Instagram Has Fixed A Problem That Goes Back To The Birth Of Photography In The 1800s

Instagram has solved one of photography's biggest problems with its new app, Hyperlapse.

The app lets people take time-lapse photos while they are moving the camera. Normally, time-lapse photography requires that the camera be held still while it takes images of things that are moving. If the camera is moved, it makes the moving images jump and shudder and still images look blurry.

Camera shake is, arguably, photography's oldest problem. It is virtually impossible for a human to hold a camera completely steady. Old cameras dating to the 1800s were dependent on tripods to keep cameras still enough to take pictures, and photographers still use tripods to eliminate the blurring caused by a wobbly camera. Video-camera operators also tend to favor mounting cameras on wheels or pivots rather than carrying them on their shoulders for precisely this reason.

In Hyperlapse, it doesn't matter if the camera moves, because the tech inside the app knits the images together in such a way as to eliminate camera shake.

The principle behind it is brilliant and simple — even though the algorithm that does the work is doubtless incredibly complicated.

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