pauldub Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Has anyone had any experience with recording a time lapse of an event? I want to record a few hours of a set up with a fixed camera, I don't really want to go through many tapes and have to remember changing them throughout the day. Only need to take 1 frame a minute, I guess recording straight to a computer, but how? Is there a way of capturing through the firewire cable into final cut pro? cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Most recent semi-pro Sony and Panasonic cameras that are mini-dv (ie, PD150/170, DVX100a) will do time lapse onto tape with a selectable interval and record duration. Then just capture the movie afterwards- much less faffing about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete McCrea Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 The Smaller Sony PC Series and the VX series also do it. Make sure you leave the camera somewhere that won't get knocked or blocked, and probably best to stick it on auto Exposure if your going to do an LX focus etc. Then you just capture the footage, and in most cases I then speed it up to suit. I covered a 4 day possession on the track by Weston Super Mare using the time lapse on the VX2000 and it turned out really well. A spot of editing and then speeding it up and the work was shown in 45 Minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Our cams at work will do time lapse. I can't for the life of me remember what they are called. It's called "interval record" on most menu's if you cant find it . With ours you can set it to take .5 second every 60 second. Doing that meant I had a tape for a whole week and it JUST ran out at the end. When it comes to actually editing it, if working lights are on you can do it at any speed, I found ~1500% faster was best, but if you are doing lighting and focus/plotting, it is better to drop down to 1200% or 1000% other wise its just flashing lights and no effect. My Video Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdave Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Hi There is a software called Adobe on location http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/onlocation/ It allows you to plug your camcorder via firewire into your computer. It offers loads of functions aswell as variable time lapse including stop motion, motion activated recording and live effects. All of which are recorded straight to your hard drive as AVI. Im not sure how much it costs and I have a feeling you need to have cs3 as the copy I use at my school is part of the masters collection. But there is a trial available. Hope this helps Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floydey Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 If you have access to an Apple Mac there is a free software package called Single Framer http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/28460 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauldub Posted March 29, 2008 Author Share Posted March 29, 2008 Im not sure if my camera has the built in function, I will have to look. I have the Sony HDR-FX1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete McCrea Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 It'll be under Int Rec in the menu settings, and will let you set the time and duration. I'd bet two (yes two!) pints of Guinness extra cold that it will do the interval record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnomatron Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Canon cameras generally don't have it, for the record. Which is a shame 'cos I have a Canon. Also not all Sony cams do, the cheaper ones don't always have the feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sah1510 Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 This is a great website - tells you everything you need to know! http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/ult...se-photography/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Adobe On Location used to be called DV Rack. It's a PC only bit of software designed by a company called Serious Magic - and Adobe took them over recently. It's a stand alone product - is is available in SD and HD, and I use it all the time to get my video into the PV for editing. The best feature is that it allows you to chop up the incoming video into files live - and no dropped frames, so you can cut on the fly - saves a lot of time. It also has a pre-record buffer which is handy, and has time-lapse built in. It has loads of other useful features like frame grabbers, colour analysers, vectorscope and a decent DV monitor. I use it on every project. It isn't cheap on the adobe site, because they don't see it as a mainstream product - just a handy add on to bundle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timperrett Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 As mentioned by other posters...my Sony PC120 does it on the Int Rec in the menu. I usually set it to do half a second every thirty seconds straight to tape and then firewire it into my computer and speed it up in my editing software to a speed I like. A funky tune underneath it always ups the comedy - favorite being Basement Jaxx 'Do Your Thing' - man! I am such a geek!!! The exposure is a good note there from Pete, also note to put the camera into manual focus which will help your end product as well. Check out www.timperrett.co.uk/video/loadout.mov for one I did a few years ago loading out of the Lowry Theatre in Saford Quays, Manchester using the techniques described above. Hope that helps. T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wol Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 If you can get your hands on one, a standard network camera usually does the trick. I've done a fair few timelapses with a PTZ one before, and timing it to take two concurrent timelapses, by moving the head between two presets, and taking a picture at each. All you need is another computer somewhere on the network which has an FTP server running and the files will just appear there automatically. Once its done, you can use a utility to patch together the images into a video. Also means you can cut out parts which are boring, or are too bright / dark, or when some numpty has stood in front of the camera. Ive been doing a timelapse on one site from nov 05, taking two pictures a minute, every day, for about 14 hours a day. Theres a rather large amount of files now on the server, and hopefully itll finish sometime summer this year! it helps to be able to run histograms on the pictures to make the final video as smooth as possible. make sure the camera has the focus fixed, as they can sometimes whine a lot when given one dark theatre, with one spot of light on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauldub Posted March 31, 2008 Author Share Posted March 31, 2008 Unfortunately my Camera (sony hdv-fx1) only has frame record, but no way of continuous, no options for setting times. I guess they thought the new professional cameras didnt need it? ill have to explore other options with some of the software listed above. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete McCrea Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I would expect that it will give you the On/Off option, then once you set it to on, it then gives you the options for the duration and interval. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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