A few weeks back (well, quite a few if I’m honest), I was sent the MUVI X-Lapse by LOVECASES to review and put through it’s paces. I was impressed by the size of it, however it’s small size does also have a downside…
Read on to find out more …
So, the package arrived and I must admit I expected it to be bigger. You can see from the photos below just how small it is.
I liked that it came with the phone holder, however this really isn’t a great phone holder. It won’t hold any phones in a case, this means you have to take your phone out of it’s protective case and then attach to the top of a tripod or something. I have to say, I was more then a little nervous about doing this with my Galaxy S4. I’ve since ordered a more robust phone holder for tripod mounting (see the end of this blog posting).
The phone holder in the photo just unscrews where it attaches to a standard 1/4” camera mount. On the underside of the MUVI is a matching 1/4” tripod mount, you’ll see photos below.
The operation is very simple. You simply twist the black and white seconds like an egg timer. The white base is marked with timings from 0 to 60min with 15 min increments. According the the very small manual in the box it should have a bell that dings, however the unit I have is either defective or the bell might be in other models.
Ok so on to the usage. This video was composed using the Veho MUVI X-Lapse on a tripod with my Samsung Galaxy S4. I used an app call Droid Timelapse (http://bit.ly/DroidTimelapse). This was a pretty good app, plenty of control over settings then it’ll build the video for you in the phone.
This next video was created using my QUMOX SJ4000, this is a cheap GoPro clone camera.
Some more photos of the MUVI
Here is a gallery of photos showing the MUVI X-Lapse mounted with a couple of different cameras on some different Tripods.
So, what impressed me about this device? Well it’s small, and couldn’t be more simple to use. It has a camera screw on top and a tripod mount on the bottom. This allows for quite a bit of flexibility.
What I didn’t like about it? Well, due to the size it’s not designed to take a DSLR. It may take small bridge cameras if they’re light enough I suppose. I did try to put my Nikon D7000 with it’s 18-105mm lens. This did NOT made the MUVI X-Lapse happy at all. This put a lot of strain on the unit while tilting over and making me unhappy that my camera would be succumbing to the forces of gravity.
Over all though, this would be very good for small Point and Shoot cameras or mobile phones, but I would highly recommend that you replace the phone holder that it comes with and use something more substantial.
Something more like this from Amazon (click the photo to see it on Amazon)
At the current price of just £14.99 I’d say it would be worth the punt if you want to take 360 timelapse photos and you have a smaller camera like the SJ4000 or a GoPro.
