GH13 GH13 Timelapser

J

Jalad

Active member
I've spent a huge amount of time over the last few years trying to get decent timelapse results from the film modes on my GH1 - partly for convenience (no need to fiddle around with an intervalometer) and partly to save the shutter on my GH1 body (64000+ exposures and counting)

I think I've finally cracked it!

I won't go in to all the details here - the TLDR version is 1080p MJPEG timelapse with up to an hour maximum record length (closer to two hours if you're happy with 720p)

It involves setting MJPEG to record at 2fps and recording footage with a 1/2 second shutter.

I wrote GH13 Timelapser (1200+ lines of batch file) to losslessly disassembles the MJPEG file with ffmpeg and reassembles it according to whatever interval and shutter speeds you want. Longer shutter speeds are simulated by blending frames with imagemagick.

It runs in a command prompt window so it looks very old school, but I've spent a lot of time making the interface intuitive and fast to operate. Once you know how it works, you can literally launch a processing job on a file in a couple of seconds and have it run in the background while you do something else (depending on what settings you use, a processing job can run from several seconds to several minutes)

I am not a programmer, so I had to implement a huge number of weird hacks to be able to implement this in a batch file. It's not pretty, but it works!

More information:
http://timelapser.net/about

Demonstration footage:
http://vimeo.com/21886594 (I highly recommend downloading the MP4 file)

Download:
http://timelapser.net/download/

It's designed to work only with MJPEG footage recorded at 2fps at 1/2 second shutter, so unless you have a hacked GH1/GF1, you're out of luck.

edit: Changed the thread title to "Timelapse in movie mode - GH13 Timelapser" to get rid of the double "GH13" but it's not taking... Any mods watching?
 
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Thank you for sharing Jalad.
It's very nice. I know you put a lot of time for making this. My hats to you!

I can't download the timelapser program though.
I keep on getting. That's a no Go. Sorry, but what you are looking for isn't here
 
Awesome job. Great demonstration of the capability at your website also. Thanks for sharing this nice work... Al
 
Thanks for this! I was just starting to look for a solution to do time-lapsed and I ran across this posting. I did a quick test last night and it works perfectly!
 
I really like what you can do with time lapse. I was also considering getting an intervalometer. I know you said that your program can only work with the GH13, but do you think it can work with a GH2 that is set at MJPEG at 2 f/s?
 
When you say "set at 2 f/s" you probably mean setting the shutter at 1/2 second? You can do this, but presumably the GH2 (if it's like the GH1) will still record at 30 fps, so you'll get 15 copies of each frame.

You can use a file like this with GH13 Timelapser, but the timing information (output length etc) will be off. Also, because it's not designed for files like this, this is how the settings would work on a GH2 file:

Interval: 15
Shutter: 1
This should result in 0.5 second interval with 0.5 second shutter and properly conform your timelapse to 25fps.

Interval: 30
Shutter: 2
1.0 second interval but still a 0.5 second shutter. Why? This will blend the first two frames of the interval together - but because the first two frames are identical, you'll get the same result as using shutter: 1. To get frame blending, you'd have to use....

Interval: 30
Shutter: 30
This will be extremely slow, blending 15 identical frames with 15 identical frames... But will give you an interval of 1.0 second and a shutter of 1.0 second.

I suppose it would be possible to modify GH13 Timelapser to work with these files. I'll have to think about it. There's a lot of assumptions in the program that the source files are recorded at 2fps. Ideally Vitaliy will get the hack working for the GH2 so you can record at 2fps also!
 
Jalad,

You say your're not programmer....but I'm sure you understand far more about command line usage than I do.

I have used PTool3d.51d and set the MJPEG parameters as you describe. Hopefully with my shutter set to 1/2 second, I have now shot some short slomo material. My cameras a PAL one by the way, and I've always used the other settings that give 25fps AVCHD...not applicable to this I realise though.

Now how do I use the other open source utilities that you provide to process my video sensibly? How do I use a command line tool now?
I'd normally open my GH13 video in Premiere Pro CS5 and get editing, so I'm stuck with your 'usage' section and suspect that I won't be the only one!

Dave T
 
Postfade said:
Now how do I use the other open source utilities that you provide to process my video sensibly? How do I use a command line tool now?
Click to expand...
Hi Dave,

You don't need to use the command line. If you've installed GH13 Timelapser, just navigate to the MOV file you shot, right click on it, and click "Send To" or "Open With" and click "GH13 Timelapser"

All should become clear but if you have any problems let me know.
 
Jalad,

Yes further exploration and I got it. Strange, but not having ever used the MJPEG with the GH13, I wasn't even finding the files, let alone the 'Send to' etc!
I'll enjoy playing with this I'm sure and it'll provide really useful speeded up video as the AF100 only allows frame rates to 12fps.
 
No, it's won't work on a Mac.

You could install Gh13 Timelapser in Parallels, share the folder on your mac with your videos to Parallels and run the processing that way.
 
Hi Jalad,

Thanks for sharing this with us. I have been playing around with it for 2 days straight and love it. How much ND are you using for your daylight stuff?
 
Hi Jalad,

Used your Timelapser application on a hiking trip recently. The program did an excellent job. Thanks for making this available. I've posted some video on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/22868761


Cheers,

Chris
 
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Some great shots there, thanks for posting.

paul: It's hard to say how much ND I'm using as I just twist the ND filter to get the desired result. In daylight it's usually at the upper end of the range as I have to be careful to avoid the cross pattern that shows up there.
 
i was searching google for examples of timelapse with the GH13 and came across this.. thank you so much.. i just recently ordered a GH1 which i am going to hack (hopefully) and i want to do some timelapse videos.. then i read about having to order a intervalometer... but now i see this.. this will work for me.. thank you.. when i get mine and get a chance to go try it i will post..
 
Any idea why when I implement this, that I cannot write to the card?

It record, but doesn't write.. :/
 
Shauno said:
Any idea why when I implement this, that I cannot write to the card?

It record, but doesn't write.. :/
Click to expand...

Haven't had any reports of this problem. Are you sure you're changing the MJPEG fps setting to 2? Many other settings have unpredictable results including camera lockups.

Have you maxed out quality settings? Shouldn't be a problem (never encountered any write problem with class 4 cards) but it's something to try...

When you say it records but doesn't write - you can press record see the time counter ticking over on the camera and can successfully end the recording, but no .MOV file ends up on the card?
 
Thanks for replying Jalad,

Yes, Its a class four card, and yes, everything seems to record right, the timer ticks down, but when I press stop, the counter (which is on 30minutes - 16gb card), goes back up to what it originally was...

And yes, the MJPEG settings are at 2. This is slightly confusing and worrying..
 
Sounds like normal behaviour... There's definitely no .MOV files on the card? What are you using to import your footage from the card to your PC?
 
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