Hi fellow XL H1 users. I urgently need to shoot several key timelapse connector scenes for our half hour Web Tv series, but the H1 has no stop motion setting :-( I sure miss this feature which used to be on the XL1s. Can anyone offer a timelapse solution which operates in the full resolution of the H1 ?

Mark,
if you don't want to speed up in post, there's no solution available today AFAIK!

But Convergent Design's Flash XDR will do it, when they have this finished in a future firmware upgrade. In this case you must have the H1 model with HD/SDI and there is an additional cost for the Flash XDR unit of course!

Hi,
Like Per, I have to agree there is no way it can be done in camera. But I do believe (I stand to be corrected) you could use the Sony HVR-MRC1. See this thread in the XH forums

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-xh-series-hdv-camcorders/116520-awesome-news-canon-users.html

I believe it can be set up for single frame capture. Although it would only be HDV and not full HD it is a cheaper option than Convergent Designs.

Regards

Mick

Use a DSLR for your time lapse work.

The HVR-MRC1 can only do the interval recording in DV or DVCAM mode. It can't interval capture HDV.

Garret

The HVR-MRC1 can only do the interval recording in DV or DVCAM mode. It can't interval capture HDV.

Garret....Garret, how much does the HVR-MRC1 cost ?

B&H has it for $885. It doesn't come with a battery or CF card so plan on having to buy those. But for batteries I surprisingly found a replacement battery at Radio Shack of all places that works great. I shot with it for over 9 hours without even seeing any change in the battery meter.

I got mine off of that evil auction site for $700 and it included a Sony 300X UDMA CF card.

Garrett

Cool ! Thanks for the info Garret :-)

I'm pretty sure that time lapse is unavailable in all HDV cams because of the GOP. It's not just the XLH.

I'm pretty sure that time lapse is unavailable in all HDV cams because of the GOP. It's not just the XLH....You're right. I was always figuring I would have to use some kind of external recording solution. I want go straight for the Flash XDR, but it's a bit pricey for our Web Tv series production budget right now.

If you are going to use the H1 you might as well just roll tape or Harddrive the whole time and then do the speed up in post. A while back I used both my Digital SLR and H1 on the same subject for an hour long timelapse. The Digital SLR looked much better than the H1 but the H1 results were still very good. The advantage of the still camera was longer exposure times but the H1 had many more frames which gives you some more flexibility in motion.

If you are going to use the H1 you might as well just roll tape or Harddrive the whole time and then do the speed up in post. A while back I used both my Digital SLR and H1 on the same subject for an hour long timelapse. The Digital SLR looked much better than the H1 but the H1 results were still very good. The advantage of the still camera was longer exposure times but the H1 had many more frames which gives you some more flexibility in motion......Hmmm, I think rolling for an hour, then speeding it up in post will work for some of the short timelapse shots I need to get, but one is for the beginning of the episode, which is a sunrise over the city of Montreal from a full nightime state. I could buy a whole bunch of cassettes and just roll all night, but I don't think this would be practical. I don't think I have enough batteries for my XL H1 for that ?

Why not go the easy route and simply invest in Canon Console?

It can do what you want standing on it's head, apparently.

Let's talk about the "CONSOLE" program from Canon.... - The Digital Video Information Network (http://www.dvinfo.net//conf/showthread.php?t=56268)

There's a 14 day free trial of it lurking on a Canon server near you.


CS

Edit:

Bugger.

Having just RTFM'ed the V1.0 & V1.1 manual, it seems Console will NOT do frame/ interval mode in either HDV or 24p, and I can find no mention of being able to control photo mode either.

Not as "all singing and dancing" as it first seemed.

Seems a glaring omission.

As you were, guys.

Use a DSLR for your time lapse work.

Seconded, use a DSLR, you can then use it for stills too!
The other benefit of using DSLR is that you have SO MUCH resolution that you can then do moves in post (ie panning along the image while the tl is running), giving a cheap and simple motion control timelapse!

As for HDV cams not being able to do tl because of long GOP, I don't think that's the case as the XDCams will do it and they're long GOP too. I think it's just down to how they record the image, so the ones capable of it do it by going through a cache chip first. I'm no expert though, I just know that the XDCams do it so it's not GOP and the HDCams do it so it's not tape.

Steve

I used my SLR for time lapse and got great results. But the advantage of using some camcorders is that they have built in ND filters which are great if there are large changes in light levels during the time lapse recording. And if you have a camcorder with these filters, you don't have an SLR and there's a way of firing the camcorder with an intervalometer it might be cheaper than buying an SLR and ND filters.

How do ND filters help with changing light levels? All they do is cut the light down, it's not dynamic so that they change when the light does. You can buy ND filters for DSLRs of course, Cokin ones etc., will only be about £20 or so.
Steve

Sorry Steve, didn't explain myself very well there.

You can maintain long exposures during changing light levels with the ND filters and remove them as the light dims if you do day-to-night time lapse for instance. Although some smoothing between frames or brightness adjustment will be needed in post to correct for the sudden change.

I meant that buying a dSLR and filters as well is quite an investment. I already have a dSLR, but if you don't it's lots to spend.

Surely though if you're doing day to night you'd just leave the NDs on and when it goes dark so does the picture - because that's what you want it do?
Steve

With the time lapse sequences I've shot I wanted the night time exposure to be similar to that I shot in close up under artificial lighting. I guess it depends what you're after. But I think there's a risk you might see nothing or barely anything at all if it gets too dark. Using the /ND filters should allow you to maintain a more consistent shutter speed throughout the sequence. And if you have bright images after nightfall you can always darken the later stages of the video in post.

.....Hmmm, I think rolling for an hour, then speeding it up in post will work for some of the short timelapse shots I need to get, but one is for the beginning of the episode, which is a sunrise over the city of Montreal from a full nightime state. I could buy a whole bunch of cassettes and just roll all night, but I don't think this would be practical. I don't think I have enough batteries for my XL H1 for that ?

Mark,

Someone may have done this already and have stock footage of it. I haven't look for Montreal city timelapses, but there seems to be stuff around from other cities. And... you can plug your H1 into AC power.

Either way it's a PITA. But then the footage you get (sped up and lapsed), may be a reasonably valuable piece of stock to have around.

I have to do some timelapse this weekend as well (it's a trade show set-up), so if I come up with any great ideas, I'll let you know.

I have a DSLR (Rebel xti), and HV20, and an XLh1, so I'm not sure yet which one I will set up for timelapse.

Anyone have experience with XLH1 and Adobe OnLocation for timelapse?