What is it?
Let me start with what a hyperlapse is (in case this is the first time you’ve run across the term.)  At its most basic form, a hyperlapse is a timelapse with motion.  When I say motion, I don’t mean panning, tilting, or moving the camera on a track: that kind of motion does not a hyperlapse make. A hyperlapse involves significant motion through an environment with the camera moving across multiple axes simultaneously.  Hyperlapses are awesome, but creating one usually requires you to use a tripod, some fancy camera gear, and Adobe’s AfterEffects or Premiere with the Warp Stabilizer plugin.  In short, you can’t create a hyperlapse on the cheap.  Well, you couldn’t: until today that is.  Today creating a hyperlapse is free thanks to Instagram!

Instagram just released a Hyperlapse App for iOS (I’m sure an android app won’t be far behind). What’s interesting about the app is this: while video stabilization normally requires a heavy amount of processing power, Instagram’s Hyperlapse correlates the iPhone’s gyroscope motion data with the captured video to cancel out motion (aka shake).

It actually works really well.  Check out the video I created with it today:

Like
The app is dead simple.  All you see when you open it is a record button that’s it.  You hit the button to record and press it again to stop.  When you hit stop, you’re asked how much you want to accelerate the video.  You can choose from 1x to 12x.  You also get a button to confirm or cancel.  What’s cool is you get a preview of what the accelerated video looks like.  Once you confirm you can then share the video to Facebook or Instagram, or you can save it to your phone.

It’s really a breeze to do.  Just keep in mind: you don’t get any audio.

No Like
No YouTube or Vimeo sharing? I sort of understand Instagram/Facebook wanting to keep users within its walled garden, but it just doesn’t feel right not having sharing out to YouTube or Vimeo.

Also, if you happen to get a phone call while using the app, it locks up and becomes unusable.  You have to kill the app and start over.  Perhaps this is just specific to my phone ( I’d be curious to see if others are seeing the same thing.)

Should you Get it?
YES!  First it’s free. Second, it’s simple.  While it’s not perfect, it’s a lot of fun to use.  I’m going to tool around Orlando with it and play around.

Here’s Instagram’s release video for Hyperlapse: