Hipstamatic brings all its cameras and tools together in Camera Club

A $30-a-year Camera Club subscription now unlocks the entire Hipstamatic catalog, including four new Winter 26/27 cameras. The company is betting on tactile photography and the uniqueness of every frame.

Hipstamatic updates Camera Club: subscription unlocks the entire catalog

Hipstamatic has announced a major update to its Camera Club subscription and a new Winter 26/27 app bundle included with it. Previously, subscribers got access only to select bundles and tools, while some apps were sold separately. Now the company has brought its offerings together: Camera Club members can use every Hipstamatic product.

The company says the update is an attempt to bring a sense of scarcity and uniqueness back to photography. In its words, taking a photo once required spending money on film and waiting a week for it to be developed. With the arrival of digital photography, shots became free, cloud storage made them virtually limitless, and text-to-image generation made them optional. In response, Hipstamatic offers camera apps that require photographers to act in the moment.

“People ask us if we're against AI. No—we're against infinity. You can request the perfect image, then create another and another. One prompt gives you one option out of a million. You create a one of a kind,” says Hipstamatic co-founder Lucas Buick.

Buick also explains that the company never set out to replace film photography. In his words, Hipstamatic came about because they were short on money and didn't want to carry a separate camera: Polaroid had stopped making film, the other options were too expensive, and the camera they wanted was often not at hand. A phone, on the other hand, was always in their pocket, so the team began creating apps that reproduced the analog tools they wished they could carry.

The Winter 26/27 bundle includes four new cameras—TinType, IncrediBooth, SwankoLab, and Cinamatic. The subscription also provides full, unlimited access to the Party! app.

TinType recreates wet-plate portrait photography. Users are asked to stay still while the shutter is released, then shake the plate as the image develops. TinType 3 also includes Find TinType, a directory of 55 active wet-plate collodion photography studios in 16 countries.

IncrediBooth turns an iPhone into a photo booth: the app counts down, takes four shots, and combines them into a photo strip.

SwankoLab simulates working in a photo lab and print shop, making interaction with the app tactile. To agitate the developer in the tray, you tilt your phone; you move the squeegee across the stencil at a speed of your choosing. There is no randomness control: every print turns out unique.

Hipstamatic co-founder Ryan Dorshorst explains that SwankoLab is built around simulating physical processes. When you tilt the tray, the smartphone's gyroscope helps recreate the movement of water carrying pigment across the paper. The app also tracks how quickly your finger moves the squeegee. As a result, the print captures the movements of your hands—no one, including the person who made it, can reproduce it.

Cinamatic is styled after an 1980s camcorder. The app recreates not only the look of the device, but also the way it works with a cassette.

Party! is a shared camera that several people can use. The app is designed primarily for events: guests take pictures with the same camera throughout the evening, but can't view the finished collection until the next morning.

The Camera Club subscription includes more than 200 lenses, films, and flashes from the Hipstamatic catalog, as well as all the company's cameras, including the new apps in the Winter 26/27 bundle. There are no limits on the number of shots or use of the tools. It costs $30 per year, $8 per month, or $20 for six months.