Having a camera on your phone is certainly convenient, but the use thereof always seems somewhat “light,” you know? The little fake shutter noise and slightly washed-out colors seem to make any occasion trivial. What we need is something that makes taking a picture with your phone a drawn-out, dignified process. Oh, there is such a thing?

Yes, the Slow Photography camera is modeled after old medium-format cameras, with its top-down orientation and milled metal parts. The idea is to provide “a natural stepping-stone between using a mobile phone as a camera before taking the plunge into professional grade digital photography,” which sounds a little silly at first, but really, it’s not. Part of (some) photography is the time and care you take in setting up, composing, and actually capturing a shot.

The quick-draw, easy-snap cameras in phones and such provide little opportunity to get a feel for your subject, location, etc, and a more deliberate process to taking a picture is something that’s good to experience.

The Slow Photography camera has a mount for your mobile phone – then you select a lens (fixed-focus, fisheye, or macro), check your framing through the top-down viewfinder, and hit the shutter release plunger.

Will your pictures be any better? I don’t know about that. But will you feel cool, and will you have a sweet metal object/conversation piece lying around the living room? Definitely.

P.S. I feel dirty for saying “Hipstamatic in real life.” That’s called photography.

[via Gizmag]