Chobial vs Hipstamatic: build a camera, or build a film?

Checked 26 October 2026 · By Abu Ashraf Masnun

Hipstamatic is the grandparent of the iPhone film camera. It went on sale in December 2009, was Apple's first App of the Year, and still has the best idea in the business: put a camera together from a lens, a film and a flash before you shoot. Chobial goes one layer down. Instead of choosing gear, you make the film itself, and develop your RAW with it.

Where Hipstamatic is ahead

• Sheer gear. 384 lenses, films and flashes, and 14 signature cameras for members. You could shoot a different combo every day for years and still have drawers left to open.
• Surprise. Shuffle the gear, or develop the roll hours later and get a notification when it's ready. Patience, but make it an app.
• A community without an algorithm. A chronological feed, a daily Top Nine and challenges, if you want them. Chobial has no social side.
• Track record. Sixteen years, an Editors' Choice, and photojournalists who've shot magazine covers with it.

Where Chobial is ahead

• The RAW. Chobial shoots ProRAW or RAW by default and keeps it, so a photo is a negative you can develop again, not a finished print.
• The film, all the way down. Not choosing from a shelf but building one: tone curves, an 8-band colour mixer, split toning, halation and grain modelled on real stocks. See making a film.
• LUTs in and out. Start a film from any .cube, and take yours to Lightroom or Resolve.
• A full editor. Masks for sky, subject and people, heal and clone, and light and colour tools.
• Bigger screens. Chobial has layouts for iPad and iPhone Duo.

Sources, opened on 26 October 2026: hipstamatic.app, its Camera Club page, film camera page and guide pages on the lens and film, changing gear after you shoot, editing and developing later, and its App Store listing. See all apps on the comparison page. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.

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