New timelapse from me

[14-7]

Was out in Spain last week and got a little of footage for a timelapse. Four days really isn't enough unless you spend every hour doing footage!

http://vimeo.com/25636077

Hope you like it.

[mybrainhurts]

Impressive. Well done...

[LongQ]

Nice work.

Is it something you have arranged so that you can just set up the camera and any other kit and simply let it do its stuff or do you need to be there monitoriing it?

On a different tack ...

At more or less 1000 frames a day and a claimed 150,000 life cycle for a 7D shutter one could easily get through a body (or at least a shutter but it seems reasonable to assume that shutter = camera for this thought exercise) every 6 months. Maybe a year allowing for time off for good behaviour.

Have you managed to negotiate a bulk purchase deal?

[GetCarter]

Is your dolly mechanised... I've looked at a few to buy but they look a right pain to lug about and get working.

BTW as per another thread, I've just bought one of these http://www.gardenature.co.uk/shop/product.php?pid=... - once it arrives I'll do a test and post so you can view results.

[14-7]

LongQ said:

Is it something you have arranged so that you can just set up the camera and any other kit and simply let it do its stuff or do you need to be there monitoriing it?

If you have a Canon you need to buy an intervelometer (remote release and timer) to do it. Canons own is about £130 which is silly money. I bought one off eBay for £30 and it does exactly the same job but just doesn't say Canon across the top. Nikons have this facility built in to them.

Most of the time I just set the camera up on a tripod, worked out how long it would be sat taking photos and, long I wanted the final outcome to be and the frame rate of the video then set it up to take photos accordingly.

The only time I had to take some notice of it was when it was on the motorised dolly for movements as I haven't figured out how to build in a automatic stop when it reaches the end of the track. Even then it doesn't impact much on whatever you are doing as it was normally set up to finish at either 25 or 50 minutes. I just set the timer on my phone and when it bleeped I went back to the camera, after all you don't want several thousands pounds worth of camera falling 4 foot to the floor.

LongQ said:

On a different tack ...

At more or less 1000 frames a day and a claimed 150,000 life cycle for a 7D shutter one could easily get through a body (or at least a shutter but it seems reasonable to assume that shutter = camera for this thought exercise) every 6 months. Maybe a year allowing for time off for good behaviour.

Have you managed to negotiate a bulk purchase deal?

In my Monday to Friday in Spain I took nearly 6000 images, most were for the timelapse stuff and the rest were just general photos (some posted in the macro section).

It is worrying about the life cycle of the shutter but if it dies it dies. I know they are rated for 150,000 releases but some die earlier some later. Probably best not doing timelapse stuff with an SLR if you are that worried. A lot of the more serious people use 5dMK2's for timelapse due to the quality of the images. I also know some buy a cheaper SLR second hand for timelapse and keep their decent body for photos.

Using an SLR and shooting in RAW also means you can correct any WB mistakes easily unlike shooting in JPEG as an incorrect WB could ruin a whole shoot of a thousand images.

GetCarter said:

Is your dolly mechanised... I've looked at a few to buy but they look a right pain to lug about and get working.

Yes the dolly is mechanised and one that I built myself. Much cheaper than buying one from somewhere like Dynamic Perception where they cost in the region of $1000 USD.

You can see my build of it in the following link http://forum.timescapes.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f...

[TonyHetherington]

GetCarter said:

Is your dolly mechanised... I've looked at a few to buy but they look a right pain to lug about and get working.

BTW as per another thread, I've just bought one of these http://www.gardenature.co.uk/shop/product.php?pid=... - once it arrives I'll do a test and post so you can view results.

I've done similar things with my parent's regular video camera (Sony). I made this video in exactly the same way - I forget the Sony name for it, but it's a time lapse recording as it were;

http://www.pistonheads.tv/clip431

That thing looks very good though (that you've linked to) and good value, too.

[GetCarter]

14-7 said:

Yes the dolly is mechanised and one that I built myself. Much cheaper than buying one from somewhere like Dynamic Perception where they cost in the region of $1000 USD.

Yea but you have a brain. If I tried to make that I'd solder my finger to a tripod and probably short out most of Wester Ross.

[14-7]

GetCarter said:

14-7 said:

Yes the dolly is mechanised and one that I built myself. Much cheaper than buying one from somewhere like Dynamic Perception where they cost in the region of $1000 USD.

Yea but you have a brain. If I tried to make that I'd solder my finger to a tripod and probably short out most of Wester Ross.

I'd be more than happy to build one for you if you needed.