Thursday 22 July 2010

Time Lapse Revisited

A while ago I found a cheap kit for building a time lapse controller so I decided to use that when I rebuilt my circuit.

Here the 350D is set up on my sturdy tripod ready to take a few hundred, 1302 actually, snapshots at 6 second intervals of the clouds yesterday from 5 to 7.15 p.m. The photo is 3 shots (+-1EV) processed as HDR using Photomatrix: Of course 'Santas Little Helper' was supervising!

P1010245_3_4_tonemapped

The controller powered by a 12V battery was on the garden table. I modified the kit so that the controls were easy to use, the original design had them on the circuit board.

Time Lapse Controller

I rested the Lumix on top of the 350D to take this HDRd view. The Canon lens hood is visible at the bottom of the photo. The view is to the East with the Sun directly behind the camera.

Clouds HDR Tonemapped

After processing the 1302 photos using VideoMach this was the result of over two hours hard work on the part of the old Canon.



It would appear the Canon 350D is a good sturdy camera as it is taking a year's worth of photos in an hour or two. I do have access to obtaining another 350D so I think I will buy that as a backup, just in case!

8 comments:

  1. John the world is your oyster now...The night sky, flowers opening. To avoid the blown highlights maybe the sun at 90 degrees to the camera and a 4 stop difference on the HDR process. I'm very impressed nonetheless. I believe Hemel or Hamel do a plug in at a reasonable price though I have not invested myself. I have also seen shareware that utilises ones lap top but as I have lost the wire that connects my laptop to camera I've not investigated that option. Much work by you and appreciated.

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  2. Hello Adrian. I was going to go for some time lapse of the moon and clouds last night but the cloud cover got too thick. I have in mind to try some plant time lapse when I get the lighting sussed so it only comes on in time for each photo.

    Comments and advice noted - thanks. Unfortunately the Lumix has a maximum of +-1 stop. One day I'll see what the Canon can do. Facing East is the only direction I can get a pretty clear sky and it was late in the day before the clouds became highlighted enough yesterday.

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  3. I'll admit to not knowing anything about the technicalities John but just to say I am very impressed. FAB.

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  4. Hello Frank. I love the way HRDd photos can emphasise the contrast in clouds and watching how they behave with time lapse is always a fascination.
    Tinkering with simple circuits was my first hobby and has stuck with me for over 50 years.

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  5. Fascinating footage John. A lot of work involved, but the results are amazing. Love watching how the clouds seem to unfold.

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  6. So do I Keith. They are a constant source of fascination for me. Fortunately most of the hard work is done automatically by the programs I use.

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  7. Hello John, I looked at this the other day but didn't have time to comment, however I was very impressed although confess to not really understanding the technicalities :) You have obviously gone to a lot of trouble and I know you love a technical challenge, well done!

    I'm sure my lovely pal Bobby was a very good foreman and overseer :)

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  8. Hello Jan. I do that trick - looking at several blogs and revisiting them to comment some while later. It gives a bit of time for the grey cell to get the words organised!

    Bobby would be a good foreman but he keeps falling asleep on the job ;)

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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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