[arrrg]

It’s not the same. To be honest, with this product out I’m struggling to see the usefulness of the time lapse feature. In isolation it’s maybe somewhat useful in some cases, but in a world with Hyperlapse out Apple should just remove it from the camera app and concentrate on the basics with their apps and leave the cool stuff to other people.

The usefulness (or at least coolness) of Hyperlapse is immediately obvious upon using it and it’s a good fit for smartphones, unlike the time lapse feature.

Smartphones are small and light. Standing them on an edge is in the best case precarious and in the worst case impossible (because the edges are sometimes rounded). Depending on where you prop them up (e.g. stone walls) it might also be damaging to the phone. Also, since they are so small and light (or not so much small, just not really ergonomically shaped for steady holding) holding them steady is a real challenge, especially when moving.

Hyperlapse tackles these problems with time lapse on a phone very well. It’s much more thoughtful and considerate of the hardware it’s running on than a simple time lapse feature.

(Plus, that UI is fucking amazing. One button to record, one slider to adjust the speed. This is inside the bounds of complexity Apple lets in their own very basic camera app. The slow motion feature Apple offers has similar UI complexity. So this isn’t even a super-complex feature from a user perspective.)

[coldtea]

>Smartphones are small and light. Standing them on an edge is in the best case precarious and in the worst case impossible (because the edges are sometimes rounded). Depending on where you prop them up (e.g. stone walls) it might also be damaging to the phone. Also, since they are so small and light (or not so much small, just not really ergonomically shaped for steady holding) holding them steady is a real challenge, especially when moving.

Huh? There are 200000 mounts available for all kinds of tripods.

[arrrg]

Exactly. As I said, “… it’s maybe somewhat useful in some cases …”

If you need to mount your device and buy a mount to actually mount your smartphone then that is and always will be a niche feature. (Also, practically all mounts don’t help a lot when moving the phone around.) It’s not completely useless, but it is useless to most people. Hyperlapse is a much more useful and device-appropriate implementation of the same idea, more or less, that works without the user really having to be very careful or creative or having to buy anything. Plus, the UI is super-simple and not at all confusing.

I first read about this app today, downtown, while drinking a coffee. To get decent video out of it I had to hold the camera in front of me and walk around a bit, not really trying to hold it super-steady, and I got cool results. Also, I didn’t have to buy a mount. Do the same with the time lapse feature and it’s a disaster.

Just because something is possible doesn’t mean it’s a great experience – or a great addition to the OS. My point is this: Hyperlapse is much more useful than the time lapse feature for most users, all the while not being more difficult to use.

[coldtea]

>* Hyperlapse is a much more useful and device-appropriate implementation of the same idea*

What same idea? These do entirely different things. Hyperlapse is a time-sped-up video with intelligent image stabilization, and timelapse is, well, a timelapse.

Not the same idea or feature at all. In fact even Apple themselves describe timelapse for what it is: a timelapse feature for static scenes: "Capture the experience of the sun setting, a city street bustling, or a flower blooming with the new Time-lapse mode in Camera".

[arrrg]

No, it’s the same, with one actually useful on smartphones and one not. The thing is, keeping a smartphone static is really fucking hard, so the correct thing to do (for a default feature – if you have to buy some crazy attachment it’s no longer a basic feature that deserves any space in the camera app) is to not force you to keep the camera static. Which hyperlapse does. it so, so, so much more elegantly and perfectly fits the device, time lapse is an embarrassment in comparison.

[hrrsn]

What percentage of smartphone camera app users also own a tripod?