Saturday

First Friday of the Month - Oakland HipstaPak



Oakland Hipstapak - Jack London lens and Telegraph film


After making my purchase of the Oakland HipstaPak and taking my first picture, there was a long silence. While my first reaction was sadness, I still went on a 3½ hour trip, taking a number of photographs with the new combo pack.


I wished I had the same weather conditions as the previous day, I accepted a most cloudy day, with a rare moment in which the sun crept through the cloud layer for a brief moment. While shooting with the Oakland HipstaPak, had a quick look from time to time at my camera roll, only to feel disappointed by the results with the Jack London lens and Telegraph film. For it appears once again Hipstamatic has released another HipstaPak which is nothing more than a cyan color filter we already available find in many other applications like VSCOcam, AFilter, and many other applications.






Oakland Hipstapak - Jack London lens and Telegraph film


When I look at Oakland and Yosemite HiptaPak and compare the two, there is little difference between them. There is also no difference when using Helga Viking of Jack London lens, when compared with the Telegraph film. Now to be fair, lenses are usually the weaker part of a HipstaPak and films achieve a greater range when the lens is combined with other films. No other lens then the Lowy stood out as being acceptable for the Telegraph film.



Oakland Hipstapak - Jack London lens and Telegraph film



Left image: Jack London lens and Telegraph film
Right image: Lowy lens and Sussex film

You can see the rosy color shift with the Oakland HipstaPak


Before I had ventured out to test the Oakland HipstaPak combo, I normally do a primarily a test using Oggl, by selecting other lenses and films in combination with a new HipstaPak, but that was not possible this time, as our Internet was down, so all photographs taken were with the Oakland HipstaPak on an iPhone 5S.



Oakland Hipstapak - Jack London lens and Telegraph film
Again notice the rose-pink color shift on the white walls










Oakland Hipstapak - Jack London lens and Telegraph film


Once back home I had a hard look at all the image, then had a quick look using Oggle with a non-Hipstamatic photograph to see how the image converts when applying a lens or film from the Oakland HipstaPak with another film/lens combination.


After testing the Jack London lens with all other films, my findings is that the lens renders all films mostly accurately, as if one were using the Lowy lens, just that Jack London also slightly lightens all images, resulting in faded colors, Lowy does not do this.



Left image: Jack London lens and Telegraph film
Right image: camera - PureShot, normal

Look at how Oakland renders the building and sky with the Oakland HipstaPak
when compared with a non-Hipstamatic photograph rendering the image normal




Left image: Jack London lens and Telegraph film
Right image: Lowy lens and Sussex film

Notice the shifting of the colors brought on by the bluish-rose tone




Left image: Jack London lens and Telegraph film
Right image: camera - 6x6, normal


As for the film Telegraph, it too was disappointing as its lens, Jack London. Now last month the Dalston HipstaPak with the Hackney film, produced a large range of variations when combined with other lenses and therefore made the Dalston HiptaPak a better purchase.



Left image: Jack London lens and Telegraph film
Right image: Lowy lens and Sussex film




Top left image: Jack London lens and Telegraph film
Top right image: Lowy lens and Sussex film
Bottom image: camera - PureShot, rendering the colors normal




Top left image: Jack London lens and Telegraph film
Top right image: Lowy lens and Sussex film

Please look at  the clouds and how they are rendered and look
unnatural especially how the colors shift from one tone to another.

_____



          Final thoughts

I do not like having to say a product is not worthy of your attention and money as in this case, and while these words are my personal opinion, I have done my very best to remain objective.


Several times before I stated that Hipstamatic is intellectually adrift, having lost their creative edge. While they could not continue down the road developing anomalies of special effects as in earlier years, they had to make a change, unfortunately what they produced in 2014 remains mostly uneventful.


Recently Hipstamatic reached out to the Hipsta-Community and asked for suggestions, all I can recommend is that Hipstamatic has a look at the history of photography and the photographers, their equipment and methods for inspiration. I wish Hipstamatic to succeed. I hope that 2015 will find the year the crew will find its creative vision and regain the trust with its customers. 



All photographs taken with an iPhone 5S by
©2014 Egmont van Dyck - All Rights Reserved








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