500px is a premium photo sharing platform for professional and aspiring photographers for the web and iPad that has now made its debut to the iPhone, and the iPad version got a nice upgrade as well. It's beautiful. 500px for iPhone and iPad lets you scroll through your friends' activity in Flow, discover gorgeous photography in Popular, browse through photographers' profiles, and more.
500px is marketed for professional and aspiring photographers, so to keep that spirit within 500px, mobile uploads are not available on the iPhone and iPad; all photos must be uploaded through the web. However, you can browse through all the photos and view them on the gorgeous Retina displays of the iPhone and iPad as well as like, mark as favorite, and leave comments.
The iPhone version of 500px has three main sections: Home, Photos, and Your Account (named after you). From Home, you can go to Flow, Following, and Favorites. Everything except Flow is displayed as a grid making it easy to see up to 15 photos at once so you can specifically choose which ones you want to see bigger. Flow is a stream that displays all the recent activity of the people you follow and displays one photo at a time.
In the Photos section, you can find the Popular, Editors' Choice, Upcoming, and Fresh feeds. The are displayed in a grid making it easy to casually browse through what's available.
In Your Account, you can access your Profile or Flow. Profiles show one of the user's most recent photos at the top as a header. I actually don't like this because since the most recent photo is at the bottom of the initial screen, profiles usually look rather repetitive and boring. 500px should either allow users to choose their header image or automatically choose a photo that is further down the user's profile.
The iPad version of 500px is a little different and features a sidebar that gives access to Popular, Editors' Choice, Upcoming, and Fresh. Although the iPad version doesn't have Flow, it does include the 500px Market where you can purchase and download your favorite photos for personal use.
When you sign up for 500px, you are automatically granted a 14-day trial to experience all the available features. Once your 14 days are up, you can choose to continue using a free account or sign up for a premium account that gives you unlimited uploads and collections, a personal portfolio, advanced statistics, and more. A free account allows 10 uploads per week and the ability to sell your photos in the Market. A premium account costs $20/yr and $49.95/yr for the Plus and Awesome memberships, receptively.
The good
- A world of incredible images in your pocket: the greatest photos, anywhere.
- Stay up to date on your friends' activity using Flow (iPhone only)
- Browse through incredible community-selected galleries and editor-curated selections.
- Interact with the community by commenting on photos, liking them, or adding them to your favorites for later viewing.
- Receive notifications when the community members interact with you and your photos.
- Purchase and download gorgeous high-resolution digital versions of your favorite photos on the 500px Market (iPad only).
- Gorgeous on Retina displays
The bad
- Flow is not featured on the iPad
- Cannot make purchases with iPhone
- Header images for profiles are often times the same photo as the user's most recent photo. This makes the profile too repetitive.
The conclusion
The iPhone and iPad app for 500px is absolutely gorgeous and a great way to browse though photos on the platform. Even if you're not a professional or aspiring photographer, you can still use 500px as a way to discover and enjoy fabulous photography.
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