Beta testers get their hands on Apple's iOS 8 time-lapse camera feature

When Apple spoke about its upcoming version of iOS at the Worldwide Developers Conference last month, it made only a brief mention of a potentially popular new feature: a time-lapse camera mode.

Now some developers are getting a chance to check it out and share their impressions.

According to Apple's website, in time-lapse camera mode, iOS 8 does all the work, "snapping photos at dynamically selected intervals. The result is a video showing an accelerated sequence of the photos over time." It follows the slo-mo feature added to iOS 7 last year.

Released in beta for developer testing, the new feature does not require any controls other than the record button with a timer, according to AppleInsider. Once a series of pictures are taken, the photos are compiled as a sped-up video. Buster Hein from Cult of Mac liked the simplicity of the feature, saying the final results were "unbelievably cool," and predicting that "photogs will fall in love" with it.

"Like slo-mo in iOS 7, Time Lapse gives iPhone users the ability to shoot videos that look like they came from a DSLR. My exposure was too low to start with, but the app automatically adjusted about eight seconds into the video when it got too dark," writes Hein.

However, others are not sure how simple the feature will be. Re/Code's Walt Mossberg -- who said he has not yet tried it himself -- seemed a bit more skeptical, writing that "no matter how easy Apple makes it, creating time-lapse videos will still be much harder than taking selfies or short videos of your baby. It requires time -- taking many photos over days or weeks -- and added equipment, like tripods."

9to5Mac writer Dom Esposito notes that he probably won't use it very often, but admits "it's nice to have the option."

Since the beta version became available last month, developers have shared some of their videos using the iOS 8 time-lapse feature on social media -- check these out: