There's an updated video app, and -- no, we can't do it. Listen, we're begging you: when you shoot video on your iPhone, do it with the phone in landscape. Do it for us. Do it for America. Do it for every time you've seen a member of the public get astonishing access to a major event, but they've shot in portrait -- so you just get a sliver of image, and the poor news TV show has to fill in four-fifths of the screen. We're on our knees. Landscape. Anyway. So there's this an updated video app,
Vizmat 3.0.6, and it's worth your having a look.
That is to say, it's worth your time if you're looking to shoot fast and short, if you're just after grabbing a moment's atmosphere somewhere. You couldn't realistically use this for any significant work, but you can to shoot a video, apply some effects that are very similar to ones you may be used to with photos, upload it to social media, and then wish you'd paid to remove the Vizmato watermark.
We think of this app as being like a video Instagram, but you can argue that it's really iMovie in a different wrapper and with a few extra options. If you already use iMovie for iOS, then you've got the idea -- except that you won't be used to having many video effects, and you will be used to shooting much longer videos. As shipped, the free app allows recording of just a few seconds: long enough for you to see that yes or no, this is for you or it isn't. If you like what it does, you're off into the slightly messy waters of how much you need to pay for which features.
It feels like a game, somehow, and as with those you'll find that all of the controls are permanently arranged horizontally in landscape. Unfortunately, once you hit Record, you can tilt that phone back into portrait -- like an animal. So we'd like it if the app insisted on being in landscape for everything, not just the controls, but you've picked up that this is a thing with us.
Otherwise, the fact that Vizmato feels like a game is a good thing. Your first "ooh" moment comes when you open the app and go to shoot something. The opening screen has three circles, with the outer two representing functions, and the middle one being a small view on the scene in front of you. There is something deft about how that's shown, and also something compelling: you see the world going by in that window, and you want to press Record.
Go ahead. Make your day. Shooting is well done and easy, particularly when you've signed up for a Vizmato account -- one of the paid features -- and so have the time limit removed. Vizmato records at HD quality, so the videos aren't exactly small, and they will demolish the remaining space on your iOS device.
We'd recommend doing just what we said: hit Record. However, you can and Vizmato clearly longs for you to apply filters. Our logic is that if you capture the raw footage now, you can apply fancy-chops image effects later on. Whereas if you go all creative during the shoot, you're stuck with what you took at the time. Still, choosing a filter to shoot through couldn't be much easier: you swipe left and and right to find one you like, and it's previewed by way of an overlay on top of the video screen's view of the world. Tap Record while a filter is on, and you're recording in that filter.
You can't change filters mid-stream. To move to another one, you have to press Pause, swipe to select the new effects theme, and then tap Record again. At least it means you won't switch themes just because you sneezed.
All the obvious themes and effects are here such as vintage looks, 1970s Polaroid-ish ones, you name it. Occasionally a new theme is released -- again only available through in-app purchase, but at least you can preview them before you buy. The most recent ones added in Vizmato 3.0.6 are themed around the topic of cherry blossoms, and all are nicely done. Some are nicer than others: we switched to that cherry one itself, and for a moment its addition of falling blossom to the image fooled us. We were quite close to an actual cherry blossom tree, give us a break.
Once you've recorded in some form, you can also edit in Vizmato. It's only the kind of editing you do when you're sure that taking out one more second will prevent the world seeing what you're like in drink. It isn't for fine editing, it isn't for compiling or producing short films. It can join a few clips together, it can delete sections, that's it.
That's all you want, really, if this instant video and social media sharing is all you want. Sharing is done either by iOS 9's regular Share Extension, which let you pop videos onto Facebook and Twitter, or via a Vizmato option that can send it to YouTube. You do already have to have an account on YouTube, but you already do, you're hip, you've done videos before.
You'll do them again, too, and maybe you'll do it through Vizmato. We've obviously no problem with paying for an app, and the prices for Vizmaton add-ons are cheap at between one and four dollars. We're just not so keen on having many, many in-app purchases where we're not clear what we get for what. On the App Store, for instance, there are two such in-app purchases where one costs a dollar and the other costs two, but they're both listed as "Remove Watermark."
Alongside that specific feature and others that different in-app purchases offer, you can also subscribe to the Vizmato service. That costs around $5 per month, and gets you storage space on Vizmato. As with so many apps now, the makers would surely love it if you paid for storage, but it's yet another place to leave your documents and if you stop subscribing, you lose anything that isn't also physically on your iOS devices.
Vizmato 3.0.6 requires iOS 9.0 or later, and
is free to download in the App Store, with a dozen or more in-app purchases that get you different filters or themes.
Who is Vizmato 3.0.6 for:
If you like taking photos for Instagram or Pinterest, this is right up your video alley.
Who is Vizmato 3.0.6 not for:
There are some good effects that we could see you using in a longer film, but you wouldn't shoot that with this.
-- William Gallagher (
@WGallagher)
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