Johan Staeck
December 17th, 2007, 02:23 AM
I have earlier been experimenting with time-lapse video using DV camcorders.
Now, I am in the planning stages for an eventual assignment, where I will arrange a time-lapse system for a big construction site (mining industry).
The project will have a duration spanning over years.
On-site I will have a computer with Internet access
This will allow me to (among other things)
-Download images for processing
-remotely make adjustments to the capturing software
A big question right now is what kind of camera to use.
My initial instinct is to go with some kind of (digital) video camera and suitable hardware on the PC.
I am rather experienced here.
However, since the interval between images will be in the multi-minute range,
I was thinking of using a still camera instead.
I have a Canon Powershot S2is, and I have written some program code to control the camera from a PC through the standard WIA interface.
This allows me to take pictures under program control and transfer them to the PC.
However, I have very little (if any) control over the camera settings this way.
I understand that there is an SDK (development software kit) available from Canon. that might help.
From searching around, I understand that there are other brands (e.g. Olympus) that offer SDK:s for computer controlled image capture.
I need to come up with a very robust solution.
I can not (as is the case with my Canon at present) have the camera moving the lens from off position to active position uisng the motor for every picture taken.
The main advantage of using a still camera is (as I see it..) that you will get much better image quality to start with.
In the process of producing the actual time-lapse sequences, I will have to crop, shrink and process the captured images, but having high resolution, high quality images to start from doesn't hurt a bit!
Storage is cheap these days, and communications bandwidth to the construction site will also not be a bottleneck.
So, I would be happy to hear from anyone with
-ideas
-insights
-experiences
from time-lapse projects with a long time-scale, eventually using still cameras for initial image capture.
/Johan
Now, I am in the planning stages for an eventual assignment, where I will arrange a time-lapse system for a big construction site (mining industry).
The project will have a duration spanning over years.
On-site I will have a computer with Internet access
This will allow me to (among other things)
-Download images for processing
-remotely make adjustments to the capturing software
A big question right now is what kind of camera to use.
My initial instinct is to go with some kind of (digital) video camera and suitable hardware on the PC.
I am rather experienced here.
However, since the interval between images will be in the multi-minute range,
I was thinking of using a still camera instead.
I have a Canon Powershot S2is, and I have written some program code to control the camera from a PC through the standard WIA interface.
This allows me to take pictures under program control and transfer them to the PC.
However, I have very little (if any) control over the camera settings this way.
I understand that there is an SDK (development software kit) available from Canon. that might help.
From searching around, I understand that there are other brands (e.g. Olympus) that offer SDK:s for computer controlled image capture.
I need to come up with a very robust solution.
I can not (as is the case with my Canon at present) have the camera moving the lens from off position to active position uisng the motor for every picture taken.
The main advantage of using a still camera is (as I see it..) that you will get much better image quality to start with.
In the process of producing the actual time-lapse sequences, I will have to crop, shrink and process the captured images, but having high resolution, high quality images to start from doesn't hurt a bit!
Storage is cheap these days, and communications bandwidth to the construction site will also not be a bottleneck.
So, I would be happy to hear from anyone with
-ideas
-insights
-experiences
from time-lapse projects with a long time-scale, eventually using still cameras for initial image capture.
/Johan