Initially I thought, wow, this changes everything about iPhoneography and how iPhone photos are shared. After using it for a few weeks, I've come to a very different conclusion.
My conclusion is this: Instagram changes a lot, but it makes the existence of a separate iPhoneography movement even more important rather than less.
Why? Primarily because the photos on Instagram are from all sorts of cameras. DSLRs, point and shoots, iPhones, iPods, etc. Posted here are two of my more popular Instagram pics that were taken with a DSLR. There is no way to know, as it exists today, what is from an iPhone and what is not. Which raises an important question - do people care about this? It's clear from the comments that people make that at least some do. And I'd guess it's more than a few although definitely not all. It's not uncommon to see things like:
"Why are people posting non-iPhone photos?!?!"
It screams frustration from those seeking true iPhoneography. Personally, I think there are two groups of people using Instagram. One group prefers to see iPhone only photos (the true iPhoneographers). The other group doesn't care and just wants to see cool pics. I like to think that I fall into both groups and decidedly have a need for both a Instagram (show me any cool pics) and my iPhoneography (show me what you can do with an iPhone) fix through top sites like LifeInLoFi and iPhoneography.
How does Instagram feel about it? Based on the fact that they could easily enforce an "iPhone photo only" policy with a just a few lines of code that check the EXIF, I'm guessing they aren't trying to be an iPhoneography targeted site. In fact I'd be shocked if they weren't hard at work on Android and other OS versions of the app.
I really have no idea what percentage of Instagram users would prefer iPhone only pics, but I would love to know.
How do you feel? Post a comment and share your opinion...
Thanks!
Josh
