Enlaps Tikee Mini - A New Long-Term Timelapse Camera

Over the years (many years in fact, my first ones were shot in 2011), I’ve enjoyed recording timelapse videos, compressing the progression of time and making resulting changes visible to the human observer.

One of my latest projects uses many different timelapse and recording techniques and combining them into a single video, documenting one of the many small Oktoberfest-like beer festivals in Germany, see below.

Last year I was contacted by Enlaps, maker of a long term imaging solution ecosystem, including timelapse projects for construction, events, nature, weather, and similar scenes that can be interesting to observe, document, and analyze many hours, days, months, or even years.

They asked me if I’d be interested in having a go at using their Tikee 3 Pro + camera, and I have been using it for 12 months on a construction project, see the video below exported straight from their platform. It did an amazing job and I never had to touch it once during the entire period - super reliable.

The Tikee Mini

Just recently Enlaps launched a new addition to their Tikee ecosystem, the Tikee Mini, and asked me if I wanted to try it as well. Below is my video (in German, but the English subtitles are pretty good) or you can read this blog to learn what I thought of this new camera.

A Recap…

Firstly, why did they launch a new camera? Well, there were a few things about the Tikee 3 Pro Plus that were a bit overkill for some use cases. For example, for short timelapse projects where I only run the camera for a few days, I don't necessarily need the built-in solar panel. Or, depending on what I want to capture, two lenses with two sensors are simply not necessary. And these features also drive the price up, which may be justified, but depending on the application, I don't need all these functions.

It’s for this reason that Enlaps introduced a brand new Tikee camera that extends the Tikee range and generally makes long-term timelapse and project monitoring of this kind accessible to more people. It's called the Tikee Mini. Especially in comparison with the Tikee 3 Pro Plus it is indeed much more compact.

Features

This is mainly due to two reasons: it does not have a built-in solar panel, and it has only one lens with one sensor at the front. Apart from these two points, the Mini is actually very, very similar to its big brother in terms of features and even has some advantages. Firstly, it is significantly smaller and lighter, weighing less than 1 kilogram. It has a huge built-in battery with 25,000 mAh. This allows me to take pictures for up to four months at an interval of 10 minutes and send them to the cloud. It has a new ambient light sensor built in, so I can configure the camera to take pictures only at a certain ambient brightness and not in the dark. This extends the battery life even further. The whole thing comes at a much lower price than the Tikee 3 Pro Plus, namely €799 before taxes. This is, of course, a much lower than what was previously necessary to enter the Enlaps ecosystem.

Apart from that, it has many of the features of the Tikee 3 Pro Plus. To summarize: it can be used indoors or outdoors in almost all conditions with an IP66 rating. It is equipped with both WiFi and 4G LTE connection. At the back, I can insert a SIM card and also a micro-SD card with up to 1 TB of storage space so that I can record the pictures locally on the Tikee. It has a Sony sensor with 12 megapixels and the wide-angle lens at the front has a very wide diagonal with a field of view of 149° and an aperture of 2.8. It also has GPS built in, so I can locate the camera anytime, anywhere. And like the Tikee 3, it has recently been equipped with a livestream function so that I can retrieve short videos directly on the Tikee cloud platform. Thus, in terms of features, it is absolutely comparable to the Tikee 3 Pro Plus.

Setup

Setting up the camera is super easy, just like with the Tikee 3 Pro Plus. After charging, you connect via Bluetooth with your smartphone and the Tikee Remote App, which is available for iOS and Android. You configure the settings there, such as the WiFi network or the SIM card, and set up your first timelapse sequence. And that's basically it. The camera then starts taking pictures and sends them directly to the Tikee cloud, or you can, of course, save them directly on the SD card. For the installation itself, there are many options: I can simply screw the camera onto a standard tripod. Enlaps also offers its own metal arm, which I used for the Tikee 3 Pro Plus. This is available separately, but also with a Tikee Mini pack that includes various other accessories, such as the SD card, charging cable, lock, and a practical case in one package.

MyTikee Cloud

Once it is running, the Tikee Mini supports the cloud platform, just like the Tikee 3. This platform is called myTikee and offers a free basic version where I can at least use some functions and still monitor. For the more advanced functions, I need to take out a subscription. In the past, I have heard people complain about needing a subscription when they have already paid for the hardware. And yes, you can edit the photos in other timelapse software. That's all correct, and you can also simply save the photos on the SD card and then process them yourself. However, based on my almost decade-long experience with timelapse videos and several long-term timelapse projects, I can say that it is really very difficult to find a solution at the same price and, above all, with the same simplicity that can compete with MyTikee. The simplicity, such as automatic exposure correction, video stabilization, automatic selection of photos based on weekdays or weather conditions, are all things that otherwise require a lot of manual time, some experience, and software from other manufacturers, which is also not free. Therefore, I can say that depending on the application and preference, the Tikee cloud platform is worth its money. It also offers some other functions, such as monitoring and remote maintenance of the Tikee camera or the AI solution for monitoring construction projects, etc. You should definitely take a look at it and consider how you want to use the Tikee and which type of subscription makes sense.

Comparison of standard unedited video and the automated output of the myTikee platform.

A few thoughts…

Based on my initial tests and my experience and expectations of how the Mini could be used in the future, I can say that Enlaps has, I believe, achieved its goal of making long-term timelapse and project monitoring even easier, more accessible, and more affordable. I have a few small points that could be improved: I can imagine that dust and rain on the lens could be a problem, and some kind of protection would be useful here. I wish you could adjust the distortion of the wide-angle lens in the MyTikee platform. Because the perspective is close to a fisheye, you don't always get straight lines, which is important for construction sites in architecture. Apart from that, as with the Tikee 3, I would like the timelapse sequences to be more flexible, such as being able to run multiple sequences simultaneously. Hopefully, these are things that can be made possible with software updates in the future. The last point is that the Tikee is, of course, battery-powered. It has limits of, say, three to four months. You can power it with an external battery via USB-C or connect a solar panel. Enlaps offers an option for this, which is relatively large and not so cheap. This makes the whole thing a bit heavier and more expensive again, but the option exists if you have projects that require monitoring or recording for longer than, say, three months.

Summary

Even though I have a few small suggestions for improvement, I can say that the Mini is really a welcome addition to the Tikee product line. It strengthens Enlaps' position as a leading provider of an ecosystem for long-term timelapse recordings or project monitoring. There is really not much comparable. You can achieve such results by combining products from other manufacturers, software and hardware, and trying to build something yourself. This is doable, I believe, but much more complicated, less reliable in my opinion, and probably not cheaper. Thus, the camera is perfect for anyone who wants to document a project like construction work or an event for a few days or weeks in an easy and relatively affordable way, and then use it for social media, internal purposes, or for monitoring construction sites, etc.