A new mini in town: Enlaps Tikee mini+
I’ve been taking timelapse videos for almost 15 years, see some of them here, and recently have been working with the long-term timelapse solutions from Enlaps, after they contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in a review unit. You can see my previous article on their flagship camera here.
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They recently also added a smaller, more affordable camera to the portfolio, the Tikee mini, which I reviewed as well. It’s been just about a year, but they already sent me an updated version of the mini, aptly titled the “mini+”. However, I haven’t been paid otherwise, and my opinions here remain honest and reflect my actual impressions of the camera. Let’s see what’s new!
The Tikee mini - Recap
Let’s start with a quick recap of the Tikee mini - this was the first time Enlaps brought a new form factor to the market with a slightly different approach than the Tikee 4. As the name implies, it’s a lot more compact, and that partly comes from two changes compared to its bigger sibling: first, it doesn’t have a solar panel built-in, but still has the opportunity to connect one. With a huge battery built-in though, it can still work autonomously for weeks or even months at a time depending on the configuration. Secondly, it features a single wide-angle lens, as opposed to two of them for panoramic perspectives.
Other than this, the mini retains almost all of the features of the Tikee 4, including the built in WiFi and 4G, the ability to install it inside but also outside in harsh conditions, and a very high resolution image delivering 4k quality.
Of course, it also remains compatible with the mytikee cloud platform for easy remote monitoring, configuration changes, image storage, one click generation of timelapse videos and other media, and the AI functions for keeping track of projects, particularly things like construction safety and activity.
You can watch the (German + English subtitles) video review here, including a real-world test, or otherwise just read below!
What’s New with the mini+?
So what’s new on the Mini+? Well, as the name implies, it’s a revised version of the mini, rather than a full mini 2, if you will, so from the outside not much as changed. But there are a total of six new or updated features available.
Distortion Free Wide Angle: Let’s start with the most important to me: Enlaps addressed one of the primary complaints I had about the original mini, which is the heavy distortion of the wide-angle lens, giving almost a fisheye look. With the mini+, there is now a “True View” mode, providing the original 120° ultra wide angle view, but also 110° and 90° straightened distortion free options, which is great to keep lines straight, particularly in things like construction. While of course not a true zoom option, this also allows for a little bit of a tighter crop on the subject, which is sometimes useful.
Live Preview: We now have a way improved Live Preview function when setting up the camera in a new location, making it much easier and faster to check the composition and adjust the angle using the Tikee Remote Smartphone App for iOS and Android. This was always a little bit of a pain, so I’m glad it’s better now. The Live Preview also includes the True View mode setting in its preview, so you know exactly what you will get.
Fixed WB Option: For more advanced requirements, you can now fix and lock the white balance of the sensor, avoiding colour shifts depending on weather and light conditions or a changing subject. This is useful for things like Phenology where you need absolutely consistent reference colors in the image.
Vertical Shooting: Next, the camera now supports vertical shooting when turning it 90 degrees (it can be mounted upside down now and fix the image orientation for the final video automatically). This can be useful for social media content or skyscrapers, for example.
Advanced Adaptive Interval: There’s a more advanced adaptive interval function to further optimise battery life, which allows more flexibility to reduce shooting frequency as the battery degrades. This can almost double battery life in some scenarios and is also available for the original mini.
Low Light Performance: And last but not least, another point that we all want to see continuous development on: low-light performance has been improved, and the camera can now take long exposures up to 2 seconds, with better noise control in darker situations. This has already been a step forward in the Tikee 4 compared to its predecessor, so it’s great to see Enlaps keeps investing in this area.
Watch the Enlaps recap video here to see the features in action:
Ecosystem
The Tikee solution is arguably the best tool for creating long-term timelapse videos, making it as easy as possible to monitor projects, landscapes, and more over months or even years.
That obviously includes the cameras themselves, and the Tikee Mini + is a great addition to the portfolio.
But as I said before, it also includes the cloud platform, mytikee. Clearly we all would like to pay for fewer subscriptions, and there is always the option to use the camera with just the free (limited) version, and record images on the SD card.
But the ability to monitor the camera remotely, adjust all its settings, have images uploaded automatically, and get alerts in case of issues makes this just a very reliable option for professional use.
On top of that, the timelapse generation is so simple, no other solution I know of can compare to the automatic filtering of images, exposure compensation, stabilization. This used to take hours, now it’s a few clicks.
Summary
As mentioned, this is all in all not a huge update to the product, and some of the points seem focused more on software enhancements. For someone running the existing Tikee mini, an upgrade probably isn’t necessary, but for everyone who was on the fence about the original version, this new replacement makes it an even more attractive camera.
It’s a welcome set of “quality of life” improvements for Enlaps users, just one year after the mini was originally released.