Hey, hep cat! In case you haven’t heard, vintage is here in a big way -- as in vintage photography, groovy dudes, iPhone (or iPod touch) style. If you crave the ability to make your expensive iOS device take pictures like a classic Polaroid (or other vintage gear), read on.

While we all enjoy the pristine digital images from our iPhone or iPod touch, many of us who grew up in a bygone era are craving the analog look--specifically, photos that look like they were taken on the equipment of yore, without having to hit the Fotomat (um, make that corner drugstore) to develop film and get your prints a week later.

Return with us, if you will, to that kinder, gentler, bygone era as we take a look at two such iOS apps capable of delivering photos right out of a time capsule.

Hipstamatic ($1.99)

Our first app, Hipstamatic, not only takes photos that look old school, the entire app looks pretty old school as well, right down to the “Classic Black” camera case used for most of the interface (and if that’s not to your liking, a 99-cent in-app purchase can get you “Eggshell White” instead). Hipstamatic “brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty and fun of plastic toy cameras of the past,” complete with three film types (Ina’s 1969, Kodot Verichrome and Blanko), three types of lenses (John S, Jimmy and Kaimal Mark II) and two flash styles (Standard and Dreampop).

Hipstamatic will immediately take users of a certain age straight back to the late ‘60s, complete with kitschy touches such as the sound of a flashbulb charging when you activate the flash (that really takes us back to family events from our youth!). The app opens ready to shoot, with a view of the “back” of the camera, complete with a small window at left showing which “film” is loaded, a small viewfinder in the center with a flash button below and a yellow trigger button at the upper right.

Tap the arrow in the lower right corner and you’ll switch to the “front” of the camera, from where you can select options to change the film, flash and camera case style as well as a store icon for buying additional “Hipstapaks” in-app for different looks (five styles are available for 99 cents each). A three-way lever to the left of the lens allows you to change the photo quality from Standard, Medium or High. Slide the lens to the left to change to another one, complete with classic sound effect to match.

From the back side of the camera, take a picture and you’ll see “Developing” appear across the viewfinder, then a yellow light will appear next to the stamp icon in the lower left as your file is saved. Once this light turns green, tap the icon and you’ll be presented with your processed photos, as well as tabs for Recent Photos and Stacks (which help you organize and send multiple photos at once). Tap on a photo and it flips over to reveal the type of lens, film and flash used to take it; another tap on the picture icon opens it full screen.

Once you’ve taken some photos, you can quickly share them via Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr or e-mail, as well as saving “prints” to your Photo Library (processed shots are also saved there by default). If you’re fond of a particular mix of lens, film and flash settings on a given print, you can even tap an icon to load those right away, without having to worry about fumbling with individual settings again.

Unfortunately, Hipstamatic only works on new photos that you take with the app--you can’t load existing pictures from your Photo Library to process them after the fact (the company offers a separate app, SwankoLab, for this purpose). While the interface is faithful to old-fashioned picture taking, it only works in horizontal mode (not a huge problem since the images it takes are square anyway). The viewfinder is also a tad small for our liking, a byproduct of being graphically faithful to those old cameras. Otherwise, for $1.99 (and the option to add more styles cheaply), the app delivers what it promises and with style.

Instagram (Free)

On the other hand, Instagram not only lets you take new pictures inside the app and apply over a dozen filters to them, you can also do the same with existing photos as well, regardless of whether they reside in the Camera Roll or Photo Library. Instagram also has something else weighing heavily in its favor: It’s absolutely free.

Instagram is more socially minded as well, allowing you to find and follow friends also using the app and see or comment on their latest creations. Processed photos are posted immediately to the free Instagr.am website (as well as your Camera Roll) for easy sharing with friends and family via URL, or posted to Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and Facebook with ease. You’ll even be able to check in with Foursquare when you post a photo with location information (which is optional).

The Instagram interface is comprised of five tabs:  Feed, Popular, Share, News and Profile. From the Feed tab, you can see your own photos (which you can choose to delete, copy share URL or send via e-mail) as well as those of your friends, with the option to “like” or comment on them. The Popular tab shows you a variety of public images from other Instagram users.

Share is where most of the action happens, complete with settings for front or back camera (on iPhone 4 or fourth-generation iPod touch only), flash or loading existing photos. Snap (or select) a picture and you’ll be whisked to the Filters page, where you can alter the appearance with a simple tap from more than a dozen styles, including X-Pro II, Lomo-fi and Earlybird. Select Next to add a description and optional location information, as well as share your work of art. From the Settings app, you can choose whether or not to save the original photo to your Camera Roll (as well as the filtered version).

Finally, the News tab is for users to receive updates from the company (which is empty at the moment), while the Profile tab is where you can find or invite friends as well as view your photos, edit your profile (you’ll be asked to set this up the first time you launch), reset sharing settings, change your profile picture or log out.

Considering the price (it’s free!), there’s not much to dislike about Instagram. On the downside, all of the photos you process with the app become public unless you toggle a “Photos are private” switch on the Profile tab. It’s an all or nothing proposition--with privacy on, friends will have to send a request before they can see your work on their Feed tab. However, you can always copy and paste an image link anywhere you’d like, which will enable loved ones to see your shots on the web browser of their choice.

And The Winner Is...

For our money (or lack thereof), Instagram wins this horse race for simplicity, more extensive sharing options and the ability to “vintage” existing photos quickly--even on the iPad (although sadly, it’s not a universal app) or an older iPod touch (Hipstamatic is only compatible with the iPhone and current iPod touch, since it requires a camera to make the magic happen).

Hipstamatic offers a great selection of features for those who want to tinker prior to snapping their shots, but we think Instagram is more fun and spontaneous--you can take the picture right this minute without fumbling with controls, and share it just as quickly. Both the app and the photo posting are absolutely free, so give it a try for yourself and see which one you prefer!

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter