At the time of writing, December 2011, there are only a handful of applications on the Android Market for taking Time Lapse photography. I have tried all of them but have found that non of them are perfect, all have their own share of problems or limitations. Those with better looking UI isn't necessaily the best app in terms of features/usability.
This table below is a list all the features of the free app tested
Application Name | DailyRoads Voyager | Lapse It Native | Time-Lapse Lite | Timelapse! | Tina Time-lapse | Time Lapse Creator | Time Lapse Droid |
Application version | 1.7.2 | 2.3.5 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 3.7.1 | 1.1 | 1.3 |
In app advertisements | X | X | X | X | |||
Record with LCD off | X | X | X | ||||
Configure LCD brightness | X | X | |||||
Background recording | X | ||||||
Charger detection (auto on/off) | X | ||||||
Create time-lapse video | X | X | X | X | |||
Configure video frame rate | X | X | X | X | |||
Configure video quality | X | ||||||
Play its time-lapse video | X | X | |||||
Auto/infinity focus mode | X | X | X | X | |||
LED flash | X | ||||||
Configure photo/video resolution | X | paid ver | paid ver | X | X | X | X |
Photo/Video special effect | X | X | X | ||||
Camera white balance | X | X | X | X | X | ||
Configure interval between shots | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
Inital shot delay | X | X | |||||
Build-in photo viewer | X | X | X | ||||
Build-in file browser | X | X | X | X | |||
Enable/Disable shutter sound | X | X | |||||
Camera zoom | X | X | |||||
Configure file/project name | X | X | X | X | |||
Geotag | X | X | |||||
Schedule shots | X | ||||||
Online Sharing | X (limited) | X | X | ||||
Configure storage location | X | X | |||||
Configure File/Storage limits | X | X | X | X | X | ||
Useful viewfinder display | X |
The most critical problems/limitations that restrict their use are
Recommended apps
Out of the all the free apps tested, I would only recommend that you use those app that allows you to take photos with LCD off, namely DailyRoads Voyager, Tina Time-lapse, Time Lapse creator and Time Lapse Droid. This is because even with a fully charged battery, you can only take several hours or several hundred photos before you run out of power (more on this in the next article).
However, for those novice users who aren't keen on using his computer to stitch the photos together to make their own time-lapse video, there isn't much choice and currently only Time Lapse creator would fit the bill.
Overall winner = Time Lapse creator