Sunday, 1 July 2012

Time Lapse Visited Again

Regular readers may remember my earlier experiments using the 350D and a home brew intervalometer to make a time lapse video of cloud formations. A few months ago I looked in to buying a commercial intervalometer (a gadget which fires the camera at set intervals). The Canon one is more that a bit expensive at over £100 but I found there are third party makes which are considerably cheaper at £12 to £25 a time. I bought one of the cheap ones from Amazon UK and have finally got Round Tuit and given it a trial.

The unit can be set to any delay before taking a photo, any delay time between shots and any number of shots up to 399. It runs on two AAA cells and has a decent sized clear LCD display. You have to buy one with the correct plug to suit the make / model of camera you want to connect it to.

Here is the camera set up with the intervalometer:

P1030839s


A close view of the LCD display.
Top right is an LED which goes green two seconds before a shot as it sends a signal to focus the camera then red as it fires the camera.
(the dark line is a reflection) .....

Intervalometer

..... showing 7 seconds to the next shot and the next shot is number 335 (counting down from 399)

For this video shots were taken at 15 second intervals:
Canon 350D, Canon EF 70-200mm f2.4 lens
Set to 70mm, manual focus, auto exposure.
The Windows program  'Images to Video' was used to make the still shots into a video.



I'm not sure why the camera seems to wobble a bit, maybe the gusty wind though the tripod seemed very firm. On reflection I think it was caused by the image stabilizer in the lens making slight alterations. I must remember to switch that off for such activities.
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14 comments:

  1. holdingmoments1 July 2012 at 17:48

    Great results John.
    Something I might look into myself.

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    Replies
    1. Midmarsh John1 July 2012 at 21:37

      Thank you Keith. One of these days I will try some long term time lapse - plant growth / flower opening sort of thing.

      Delete
  2. FAB1 July 2012 at 20:41

    Excellent results from this simple set up John but you definitely need to switch IS off when you're using the tripod.

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    Replies
    1. Midmarsh John1 July 2012 at 21:39

      Thank you Frank. It was so long since I last used that lens I had forgotten about the IS! Modern electronic gizmos do make for simple set ups these days.

      Delete
  3. Glo1 July 2012 at 21:03

    Good for you finding a reasonably priced intervalometer ~ it worked really well and the set up looks very impressive. I spotted little birds landing on the rain gutter (top right) and having a drink, as they do here. Look forward to seeing more of your time lapse photography.

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    Replies
    1. Midmarsh John1 July 2012 at 21:44

      I refuse to pay silly prices for things Glo and too many big names charge over the odds for extras. The Sparrows you spotted are nesting under the bottom tiles there as they are under my roof.

      Delete
  4. Matron2 July 2012 at 18:42

    Awesome time-lapse John! What brilliant cloud formations. Perfect for the task. Steady wind direction all day!

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    Replies
    1. Midmarsh John2 July 2012 at 19:52

      Thank you Matron. Definitely prevailing westerlies these days.

      Delete
  5. ImaBurdie2 July 2012 at 23:56

    John, you have the coolest stuff and I learn so much, ummm....can i throw in a suggestion from a few weeks back at your talented self...."PennyCam"

    Me in Minnesota

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Midmarsh John5 July 2012 at 20:37

      I think a PennyCam would make everyone suffer from motion sickness as Penny is so inquisitive that her head is constantly on the move - and her ears get in the way ;)

      Delete
  6. ImaBurdie3 July 2012 at 00:14

    John if this is a duplicate entry please forgive me. I found your Blog months ago from clicking forward from Avalon Parrots(Minnesota)Blog. I have parrots, I'm not internet savay, but appear to have possibly found a way to comment with the rest of the MidMarsh John Blog followers. Please feel to edit as needed.
    Me in Minnesota.

    You have such fantastic Audio Visual talents and I learn so much from you and your Blog. Thank you!

    I'd like to bring back a suggestion from I think is was Glo..."PennyCam".
    :)

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    Replies
    1. Midmarsh John5 July 2012 at 20:40

      You have worked things out perfectly. I'm just a mental fidget, always trying to work out how to get something working the way I want. The problem is too many ideas end up on the Round Tuit pile ;)

      Delete
  7. ADRIAN13 July 2012 at 10:57

    This is great. I am switching to Cannon as Olympus have fallen way behind. I'll get a time lapse controller. It can be done without an interval timer by setting shoot to High or Continuous and shutter delay to 2sec/3sec. Then firing using bulb on a remote cable. ths is more flexible.

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  8. Midmarsh John13 July 2012 at 12:21

    I don't think the old 350D I keep for such experiments has that sort of facility.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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