Thursday, 20 November 2014

A new app takes Time Lapse photos in HDR


Apple's new Time Lapse feature in iOS 8 has spawned several apps that want to improve on the basic time lapse capability.

That brings us to the aptly named Time Lapse with HDR app (US$1.99) from Lucky Clan. It's an additional feature for the company's Time Lapse app which I reviewed this summer. The app adds a simple HDR button on screen to invoke the feature. This feature can only be enabled under iOS 8 and it's going to work best on the new faster iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones, although the app is universal. The Time Lapse feature without HDR needs only iOS 7 or above.


The app provides an automatically generated preview after a bit of recording to show you how things are looking. The app is billed as the first HDR time lapse app, but actually I reviewed another capable app with similar functionality back in July.


Time Lapse with HDR is easy enough to use. Choose an interval between one frame a second and one frame every 60 seconds, engage the HDR mode and press the record button. I tried some shots from a moving car, and also shot a time lapse video from a high hill to get an image of moving clouds. The quality was excellent. The HDR effect is natural, rather than over-the-top.


I have a dedicated little HDR time lapse camera from Brinno, and I thought this app did just about as well. Time Lapse with HDR doesn't have night modes or any adjustments like the Brinno, but this app will satisfy many users. There's a sample video available on YouTube, but frankly, my own tests looked a bit better.


Your videos are saved to the camera roll; there are no post-processing options. Time Lapse HDR works well, and will give your outdoor time lapse photography an edge.





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