Ridiculous limitations for a time-lapse app – Hyperlapse from Instagram Review

Without Hyperlapse, the built-in iPhone camera Timelapse worked flawlessly condensing a 3-hour LEGO build into a 30sec video into but I tried Hyperlapse to control the timeframe of my next video project a little better. Hyperlapse ruined my next attempt by bizarrely capping the recording length at 45 minutes. Seriously?? Only Forty-five minutes? Was shocked and dismayed when my wife said the phone had locked in the middle of recording (and not even close to finished). Adding insult to injury, Hyperlapse’s fastest playback speed (12x) was GLACIAL for the length of my project, clearly showing every stretch, yawn, and minor interruption—the exact opposite of Timelapse videos I’ve made in the past. In a proper Timelapse video, these minutiae are rendered invisible by a proper frame rate. I can’t for the life of me understand the 45-minute limitation of this app. It’s called time LAPSE photography, not “short term sped up video”. Good luck capturing a 90-minute car ride or two hours at dawn or 4-hour stargazing with this joke of an app. Maybe this limitation exists to facilitate the post-recording speed edit, but as stated above, the results were garbage and editing the recording afterwards solved nothing. To get proper results with Hyperlapse I’d have to record four or more separate videos, then edit them together and speed them up further using additional software! Gah. It would make more sense to let the user decide in advance how often to record frames or to set an intended recording duration and let the app adjust. Instead, this app is useless to me and the built-in iPhone camera Timelapse is far superior, despite its limitations. Finally, Hyperlapse won’t let you zoom in or out, AT ALL, which (again) the iPhone camera app does flawlessly. Honestly I can’t understand what the makers of this app were thinking. Maybe they have never worked with actual Timelapse photographers.
Review by Lomerell on Hyperlapse from Instagram.