How to do time-lapse with dolly movement?

Buck Forester

Buck Forester

Well-known member
I know how to do time-lapse with my EX1, but I've seen some footage where there's time-lapse and the camera is moving also. I'm clueless on this stuff... how is that done? Some sort of motor operated movement on a dolly/track?
 
Buck Forester said:
I know how to do time-lapse with my EX1, but I've seen some footage where there's time-lapse and the camera is moving also. I'm clueless on this stuff... how is that done? Some sort of motor operated movement on a dolly/track?
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Yes. It's called motion control. Usually it's a pre-programed movement.


But don't quit just yet. If you get a ruler and mark out small increments on your dolly track, then manually move the dolly between exposures, you can do it yourself. Same thing with time lapse pans. Mark notches of measurements around the base of the fluid head, etc. This method takes much more dedication and patience.
 
Or you can get a cheap telescope pan tilt unit, program it to follow the moon and gaffatape the GO button down.

It moves veerrrry slowly, it thinks its following the moon around. It isnt.
 
Thanks, Ryan. Do you know of any good motion-control thingies, such as a brand? I may get one. And I'll try some practice hand time-lapse pans to see how they come out. Gracias.
 
Some times what you see posted is simply an automated crop in post. But you lose the resolution of course. However, if you are doing a DVD or web stuff it might be the best if you only want to add the dynamic feel and don't need a big movement. Just spend some time dialing it in just right. This is also more likely to work for you if you use high resolution stills with a DSLRs and color correct to match your EX1... that way you get a MUCH bigger frame to crop into.
 
I always use a DSLR for stop motion. The EX1 can't touch it for resolution and sharpness. As Roberto said it leaves a ton of room for movement with the image being so large compared to 1920 x 1080
 
this issue has come up before, and the professional solutions are always scarily expensive. I'd like to do the same thing, but for stop animation rather than time lapse.

I keep wanting to try building a Lego Mindstorms wheeled robot that will carry a camera and simply trundle up and down a Lego railway track, panning/tilting as it goes - the Mindstorm stepper motors ought to be accurate enough for this to work. Only suitable for very light cameras of course :)
 
Time Laps are sort of my personal, self driven project between gigs. I have always shot them with a DSLR. Even if you are not going the pan & scan route (which works great when going to the lower resolutions of HD or SD) I still find that there are very few HD cameras that can come close to the dynamic range, and just sheer quality a good DSLR with some nice glass on it can give you.
I have also done the motion control thing which is SUPER awesome when done right. I used the Mark Robert's head and Scorpio fallow focus system pared with Flair software. Flat out amazing regardless of what medium you shoot on.
Good motion control gear is still way out of my budget with the above system in the hundreds of thousands of dollars once you have all the components (head, dolly track with gear strip, motors, software, focus system...). So renting/borrowing is the name of the game for me and if any of you are in need of a great system for rent (with technicians) in the Vancouver area let me know and I will be more then happy to recommend a great company.
 
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