C300: Hyper Timelapse

D

DDirector

Veteran
Going out on a gig in about a week. Hoping on getting some great answers/tips by then :)


I would prefer to do a timelapse on a DSLR, but lets say I dont want to/cant carry my DSLR with me, or want to save time in the edit.

I noticed that you can record frames and intervals. I believe its only 1,3,6,9 frames you can record. Its fine as I believe for timelapse you only need 1 frame.
When you record these frames it will automatically create a video file, so you dont need to export all the pictures and make export it into a video if it were on a DSLR.

But I'm not too sure how it'll effect the warp stabilization, if it'll stabilize it well or if it'll start cropping the image too much.
Since DSLRs can shoot RAW and large pictures, you are safe to do some cropping. This will only be 1080p HD.


My questions are;
1) Would you use this feature for a timelapse or hyper timelapse? Really considering it.
2) How do I record longer than 1/24th of a second? I notice there is a slow shutter feature. But thats only up to 1/3th. Any chance of getting it even slower, like a few seconds?
 
1) Yes. Although in my case, most timelapses are done in about 20 mins to 1 hour - hyper timelapse? Not so sure. Not so economic to leave a C300 around doing a DSLR job.

2) No, it doesn't go any further than that. The C300 isn't quite the timelapse king - EX1/3 remains ever ready for that (which is what I'm shooting on for next 10 days)

It's something we should all prod Canon about at tradeshows and other opportunities. Yes, a DSLR can supposedly do better - shoot raw in high resolution allowing Ken Burns (Ken Morse!) effects to be applied - but DLSRs can't shoot one exposure every second to two seconds because of the time it takes to lift and replace the mirror, process the image and save it to the card. It starts around every 3 seconds and is only comfortable at 4 seconds and beyond (on my 550D at least). NB - yes, shorter shutter speeds may work, but I want as long a shutter duration as possible - at least half a second, mostly 1 second.

The trouble is, most timelapses in the corporate world involve crowds of people and rolling clouds, both of which work best with 1 exposure every second to 1 exposure every 2 seconds, rendering DSLRs inadequate.

Note to UK/EUropean C300 users: timelapse in PAL limits you to 2 recorded frames per exposure - in which case, get an extra cheap CF card, switch to NSTC mode and suddenly you can do interval recording at 1 frame per exposure. But you can't mix PAL and NTSC on the same card, hence the spare CF. ;)
 
I shoot in PAL and the timelapse in C300 works fine. Ofcourse you need to forget zooming in etc. Take a good DSLR and you will have plenty of resolution to play around in post for the timelapse. However shooting in raw at the highest resolution fills up cards fast. Have never heard about "hyper timelapse".
 
indiawilds said:
I shoot in PAL and the timelapse in C300 works fine. Ofcourse you need to forget zooming in etc. Take a good DSLR and you will have plenty of resolution to play around in post for the timelapse. However shooting in raw at the highest resolution fills up cards fast. Have never heard about "hyper timelapse".
Click to expand...
Basically the same thing as a timelapse but with a greater camera movement instead of the normal 2-5ft travel length. This would be several feet in length, done by moving a tripod around.
Same thing in the end.

But its the workflow that im questioning.
 
Time lapse on HD cameras is sort of a waste. When you don't have anything else its ok, but it not the best use of a C300. I use panasonic GF GX 1 cameras for time lapse and then you have the whole gamut of shutter speeds, iris etc to play with sans the mirror problem.
 
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