Like every other app (and think and person), DSPO has it’s good points and bad points.

Some of the filters are pleasant-to-good, the little dancing figures in the moods are fun, and I think it might be interesting to shoot a camera with Orange Hair or Shultzie or K.I. or one of my other old, far away friends (or a group of them), and it might also be fun to get a group of people together for a 3 hour DSPO photowalk…

But it does have its problems:

This early version eats battery like no other. Starting a camera and shooting a couple of pictures drops battery by 15%. The app seems to eat battery even running in the background, much like Cinamatic (but not, interestingly, like Hipstamatic or Oggl or Incredibooth).

As DSPO uploads everything you shoot, it could potentially eat through a bunch of data, 1 or 2 MB at a time. The 40 or so pictures I shot before I got home today sucked up 60 MB, so it’s not a huge problem, but still something to be conscious of.

Images are saved at 1024 x 1024, far smaller than the maximum size the iPhone can spit out. It would be nice to have an option to choose file size, but I bet Hipstamatic have capped the size to keep from using too much of their CloudKit space.

The only known method of saving processed images to the computer—AirDrop or Dropbox—strips all EXIF and Geolocation data. (This also effects the Snapseed app, and apparently any app that follows Apple’s image-handling guidelines to the letter, so it’s not all DSPO. That said, developers need to find a workaround for those among us who want to backup our pictures to physical drives rather than keeping them in the cloud.)

There seems to be no way to remove pictures/cameras from Hipstamatic’s CloudKit server. This is something of a big deal to me. There’s also no way I can find to go back and see what privacy rights they’ve claimed or terms of use they’ve saddled me with.

There also seems to be no settings to set: no way to assert copyright in the EXIF; no way to selectively turn off geolocation by picture; no way to choose what image size to save at.

Hopefully, the find fixes for some of the above. If I hear anything or discover anything, I’ll let you know.

Till then, those last bits sorta makes me think twice about shooting much more with DSPO. I’m fairly particular about my copyright and ability to control what pictures I save and how I save them, and rather particular about what pictures I share and with whom I share them.

There are some nice effects in some of the filters though, and decent pictures are possible. Also, the app might be a fun way to connect with friends or document a party or wedding or other social event.

So choose for yourself. I think you have enough information from me now.

I set this camera up while stuck in a traffic jam this morning. It was a brief traffic jam—they were opening the highway after having most of it closed for construction overnight—but still long enough to start up a new camera.

I shot a bunch on the way to work, a tiny bit at work, and a bunch on the way home. I then shot a few before and after my nap. Then the 12 hour timer was up, and *poof* Camera 2 was done! Continue reading “Hipstamatic DSPO Review: Camera 2 – a day in the life”

I shot the first camera last night while trying my hand at making tomato khatta. (It would’ve been yum, if the fish had been any good.) Continue reading “Hipstamatic DSPO Review: Camera 1”