On June 20, Facebook announced video for Instagram in response to Twitter’s new-kid-on-the-block Vine. While Vine, which straightforwardly lets you shoot six-second videos and no questions asked, is developing into a legitimate social media communication tool, Instagram Video just seems like a reaction, an offering that’s really an extension of the billion-dollar vanity mirror app.
Nevertheless, Video has some interesting features that set it apart from Vine while still not being clunky by itself. Shooting videos is simple: tap and hold the red ‘record’ button to record, and take your finger off to stop.
Like Instagram, Video offers filters — 13 of them — with names like Moon and Gingham.
Professional quality
These are very similar to what Instagram offers, and makes it easier on videographers who don’t have to think about lighting while they’re filming. They can always fix it later.
The next two features yield a cinematic effect if used properly on the video. Image stabilisation — which developers claim they built after working with “video scientists” — smoothens blurred edges due to small shakes. Tap-to-focus, also called force-focus, lets you change the depth of field as you’re filming. Together, these effects in Instagram Video can be used to deliver very professional-looking footage.
Next, there’s clip editing, which does pretty much what it means. After filming, users can delete unsatisfying frames by pausing on them and touching the ‘X’ button. However, if Video really is a response to Vine — whose videos are six seconds long — clip editing isn’t a big deal because it’s just as easy to start all over again.
There are some other features as well, like cover frame to let you choose the frame which will serve as the in-feed preview, which set apart the two video-filming and -sharing apps. But once filming is done, the process is the same: decide whether to add a location tag to your product, and share.
Last: Instagram videos don’t loop like Vine’s.
