Time lapse camera.
Author
Discussion

WorAl

Original Poster:

10,877 posts

217 months

Thursday 17th May 2012
quotequote all
Hey guys, long time since I've viewed these forums.

I'm wondering if anyone can help here, I'm looking for a decent time lapse camera which can be mounted on a car, either windscreen, door, wing bonnet etc, inside or out, obviously.

I'm wanting to take a picture every second or two.

Priorities:
  1. long battery life
  2. good memory stick capacity
  3. mountable
  4. good quality pictures (high mega pixels?)
  5. shock absorbing (if possible)
Would likes:
  1. can run from a 12v supply
  2. able to upload pictures to a laptop in real time as and when the photographs are taken, rather than filling up a memory stick.
Anything out there which could do all/most of the above? Sensible price tags preferred also as I'm not minted biggrin

the_engineer

335 posts

206 months

Thursday 17th May 2012
quotequote all
GoPro Motorsport edition?

MagicalTrevor

6,481 posts

258 months

Thursday 17th May 2012
quotequote all
There is a cheaper version of the GoPro (960 I think) but I'd recommend the GoPro 2 Motorsport Edition. That's what I bought. Not the cheapest but 'buy cheap, but twice'

jcas

262 posts

273 months

Friday 18th May 2012
quotequote all
We do a lot of timelapse recording at work and have a different variety of cameras. For what you have described a GoPro sounds the best bet...

WorAl

Original Poster:

10,877 posts

217 months

Friday 18th May 2012
quotequote all
Excellent feedback guys, I'll take s look at the GoPro gear and let you know how I get on.

JulianHJ

8,868 posts

291 months

Friday 18th May 2012
quotequote all
the_engineer said:
GoPro Motorsport edition?
I've got one of these, it's very good.

sjg

7,675 posts

294 months

Friday 18th May 2012
quotequote all
GoPro is good if you want a small unit. The HD2 takes 11MP photos, and in increments down to 0.5s. That kind of rate will fill cards quickly though.

Battery life can be an issue, you don't get more than a couple of hours out of a battery - but you can get a "backpac" that has an extra battery, or use the skeleton case (or drill a hole in yours) so it can be plugged into USB power for longer runs.

Photo quality is OK given what they are - it's a small sensor, fixed lens and quite a hefty wide angle. They don't work great in low light. The results are OK though, I tend to reduce to 720p resolution to stitch into a video and it looks OK but individual frames are quite a bit worse than something like an Ixus compact.

Shock absorbing is down to your mount - I use a Delkin Fat Gecko suction mount plus a gopro tripod adaptor which works well for in-car stuff.

Dr Slotter

408 posts

175 months

Friday 18th May 2012
quotequote all
Handily, I'm looking after the same thing at the moment. Who are the best retailers to get GoPro cameras from?

JulianHJ

8,868 posts

291 months

Saturday 19th May 2012
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Dr Slotter said:
Handily, I'm looking after the same thing at the moment. Who are the best retailers to get GoPro cameras from?
Amazon resellers seemed to be consistently cheapest when I was looking a few months ago. The packs retail at £299, at that time £260 was the best price around. Currently it's available for £225:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/GoPro-Motorsports-Hero-Act...

WorAl

Original Poster:

10,877 posts

217 months

Saturday 26th May 2012
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Hi everyone, thank you for the feedback on this. I have been looking at the details of the Motorsport 2 and I have one question to ask about the timelapse.

The details state that it now supports imaging every 0.5 seconds but can it be programmed for a greater delay between pics, i.e. 1 every second as I am wanting, 1 every 2 seconds, 3 seconds etc etc.

Thank you.

sjg

7,675 posts

294 months

Saturday 26th May 2012
quotequote all
Manual is here: http://gopro.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/HD2_Us...

It'll do 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, or 60 seconds.

WorAl

Original Poster:

10,877 posts

217 months

Saturday 26th May 2012
quotequote all
Thank you SJG, that's all I need to know.....That's my b'day present sorted biggrin