HUJI Takeover

If you were to scroll down my Instagram feed, you might think it’s 1998. Half the photos posted look like they came straight from a disposable camera, complete with a small orange date in the corner. They’re all from the same app: Huji Cam.

With the free version of Huji, every time you want a photo to have a vintage feel, you must take a photo in the app, which has a disposable camera style design. With the paid version, you can import your photos to be “developed” by the app.

So, why has Huji taken over the iPhone photography game? Well, the resurgence of a desire for vintage photos is nothing new; go into any Urban Outfitters and you’ll see an entire section of multi-colored Polaroid cameras and film. However, even the cheapest Polaroids set you back about $50, and that’s not counting the $15 packs of film that only come with 20 slides. A disposable camera costs about $9, and developing them comes in at about $20 per 36 photos. Furthermore, anyone who has used a Polaroid or disposable camera knows that often the picture comes out blurry, or with a noticeable glare, or doesn’t develop at all. It doesn’t make economic sense for most people to sacrifice that amount of money just for nostalgic looking photos.

A recent app called Gudak only costs $0.99, but in order to recreate the vintage photo experience, it only lets you take 24 photos per day, and they take three days to “develop” on the app.

With Huji, you can take as many photos as you want, edit, and upload them at a moments notice.

Get ready for a lot of Huji copycats, because the millennial desire for a vintage feel isn’t going anywhere, and companies are taking notice. They’ve realized that nostalgia marketing — tapping into positive associations from previous decades — works on modern consumers. Right now, Huji seems to have the Instagram photo market cornered, but that won’t last long.