Help with timelapses please!

Futchibon

Futchibon

Well-known member
I've just got a JJC intervalometer for my GH13, but am a little confused by the instruction manual with how to use it.

If people could please give me some advice with how to set it up - both in the camera and with the intervalometer unit, and what settings you use for the timelapses themselves, it would be greatly appreciated!

I've hardly touched the camera in terms of shooting stills, so I'm a little lost with terms such as "Bulb" and other still-image-specific terms.

THANKS IN ADVANCE
 
I don't have it in front of me... but as I remember, plug in the timer. Hit the setting button will bring you through 5 different menus. The arrows will set the amount of shots or set the beep to on or off etc... depending on the menu.
 
"Bulb" means indefinite exposure (shutter is open as long as button is pressed). So, from what I remember if you want the exposure duration to be controlled by the remote you have to set the camera exposure setting to "Bulb" or "B". Go to manual mode and scroll down exposure time past 60". Also, from what i remember the settings on the remote are sequential - they all work together so you must set all of them up. When i first started using it I thought that I can go to the exposure counter, set a number of exposures to be taken and that's that. Instead you have to go through each setting and adjust it. From what I remember the first one is delay (how long before the whole sequence starts, not to be confused with interval), exposure time (how long each individual shot is exposed), interval (how long between consecutive shots), number of exposures (i think something like 400 was the limit, but for long timelapses you will need way more than that so you can leave it at "infinite") , sound settings (to beep or not to beep).
Hope that helps and remember to share your timelapses with us :)
 
there was a formula to calculate length of intervals depending on frame rate, the span of the shoot and what timeframe you want to condense it down to. Pointless post but im hoping someone can fill in my blanks..ha.
 
Futchibon said:
Thanks a lot!

Any reccomendations for exposure time, interval, etc?
Click to expand...

I usually set the GH1 to "A" mode (aperture priority). Do a test shot and adjust the exposure and whatnot until you are happy with the way it looks.

I usually set the intervalometer by skipping the first two menus ("DE" and "BU") set "INT" somewhere between 1 and 5, "N" to -- and finally turn off that annoying BEEP sound :kali:

My default interval is 3 seconds. 1 second if I'm not sure how I'll use it in post (you can always speed up a slow time lapse, but you can't slow down one that is too fast). And 5 seconds if I want to really have the clouds roll by. I think I've only gone above 5 seconds a couple times and that was for an overnight time lapse that didn't end up working very well due to cloud cover :tongue:

Here's an example at 3 Second interval:
 
Thanks a lot! VERY HELPFUL

When importing the images into your editor (I use Premiere CS5) do you need to use QUICKTIME PRO?

I watched a Philip Bloom video tutorial on timelapses and he used QTP, but is it necessary?

Thanks!
 
Premiere CS5 can interpret a large collection of files as a timelapse (as long as they are numbered sequentially i guess). Select Import, navigate to where your stills are, click on the first one of the sequence, click on the "Numbered Stills" checkbox and click import (you don't have to select all the files in the sequence). You can also setup the number of frames each individual still takes (it's somewhere in the Premiere Pro preferences). Hope that helps.
 
some tips

Shoot in jpg, not in raw as the memory will overload your buffer in no time, unless your doing 5 sec intervals and you have a HUGE sd card

If you have AF on, focus your shot, and then turn it OFF. You don't want the camera to auto focus if something is passing by it.

If you need to conserve space, lower the aspect if you know what you want already. 4:3 vs 16:9, etc

Lower from L to M to conserve space, unless you want the huge 4000 x XXXX pixel video, which you cannot play on a regular computer anyway

The exception is if you wanted to zoom in and out of the video during post.

Turn off display in order to save battery.

Ive got around 2-3hrs and / or 3000-4000 shots at around 2 sec intervals w/ and w/o the lcd on with one charge. Difference temp conditions so ymmv.

Use a tripod w/ weight outdoors so you don't get the couple frames that are shaky or jittery.

hope that helps
 
In general if you are not going for an overnight timelapse and have a cheap Transcend 16GB/32GB card, you shouldn't need to change to JPEG. The cam's memory throughput is enough to handle 1 frame/sec in RAW. I took a 2.5 hour timelapse with a 32GB card without a problem (1 frame every 4 seconds). Of course for anything longer than that you should start using JPEG.
 
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