Hyperlapse
Also known as: hyper-lapse, moving time-lapse
A time-lapse in which the camera travels a long distance during capture, creating fast, sweeping movement through a scene. Drones do it especially well.
Updated
What it means
A regular Time-lapse keeps the camera still. A hyperlapse moves it - down a street, along a road, over a coastline - while frames are captured at intervals. Played back, the camera seems to glide through the scene at high speed while clouds, traffic and people race past.
Done by hand, it is painstaking work: move a few steps, frame the same reference point, take a shot, repeat hundreds of times. Modern cameras automate it with stabilization and intelligent flight modes, which is why the term now appears in so many drone and action-camera menus.
How it works in practice
DJI drones offer a Hyperlapse mode in the DJI Fly app with variants such as Free, Circle, Course Lock and Waypoint. The drone flies its path while capturing frames and then assembles the clip itself; Circle turns a classic orbit shot into a time-lapse. A 2-second interval with a few hundred frames gives a clip of roughly 10 seconds.
On action cameras the equivalent is a stabilized moving time-lapse: GoPro calls it TimeWarp, and DJI Osmo Action and Insta360 cameras have their own hyperlapse modes. Walking or riding while stabilization smooths every step gives a hyperlapse without a tripod or a drone.
What to watch out for
Wind is the biggest problem for drone hyperlapses: gusts push the drone off its line and the result jerks. Fly in calm conditions and keep the path simple. Plan the battery too, because a long interval sequence can take up a large share of a flight.
A fixed point helps the brain read the motion, so pick a strong subject like a peak, a building or a bend in the road and keep it in frame. Lock exposure and white balance to avoid flicker, and where the drone offers it, save the original frames as well, so you can rebuild the sequence in post if the in-camera result looks rough.
How RawClip handles it
Upload hyperlapse clips as regular MP4 or MOV files together with your other drone and action-camera footage. RawClip looks at motion and action across the whole order and cuts the best parts into one highlight with music and transitions.