Instagram’s new app makes hyperlapse creation simple, but only for iOS devices

 

 

Creating a good hyperlapse video can be a lot of fuss. The defining feature that makes the technique so much more interesting than a simple time-lapse is camera motion, but simply moving your camera by hand or shooting from a moving vehicle isn't enough. The accelerated playback speed of hyperlapse means that even relatively subtle camera shake is exaggerated, and the effect ruined. The answer is either to shoot using camera rails or cranes to ensure steady footage out of the camera, or to stabilize after the fact, and a new app from the folks at Facebook-owned Instagram aims to help cameraphone users do just that.

The app, Hyperlapse from Instagram, is now available -- but only for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users. For the time being, Android shooters need not apply, although we'd expect that to change in the future. Creating your Hyperlapse is pretty simple: Just launch the app, frame, and tap the Record button twice, once to start capture and again to stop it. Instagram's algorithms will then stabilize the video in software, and allow you to preview the effect, selecting a playback speed from 1x to 12x real time.

Once you've settled on a playback speed that suits your clip, one more tap will save the video to your camera roll, ready for sharing on Instagram, Facebook, or other social networking sites. It's quick, it's easy, and with Facebook and Instagram behind it, it's bound to be popular. You know what that means, folks: Prepare to see a whole lot of hyperlapse in your social media feeds, as every iPhoneographer out there gets in on a technique that, for a time at least, is going to be the Next Big Thing.

Grab the free app from Apple's iTunes Store, so long as your device has iOS 7.0 or later.