New 5D2 Timelapse and 30p Video: "Timescapes Learning to Fly"
 

Just some new stuff I've shot on the 5D2 DSLR over the last couple months...


I LOVE this camera. The shots I'm doing at ISO 3200 are cleaner than my ISO 800 images on my old Rebel XT.

Most of these were done with the EF 24 f/1.4. The video was shot with a cheapy Sigma 28-300, which has the advantage of having an iris ring to control the f/stop. I got a nikon>eos adapter on ebay for like 40 bucks, and it seems to work fine.

Here is a video showing the little custom dolly I made to shoot the timelapse:

Absolutely awesome.
Love the footage, love the technique, love the location.
Good Show!

That's some really beautiful work... could you explain a bit more about the technical details of the timelapse stuff, how you did it, etc?
Is there a way for the camera to automatically fire every x seconds for timelapse stuff, or did you have to press the shutter manually?
And how did you do the panning of the camera during the timelapse sequences?
(Edit: Sorry re: panning - I see you've already posted about your Timelapse Dolly Project on vimeo)

Congrats again, it's really nice stuff..

Tom,

Fantastic video, well done! Sorry, but I have a ton of questions!!

Someone on Vimeo asked you about the moving shots taken from your car and your answer was just that you shot at 1/2". Could you explain what you meant? I assume you moved your vehicle at a constant (slow) speed and shot once every 1/2 a second, right? If so, how did you estimate the right speed and distance for the shot?

Were you shooting RAW or JPG for your shots?

How did you handle the changing exposure (night to day and vice-versa)?

How did you color balance?

For the star-field shots, how often did you fire the shutter? And, as asked above, did you fire the shutter manually, or do you have an intervalometer?

I have the Canon TC-80N3 which allows me to set the number of shots desired and the time between them. I've not tried timelapse photography/video, but your video has inspired me! My weekend begins on Sunday... looks like it's going to be a long night! :-)

Julian

Just awesome stuff, Thomas!

I downloaded the larger file for an even more majestic effect, if that's possible. Makes me want to take a vacation in the desert.

Great work.

I love it :)

I'd try to stabilize the car shots a bit though. They seem a bit wobbly.

i mounted the 5D2 onto my windshield with a simple suction mount, and drove like 1mph. it's really hard to do, though. my suv has huge off-road ties, which makes it bumpy. i think i did some mental math to figure out how to make it look like 30mph and 60mph. if you drive really slow, it just works out nicely.

sRAW 1for some of the driving, JPEG for other shots. full RAW might not be fast enough to the CF card, plus you are left with the post nightmare of trying to demosaic 21MP RAW in AE with thousands of frame -- total CPU destruction! haha.

I always shoot locked down. for sunsets i start 2 stops over and end 2 stops under.

most of this is RAW, so i use Camera RAW in AE.

i use an intervalometer. you can buy a TC80-N3 knockoff on ebay for like 40 bucks. for a typical star shot under the moon i might do 20s exposures with 4s intervals. maybe 400 - 800 frames on average. obviously at 24fps you need at least 240 frames to make a 10s video.

yeah the TC80 is all you need to get started! try shooting small jpegs on your first outing, because they are really easy to post in programs like premiere pro and fcp. shooting raw is much better, but save that for once you get the hang of things.

hope this helps.

Is this right? The exposure duration can't be longer than the shooting interval.

If you had a smaller car with manual transmission, you could just release the parking brake and push it manually. I've done this with a Toyota Yaris and suction cups to use the car as a dolly inside a warehouse.

Be careful though. Safety should always be your first priority. Don't try to push the car unless A) You're in a closed area with no other traffic B) The ground is perfectly level (or else you might end up in a runaway car situation or worse, being run over by your own car) C) You don't suffer from any back problems or other health issues.

yes, i am planning to try this. i've also built a custom western dolly that i can push by hand very slowly.

in other words, the camera exposes for 20s, then takes a 4s break, then exposes for 20s, etc. that way i can view a 2s "review" of the shot on the LCD, which is always nice to watch in progress.

Welcome to dvinfo.net, Tom!

The Milky Way timelapses are fantastic.

Tom:

Have you ever tried to get a hold of one of those crazy ND filters that schneider kreuznach manufactures for industrial applications? I've always wanted one. There is a 10 stop ND filter that would be a dream to shoot daylight timelapse. Stacking a couple should allow you to get rid of people for daylight timelapse in parks and urban environments.

Tom:

So not knowing much about still photography, I did my first photo testing with the same intervalmeter a few weeks back. Your work gives me new inspiration.

I had come to the conclusion it didn't makes sense to shoot any higher than the lowest Jpeg level, because my hd out put wasn't going to be any higher. Can you expound on your reasoning to choose a higher resolution like sraw 1 for your still series.

By the way, for those using Vegas, you can rapidly create a still sequence on your time line by isolating your consecutively numbered photos in a folder, and importing them into Vegas. What you do is select the first picture in the sequence, then check a box in the window asking Vegas to import as a sequence. You will endup with the sequence in your media files appearing as a single file that you can add to the time line from there. Crop and adjust as you see fit from there.

Chris:

Off the top of my head, my main reasons to shoot bigger than delivery format would be:

A) To allow for better quality, those extra pixels mean a lot when doing color correction, masking and such.
B) Reframing, zooming, panning, etc...
C) Stabilizing footage without losing resolution.

My .02 :)

oh, i go waaay back here. my first movie-related job ever i got here, with tyler cartner. i just can't seem to recall my old username! hahaha.

chris, the reasons i shoot 5.6K RAW, as opposed to smaller jpeg, are because:

1) JPEG is terrible for night shooting, and often leaves "hot" or "dead" pixels. you also really need control over exposure and color temp, especially when shooting the milky way in the summer.

2) I'm starting to turn my stock footage in at 4K now, and the oversampling is creating stunning 4K video. this stuff absolutely blows Red One "4K" footage out of the water. CMOS sensors are really only about 70-80% spatially efficient IMHO, so 5.6K RAW works out perfectly for 4K finishes.

Thanks for answering my questions, Tom. I can't wait to try it. I guess I'll finally put some sand in my Steadicam-branded sand-bag and use it to lock down my Libec LS38 tripod, with my 5D mk II on top!

I read on your forums about using slower shutter speeds, such as 1/24th and 1/30th second to get nice motion blur when shooting moving objects. Do you subscribe to this way of thinking?

Julian

Got it.

That's a fairly long exposure for the shooting frequency. It works out to 300 degrees, rather than the "film look" 180 degrees. I can't argue with the results though.

Come to think of it, the longer 300 degree shutter makes sense. A lot of timelapse stuff is too stuttery. It's not surprising that it would need a longer shutter than real time motion.

I'm not sure if you've followed the other shutter threads, but basically this camera can shoot high ISOs (over 100) at 1/33 (327 degrees), 1/50 (216 degrees), 1/100 (108 deg) and upwards at 100 or 200 ISO. (Turn highlight tone priority on to get 200 ISO.)

Any video that you shot at over 100 ISO is almost certainly at 1/33, which compliments your timelapses well.

BTW, what apertures are you typically using? Most of your shots have the sky and the foreground both in focus. The only one where you really lose the sky is at 1:02, where only the cacti are crisp.

as far exposure time vs interval time, i just think about in terms of how much the stars are moving. i know that if i like my camera pause for like 20 seconds, the stars and moon will have moved across the sky a certain amount, and i'm always paranoid that i will get "stutter", like you mentioned.

in terms of the iris, i usually shoot at like f/4 or f/5.6 when i'm trying to keep the sky and some type of foreground element in focus. that cactus shot you mentioned must have been f/2, think. i can't remember my reason for that.. probably too much beer... ;)

Stunning video.

I just noticed that the ~$40 timer is comparable to the RS-80N3 and not the TC-80N3 which means it probably doesn't have interval timing. It has long exposure timing but seems to only take one shot.

This is some truly magical work!

I am not sure what is meant by this, but the $40.00 timer I bought of ebay takes multiple shots at an exposure set either on the timer itself, with camera set on "bulb" or allowing the camera to set shutter opening, based on an auto mode.

Just get the Aputure brand knock-off. Mine seems to work great. Make sure to get the correct one for your model of camera, though. Linkdelight sells like 15 different versions of this, for various camera brands and models.

Aputure LCD Timer Remote AP-TR3C for Canon TC-80N3

Wow... I wish I'd seen this before I bought my TC-80. Could have saved a lot of money.

I've saved thousands of dollars over the years buying no-name knock offs for all my accessories, including batteries, grips, cords, hoods, bags, you name it. Every once and a while you get burned, but it would have to burn a lot to make up for the order-of-magnitude difference in price from name-brand accessories.

Have you tried the 5DmkII batteries from Linkdelight? They're ridiculously cheap...

I wouldn't mess around with off-brand 5D2 batteries. These are by far the best camera batteries ever produced. I can rattle off probably 10,000 shots on the two batteries in my grip. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

I say that without any specific knowledge of the off-brands at Linkdelight. I have had mixed results with other off-brands for my other Canon cameras. Many of them are simply dead and useless now, while my Canon-brand batteries rock on.

Evan:

I had to buy the cheapies, cause just couldn't find others in stock. One problem is you don't actually have any idea how long the battery will shoot, because it does not telll camera how much power is left on board. However, I have shot through my Canon and then loaded one of the cheap ones, and it continued to operate without issue.

Thanks, for stills I'm not worried about it, but for video it would be nice to have plenty of extras - but I figured at that price they might not really be comparable to canon.

BTW, there is a digg submission for this now:

Absolutely Stunning Timelapse | Learning To Fly

Absolutely stunning work! I am seriously in awe.

ND Filters
 

Tom,
Are you using any ND filters? Any recommendations for cityscape shots as to shutter settings for the 5d2?

For daytime stuff a high-quality, powerful ND is good, along with dropping ISO to 100. Very fast shutter speeds and/or high f-stop numbers can cause flickering.

At night I would strongly advise against using any filters of any kind, because of issues with ghosting.