I am a sucker for any new photography app. And while I usually have a rule of not paying for “just for the hell of it” app purchases, the 99 cent price tag allowed me to break the regulation.
Gudak Cam is a new photography app out of Korea. It mimics the old disposable Kodak cameras of the past. The app description reeled me in.
“The term ‘Gudagdali’ is an old Korean term for ‘outdated.’ In today’s digital era where the ‘undo’ function is prevalent, we may have lost the thrill of choosing and cherishing moments. The aesthetic of waiting for the printed photos may also have been lost. We, therefore, hope to go away from the mainstream routine of taking many photos and picking out the few good ones and bring back that ‘Gudak Moment.'”
This app completely lives up to its description. After downloading the app, you will immediately have a “roll” of 24 images. To take a photo, you will not have the full screen of your phone. You will, instead, have a very small viewfinder that I can barely see, mostly because I have older eyes and need reading glasses, but still, the viewfinder is small. It gives you just enough of a view to almost frame the shot, but barely. You “click” the bright yellow button and immediately you will hear that old clicking noise of advancing the film on these classic cameras. After shooting the roll of 24 photos, you will need to wait three days for the images to be “developed.”
To be honest, I had forgotten that I had taken two rolls, one after church one Sunday and another at a Disneyland date with the hubby, and when I received the app notification that the rolls were ready, I was more excited than I would like to admit.
You do not get to choose how the images are edited- they come as is. The app adds light leaks to some of the images.
What do I like about the app? I liked having only 24 shots. It made me think about the day differently. I also liked not getting to see the image right after I took the photo. I was forced to live in the moment and wait to relive all the fun of the day later.
What don’t I like about the app? Really, for under a buck, the app is pretty fun. While I would like to edit the image how I see the image, there are other apps that can do that. This app evoked that feeling you got when you first picked up your photos from the film counter, and you started sorting through them. There were photos you forgot about, and photos that were excited about that didn’t turn out quite how you expected.
In the end, I regret nothing.
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Ooh, very cool! It would be fun for several people to use the app on the same day and compare rolls later.
That would be fun!
Those light leaks are so fun!
So cool! I’m going to purchase it now. I also live in the San Gabriel Valley area, nice to see some familiar places on a blog?.
Thank you for your review 🙂
Why 3 Days? It actually took quite some time for us to decide.
Some days, we reminisce the times when the old photographers in the studios used to say ‘come back after three days to pick up your photos.’
Scientists say it takes three days to forget a memory. But if you remind yourself of that time after three days, that very memory becomes engraved into your long-term memory, a moment that will stay with you eternally.
Such photos used to be a recollection of memories, something that flickers forgotten memories to reminisce upon. Nowadays photos have merely become a list of ‘pixels and data’ to choose from,
and in the course of few days pictures and memories diminish.
We hope that each and every shot of photo taken with Gudak will bring back forgotten moments and become a memory that will be yours once and for all.