TIMELAPSE - DSLR vs HVX?

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bonzo2002

New member
I am currently using my DVX100a for basic timelapse shooting and am quite happy with the results but I need to upgrade to HD. At present my funds won't stretch to the HVX so I've been looking at a decent DSLR kit which will be within my means.

I've been told that the Canon 30D is the camera to do it. I'll then couple it to the tc-80n3 remote and use say a 4gb flash card to hold enough images to shoot for a decent amount of time. It should hold about 1600 images at 4mp per still right? Anyway, what i really wanted to know was, If anybody has used this set-up - is it a reliable?, can the single battery handle 1600 images in one go or will i need the grip/2nd battery adapter? and will the images 'buffer' quick enough when shooting once every 2 seconds? I will be editing on a mac using the Final Cut Studio HD software, if anyone has used this for timelapse can it handle 1600 images at 4mp? Sorry about the specific questions that aren't directly DVX/HVX related but i'm about to start selling some internal organs to pay for it all and need to know that it will work!Thanks in advance for any response.:dankk2:
 
Using a Dslr for Timelapse is a great way to go. The 30D is a great camera, although any DSLR will get you wehre you need to go. I have a Rebel XT with a battery grip and find myself charging the battery maybe once a month after going through my 2 GB card about 10x. A good way to help save battery is to turn off the preview after every shot. I have a battery grip as well and that gives you even longer battter life, well double to be exact. 1 frame every 2 seconds is fine for any DSLR. Good luck.
 
thanks scharky. I guess the rebel and the 30d use approx. the same amount of power so it's good to know i won't have to invest in a grip from the start.:dankk2:
 
Are you guys talking about using a still camera to do the timelapse? If so, whatever happened to just speeding up the video to a high percentage? There is a show on A&E called "The First 48" they do a ton of timelapse on there and it looks like they just locked a camera down and rolled a good amount of footage then sped it up. My question is how much footage is needed to get a good timelapse? How do you get it to look smooth and not choppy. They often use timelapse to show the time of day like a timelapse from dawn with the sun going down to nighttime and you see the street lights coming on during the timelapse. Is it better to just do what I said and roll like 20 minutes or more of one thing at normal recording speed or use the interval recording on the camera?
 
^
I really don't think it makes that much of a difference to be totally honest. I've heard you get more interesting light streeks if you actually have a camera that will record 1 frame per second but the motion should look the same if you just speed up regular footage. The real advantage is just that, if you're shooting 2 frames a second on the HVX (the lowest it can go), then your footage will take 1/12 the space of just leaving it on.
 
Use a DSLR or just roll tape and speed it up in post. The interval feature does not give very good results in my opinion.

This is something I did awhile ago to test out time lapse recording. The beginning segment is maybe 10 minutes of footage sped up to last about 20 seconds, and the rest is perhaps another 10 minutes of footage sped up to last 3-4 minutes I'd guess


http://2629.com/v/CarTimeLapse-H.264.mov
 
Advantages of like a D20 are longer Exposer times take a look here if you haven't seen Drew599 great timelapse footage...

http://599productions.com/TimelapseLarge.html

the streaking you can get with a longer open shuter you can get on an hvx. Hvx can only go about 1/2 a sec Exposer. so night time is much better looking with a d20

and here is timelape reel I made with the HVX200

http://files.filefront.com/Vincent_P_Timelapse_Reelmov/;5393618;;/fileinfo.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohXQg41amKA

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1039949447&n=2

some of them I shot over an hour in fact one thats not on there I shot for 36 hours! there would have been no way to just shoot on one Minni dv tape for an hour and get the same results. plus with the Mo co stuf I would be even harder for me to make my Equations I use to try to guess Degress vs Fps....

So I love the Intevalomiter in the HVX not perfect but for a video camera very cool. I herd the XDcam with its Frame Acumilation mode is suposed to be great for Time lapse no light.

I'm not shure if with the D20 you need a laptop controling as an Intervalomiter I think the D100 has one bilt in.


VP

www.vincentpascoe.com

www.myspace.com/vincentpascoe
 
You can always get the Canon TC-80N3 shutter release for Canon cameras, it has all kinds of nice awesome options for doing interval exposures and such.

Another plus for using a still camera is your images will be a lot cleaner in low light.
 
Are there any tutorials online for that? So Vincent that timelapse video of LAX and all was done with a still camera? Im still confused.
 
Funny thing, I am in the process of buying a DSLR for this very purpose. I love doing timelapses on my HVX, but I want to be able to do much higher-res and long-exposure nighttime star-trail stuff.

Right now I am looking at buying a Rebel XT, because it's under $1,000 and comes with Canon's remote capture software. But I guess that means my XT will have to be hooked up to a laptop to do timelapse....which might not be convient if I'm way up in the mountains or something.

I wonder if there is a simple intervalometer I can use to control the Rebel XT? I guess something like this might work.

Also, if I want to do a night-to-day timelapse, with stars in the sky giving way to the rising sun, is there any way to do that with an automatic exposure, or will I have to manually control the exposure time myself? (wide-open 30-second exposures for stars, but much, much shorter once the sun begins to rise).
 
vincent, that reel was pimpin. how do you do those pans while shooting an HVX timelapse? by hand? i sent you a myspace request.
 
Well my Rebel XT just arrived, so I am going to begin learning how to do these timelapses. One of my longterm goals is to rig up a dolly that can do tracking shots during very long timelapses. At night, my exposures need to be about 30 seconds long, probably taken at one minute intervals to the stars are not too "jumpy", but that means I would somehow have to incrementally move the camera down the dolly a tiny amount every 45 seconds or so. I guess I will have to do this manually, babysitting each shot. That is, unless I can enlist NASA or JPL engineers to help me rig an automatic dolly that can move the camera in tiny increments down the dolly over a period of many hours.
 
Tom Lowe said:
Well my Rebel XT just arrived, so I am going to begin learning how to do these timelapses. One of my longterm goals is to rig up a dolly that can do tracking shots during very long timelapses. At night, my exposures need to be about 30 seconds long, probably taken at one minute intervals to the stars are not too "jumpy", but that means I would somehow have to incrementally move the camera down the dolly a tiny amount every 45 seconds or so. I guess I will have to do this manually, babysitting each shot. That is, unless I can enlist NASA or JPL engineers to help me rig an automatic dolly that can move the camera in tiny increments down the dolly over a period of many hours.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what a motorized telescope mount does. The movement is essentially continuous however.
 
Those can lock onto celestial objects, but that doesn't solve my problem of actually wanting to do long dolly moves. I need an engine or system of movement that propels the SLR down a 10-foot track at a very slow speed, preferably at inteverals. Perhaps for daytime shots it would be okay if the dolly was moving during snapshots, but at night, with long exposures, the dolly cannot be moving during a shot, or I will get blur. So I think I am going to have to babysit each take.

Also, can anyone recommend a specific intervalometer for the Canon XT? It would be especially nice, I suppose, if the intervalometer/remote would allow me to adjust exposure time as well.
 
I have been thinking about using my Sony DSC-F828 (CyberShot Pro) to do time lapse as soon as my shutter remote arrives. The camera is 8MP but I know that is a bit overkill for even HD footage, what resolution do you recommend for 720 and also for 1080?
 
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