Many of Sony's higher-end tape-based cameras (e.g., TRV50-80, HC85-96, HC1-9) have an "INT.Rec-Stl" menu option that allows interval recording (at 1, 5 or 10 minutes) of single frames to memorystick.

Are there any flash- or harddrive-based cameras, Sony or other, that have retained this feature?

Hi Grahm, I don't recall seeing the function on any of the ones I've had (SR11, CX12, CX7) and I just dug through the menus for the XR500... didn't see it anywhere.

I'm sure it would be a simple add in firmware, but I'm guessing not many requests - of course depending on the length of timelapse you wanted to do, if you could hook one of the HDD cams up to a power supply, you could let it run for HOURS AND HOURS, and then just pull stills! 900 and some minutes of recording at highest res to choose from on a 120G HDD! You could probably script a still capture in some NLEs.

Thanks Dave - that's a bummer.

Regarding the NLE idea, there are quite a few software programs that will interval record from a tethered camera - I'm looking for solutions that can be self-contained in the field for extended periods (with external batteries). My TRV70 works fine, but one of the newer smaller tapeless camera bodies would be more discreet and more portable.

The smallest Sony non-tape cam that has true interval rec is the XDCam EX1, as far as I know.