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A new videography app called Horizon uses the iPhone's gyroscope to automatically "level out" iPhone videos so they are always shot in landscape mode, avoiding the so-called vertical video problem.
By automatically rotating video so that it is always horizontal, the app ensures that video is always kept in the default format for televisions and Apple's newer computer screens, but that it is always kept straight -- something that Instagram and other apps can do for photos -- but a feature that is unique for video.
The biggest downside is that the app effectively crops video, reducing total resolution, in order to keep the video horizontal and steady. But, as many videos get reduced in quality when posted online anyway, it may not matter to the average user.
Horizon lets you record horizontal videos no matter how you hold your device. Hold it upright, sideways or even keep rotating it while capturing, the video will always stay horizontal! You can add filters, shoot with the back or front camera and share your creations!
Ever felt you had to rotate your device while recording a video? Do you often end up with vertical videos or videos in wrong orientation? Enter Horizon!
Horizon works like magic! It auto-levels your videos while recording, using your device’s gyroscope. The orientation of the resulting video is corrected so that it always stays parallel to the ground.
Horizon is temporarily available for $0.99 from the App Store, with the price rising to $1.99 sometime after launch. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)My alternative solution is better and free: HOLD YOUR PHONE CORRECTLY!
i mad bro
Just don't shoot in portrait, and you won't have to buy an app. This is just encouraging people to shoot vertical video, but it's just cropped.
It's an app designed to appeal to the forever stupid. If you can't learn when and when not to use a portrait orientation then you should be spending more time reading books and taking some basic lessons in common sense.
This is a case that requires one verbal lesson to solve.
"You are holding it wrong."
Vertical Video Syndrome
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA
But... if you know you have this problem, why not just turn the phone the right way?
And if you don't know there's a problem, you won't seek an app to solve it.
(I can see entirely other uses, where you're shooting video from an unpredictable base like a rocking boat, if the leveling is smooth and fast enough to help.)
Why didn't I think of this?! Arg!
This is one big mistake Apple made with the iPhone. They should have locked video recording to landscape from the beginning!
Huge pet peeve of mine as a video producer!!!