Interval Recording

[Michael Barnes]

Hi all, I wanted a time lapse type look to some footage I am going to shoot. I read the manual on interval recording. Does anyone have suggestions on shooting like this. I want compressed action so I am going to shoot interval 30 sec and Rec Time 2sec. Can I move the camera? I would like to shoot from a car and record movement and activity on a darkening street. Does anyone have technical and stylistic suggestions? Thanks.

[Don Palomaki]

An alternative approach to consider is to use a laptop top to capture live camera output from the camcorder. Requires a NLE or capture software that supports frame capture at user specified intervals.

[Jim OBrien]

Another option is to use a digital still camera and timelapse controller like the ones made by this company:

http://www.harbortronics.com/

All depends on what equipment you have at your disposal.

[Chris Soucy]

Time lapse, by definition, is using time itself to effect movement/ change.

If you move the camera whilst attempting to use it, you are, in effect, using a video camera to take a series of unrelated (by context) still pictures or segments.

Therefore, do not move the camera whilst using time lapse, it is defeating the purpose.

The camera needs to be bolted to something that will/ cannot move, the more rigid the better.

On the XL1s the option works quite well, tho' there is an issue with the heads clogging after a while. It's best to run a cleaning tape through the cam before and after a stint.

For reasons I still haven't unravelled, the last time I tried it, my NLE got really snippy and insisted on treating every single "segment" as a seperate file - boy, did that get out of hand real quick!


CS

[Don Palomaki]

Originally Posted by Chris Soucy

...
For reasons I still haven't unravelled, the last time I tried it, my NLE got really snippy and insisted on treating every single "segment" as a seperate file - boy, did that get out of hand real quick!
CS

Perhaps because some NLE will treat a break in the real time clock or a record pause (even if the scene does nto change) as an indicator of a new clip. Interval recording is often accomplished by recording a few frames, followed by a record pause for a specified interval, then repeating this cycle, making it a series of separate clips.

[Chris Soucy]

Yeah, think in a senior moment I forgot to turn off "split by clip" or whatever it's labelled. All a bit vague as it was a couple of years ago (heck, yesterday is a bit vague!).


CS

[Kent Frost]

Originally Posted by Chris Soucy

Time lapse, by definition, is using time itself to effect movement/ change.

If you move the camera whilst attempting to use it, you are, in effect, using a video camera to take a series of unrelated (by context) still pictures or segments.

Therefore, do not move the camera whilst using time lapse, it is defeating the purpose.

The camera needs to be bolted to something that will/ cannot move, the more rigid the better.

Yes, however there are instances where you can get away with camera movement during timelapse recording. You can use a telescope tripod with a built-in motor and fit it to the threads of the tripod socket of a camera. Doing this will allow you to use the ultra slow motion of the tripod (intended to keep up with celestial objects as the earth rotates), giving you the ability to pan across a scene at a decent rate while recording. The movement of the camera may even be virtually unnoticeable, like stopping and concentrating on cloud movement, or the moon traveling across the sky. You can't instantly see it move, but it does over enough time.