White Album gives your iPhone a retro camera feature, no previews, only physical pictures

You remember the days of physical photographs right? Well, maybe not for some of you, but once upon a time cameras used film that had to be developed with pictures printed on paper in a dark room.

Those photos would find their way into printed media, scrap books, photo albums, or an old shoebox. Among the last living breaths of film, disposable cameras made their way to retail shelves, a fixed price got you a camera, and a set of prints in some cases and no need to reload an aging camera with film.

There are services out there that will take your digital photos and bind them into honest-to-goodness books, for a price.  Some are solid bargains, others not so much. If the idea of snapping through a “digital” roll of film and have a set of prints automatically generated and sent to you anywhere in the world appeals to you, White Album is your ticket.

White Album adds a little retro to your picture taking journey. The app uses your iPhone’s main camera only (no selfies), and when you snap a photo you do not get a digital preview of the picture. Indeed, you will not see what you actually captured until the photo print is in your hands - no retakes, no deleting.

The White Album app does offer you some basics to take a little control, you can control the flash, and you can either snap the picture with a square frame or rounded border. That is it, no filters, no editing, just about as raw an experience you can create with a smartphone as possible, and about as close to a regular film contraption as many of us are likely to see again.

A “roll” of 24 photos costs $20, and that is an all-in price, including processing, printing, packaging, and worldwide shipping.  Printing takes about a week, and the final product is a 4-inch by 5-inch photo printed on 100-pound smooth satin paper. It is a pretty novel concept, and we can see it being a lot of fun for some occasions.

It could become hip again, "delayed gratification." 

sources: White Album via MobileSyrup