The Södermalm Hipstapak

By on August 1, 2014

God dag! Good news: the Hipstamatic Travel Agency has just added a new destination to its catalog: Sweden, ancestral land of the Vikings. This country of 10 million people is part of Scandinavia and joined the European Union in 1995. Its capital is Stockholm and and the language is Swedish. Most music lovers will obviously associate this country with a mythical group who won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Waterloo": Abba!

sodermalm_hipstapak_banner

It's the First Friday of the month, welcome to a new pak : the Södermalm Hipstapak. Södermalm is an island in Stockholm. Hipstamatic decided to spoil us because in addition to a new lens (Bruno) and a new film (Gotland), we also get a flash, The Triple Crown Flash! This is THE good news of this summer.

The pak was just released, I have not yet had time to test these new elements but unlike some paks released in recent months, Bruno produces no vignetting or blurring effects. This new lens could be more than interesting!

The film is a reference to Gotland, the largest island of the country, located in the Baltic Sea. It has no border but it is still too early to know the possibilities offered by this film.

As I said in the introduction, the Södermalm Hipstapak contains a flash, the Triple Crown, which will change the contrast of images. Hipstamatic's flash catalog is often ignored and rarely used but it is a powerful weapon for the more adventurous among us! They can dramatically change a combo. The prime example remains the Jolly Rainbo 2X, a real gem!

sodermalm_hipstapak_package

The pak is free for Oggl users and is available for $ 0.99 (0.89 euros) for those who prefer Hipstamatic Classic. Your turn! Adjö så länge!

This post is also available in: French

4 Comments

  1. Iron

    August 1, 2014 at 4:02 pm

    Call me crazy but I have a theory that this is the last pack that they will produce before the company “folds” (I’ve read extensively about Hipstamatic and I know the financial trouble they are in).
    Anyway, here it is: This pack is a very regular slightly desaturated slightly grainy borderless color film, pretty much regular type of lens that creates a slight over exposed or desaturated look, and a flash that creates very VERY subtle contrast if used on non-physical flash mode.
    It’s almost as if they wanted to end it the way hipstamatic was meant to look; like a true film instamatic camera from the 70’s / early 80’s.
    Also, I believe a couple of the “wolf pack” (founding members) is in the pack photos.
    Besides that, on the bottom of the lens written very small, it says “folding model”.
    Just a theory… I could be talking out of my ass, but we will see if there is a new pack in September.
    Other than that I like this combo, it’s subtle and it can mix well with other lenses and films. And finally another flash! More of that I hope… If this is not the end.

  2. Barry Conway

    August 2, 2014 at 12:45 pm

    I’d like to think that I, too, have read extensively on Hipstamatic. As I recall, they went through some big changes (including lay-offs) a while back, and there was an extensive article about the challenges this particular startup faced, back in 2012 (http://www.fastcompany.com/3001994/no-filter-inside-hipstamatics-lost-year-searching-next-killer-social-app). Can’t say I’ve seen anything of that nature since, so please, share your sources @Iron – we’re all interested readers here, I’m sure.

    Wouldn’t read too much into that “folding” label on the lens. You’ll see that phrasing on (the lenses of) quite a few of the old, elegant folding cameras (Kodaks, etc), and Hipstamatic’s and Hipstamatic’s designers have, on occasion, put some lovely “real lens” type detail on their lenses – f-stops, focusing scales, ‘manufacturer details’, etc. A couple even purported to be zoom lenses, but hey! poetic license and all that.

    I’m more immediately concerned that Hipstamatic transitions nicely to iOS8 … anyone got any solid info on that?

    As for the Pak releases: I, for one, wouldn’t mind if they slowed down the release schedule just a little – so many beauties already to choose from, that I am sometimes a little over-whelmed by choice. I’d be quite happy to see a slightly longer Pak release cycle, and perhaps just a little bit more in the way of features: image rotation in-app, for one, and that o-so-longed for self-timer. Never quite understood why the ‘analog’ self timers on (for example) the Canon Ftb or EF (35mm FD series) couldn’t transition happily to the Hipstamatic cases. Bit of a no-brainer, really! (o; (says the man who couldn’t code his way out of a cardboard box).

  3. Iron

    August 9, 2014 at 5:17 pm

    I like the monthly pack releases, and a whole month to release a lens and film I don’t think is unreasonable. I’m not sure of the process, but I’m certain it can’t take that long.
    The only problem they obviously might be running into is just ideas for these packs, but even just a subtle difference between something else will work, as the mix-matching possibilities just expand that much more.
    For example when they released the Chivas lens, I thought that was crap. But then I tried it with Black Keys Extra Fine and took some great portraits with it.
    I have ideas for packs, I’m sure everyone does, like a true “toy camera” lens and film of some type, or packs that emulate actual real films (like Velvia film for example) and lenses. Of course, I think allot of these packs do exactly that, but they obviously can’t say the brand it is trying to emulate because of licencing issues.
    As for iOS8, I’m not going to download that update until I know hipstamatic runs smooth on it. It’s that simple.
    I don’t care about a self timer myself, I know I’ll never use it. I’d rather see more functionality added into Hipstamatic like Oggl has with the shooting modes. But as it is now I am happy with it. (I never use Oggl camera, I think it’s post processing as you add the lenses and films after you shoot, which requires zero skill in photography).
    I also have an idea of “Hipstamatic SLR”, just exactly the same as Hipstamatic but in full frame and with added shooting modes and control over shutter speed etc etc.
    Check me out on Oggl
    xxxIronLeexxx

  4. Scrappy Fu

    August 11, 2014 at 10:24 am

    I like the idea of an SLR hipstamatic. I’d also like to see a bit of hardware that could be installed onto a real digital SLR camera, via way of a dongle. Is this even possible? Idk. I’d like a desktop version of oggl, where you could use any format and cinematic video options also. I’d buy it for sure.
    A randomise button and access to the flashes on Oggl would also be appreciated. Even though it may be too formal for the hipsta crowd, I’d like to be able to choose from different grids, to line up my shots when I feel like it.
    I hope the company doesn’t fold, I really like their products.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *