Instagram played a huge role in making vintage photo filters accessible and ubiquitous. Through the years they've added new looks, a social media dimension, and a Vine-like short video application. Yesterday, they took their brand to the next level by launching a standalone app that photographers and videographers alike (as well as everyone else) will appreciate -- Hyperlapse, a time-lapse app that has some pretty exciting features: its simple design, sharing capabilities, and especially its image stabilization technology, which is not only absolutely key for time-lapse photography, but was something absent in mobile videography/photography until now.
Check out this video to get acquainted with Hyperlapse.
There are definitely other time-lapse apps out there that do a decent job at capturing what you want to capture -- however, how good the video ends being up often depends on how steady you can hold your phone. Hyperlapse makes it possible to record handheld video thanks to its stabilization technology. This is the feature, at least for me, that makes this app completely and utterly worthy of my zero dollar investment. Oh yeah -- did I mention that it's free?
And if you want to see just how stable Hyperlapse can make your footage, just check out this video:
Here's a bit from Instagram's announcement that sheds more light on Hyperlapse:
We designed Hyperlapse to be as simple as possible. You don’t need an account to create a hyperlapse. Instead, you open up straight to the camera. Tap once to begin recording and tap again to stop. Choose a playback speed that you like between 1x-12x and tap the green check mark to save it to your camera roll. You can share your video on Instagram easily from there.
Here are the key features:
- Simple interface: there's just a single button to stop and start your recording. There is no login required.
- Choose the playback speed, anywhere from 1x (normal speed) to 12x.
- Share directly to your Instagram or Facebook account, or save to your smartphone's camera roll to access later.
I'm a lazy, lazy, lazy filmmaker 90% of the time. I don't feel like taking out all of my gear, unlocking boxes, setting up tripods and lights just to record something simple that I could get on my phone. For a long time, though, the result was lackluster, but so many great apps have been popping up that allow me to capture on this little phone what I see in my big, stupid imagination. A decent time-lapse app is a very welcomed addition to the growing plethora of mobile filmmaking tools.
Hyperlapse is available now for download only in the iTunes store.
