed a community of people dedicated to this principal. Out of that grew an iphone app. As a photographer I know that I should always carry a camera because you never know when a shot may present itself. However, I am spoiled; I love my D700 but its not the most convenient piece of equipment to bring with me every time i walk out the door.  To make a long story short, Chase’s concept of using your always available phone as a camera is solid, but the app blows. I’ve tried Adobe’s photoshop app which was just plain unimpressive. Tiffen’s Photo fx 3.0 app is great but slow and kludgy. Then I found Hipstamatic.

self portrait

Hipstamatic – whats old is new again.

One of my best friends, an amazing photographer named Matt “ArtBiker” Linton renewed my passion for using non-contemporary photographic techniques.  He is a master of the now dead but possibly being revived by Lady Gaga Polaroid SX-70.  We are all familiar with the photos from those square format, muted color, shallow depth of field 1970′s style instant film cameras. Shooting side by side with Matt at a variety of events though the years has made me realize that some of these older techniques lend more mystery and romance to an image than is possible with the latest and greatest technology. So I dusted off my own SX-70, Holga, Lomo, and even made a pinhole for my DSLR. All of those are fun, but again, not convenient to bring with you. That’s why now I just reach for my IPhone and Hipstamatic.

Chrysler Building NYC

The Hipstamatic app allows you to use a variety of “lenses” and “film” which replicate the look and feel of some old favorite films and cameras. The basic app costs $3 with additional films and lenses costing $1 each. That’s a small price to pay for the in-your-pocket availability of these “cameras”.

Rosebud

I don’t tend to print out many of my photos unless I am doing a gallery show or it’s going into a publication so it didn’t occur to me right off the bat that I might want to print these out.  Of course I found an image I just had to print and only then did I realize that the iPhone preset for Hipstamatic is a tiny 525px image.  So here’s a Pro Tip: go into settings, and turn on “High QualityPrints”.  I also adjusted the viewfinder mode to “Precision Framing” so you know what your getting; it takes a bit of the fun out but for me the trade off is worth it.

Flowie

Faneuil Hall Boston MA

Haymarket Boston

Call me a curmudgeon but I view my lenses like I view my shoes (boots); once I find a comfy pair I stay in them for years.  One of my absolute favorite lens’s is an old Nikkor 135mm 1.8, it’s a manual from the early 1960′s but its sharp as a knife so I see no reason to get rid of it just yet.

Today I tried on a new pair of shoes and I like ‘em. My new Nikkor 50mm F/1.4 D AF arrived.  Let me tell you that this fast fixed standard is worth every penny.  Unless I am in the studio you will usually find some sort of telephoto lens on my camera as I hate being locked into one focal length. However with a kid on the move and many of my subjects in dimly lit locations, this 1.4 is killer for capturing properly exposed images low light situations. I was also impressed with how fast this lens finds its focus.   With a minimum focus distance of  16″ you wont get any macro action with this but thats not what its all about.

Nikkor 50mm F/1.4 D AF Test Shot

Unfortunately I don’t have scads of time tonight to do test shoots with this baby.  So I took a few pics around the house.  This one really shows off what you can do in a low light hand held situation.  It was shot at ISO 400 f/1.4 at 1/25 sec.  The sharpness of this lens and the minimal depth of field is exploited in this shot.

Pabst Blue Ribbon