Time Lapse Equipment Question

[Chris is me]

You can use most any camera for such a task as long as you can get timed photographs with it. I'd prefer a nice DSLR, and then lock the exposure and focus of the camera so that they do not change shot to shot.

[IanW]

If you have a Canon point-and-shoot, you can actually download a firmware upgrade called CHDK (just Google it). This firmware, which is put on the SD card and does not permanently affect the camera, allows you to install an intervalometer as a sort of 'app'. It takes a bit of messing around to set up for the first time, but once you get it to work, it's quite easy to use. I used CHDK for this video.

As for software, if the images are are numbered sequentially in the file name (img_0001, img_0002, img_0003, ...), it is really easy to import them into video editing programs like Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere. Personally, I use Vegas. If you don't have either of these, I would suggest downloading the 30 day free trial for Vegas from Sony's website. That will give you plenty of time to throw the video together.

Hope this helps!

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Eric,
Some webcam applications allow you to set capture times. If you think of normal video is 30 frames per second then shooting at one frame per second will allow you to capture people moving within the frame. An average walk speed is about 4 ft./sec. If you capture less often, say 1 frame every ten seconds, some things will show a jerky move and you may miss people altogether. Somewhere between 2 frames/sec and 0.5 frames/sec ought to be good for seeing progress. Over a two hour time frame, 1 frame/sec would yield about 4 minutes of video.

[EricH]

Thanks for the responses so far, guys. I'm going to add a little bit more information (remember, I have zero experience here).

-I currently have zero hardware; that is, I need to get a camera (or get access to one that may or may not have timed photography capabilities). This means that I need to compare them--and wading through the maze of specs on a company website may or may not give anything about timed photography capability. If there is a specific model that you know works, I'd appreciate it if you could put it up. (For example, a generic webcam might work--but there's a decent chance that resolution isn't exactly the greatest. OTOH, if I know that webcam XYZ has really good resolution, that's something that I can plug into Google and get other needed specs on.)

-I currently have zero software, but I may be able to convince the marketing folks to help me out there. I'll also look into the Vegas software; 30 days is pretty much running into my deadline, so that should be OK. I'll look into the CDHK when I get to my personal camera tonight (it's not where I am).

-The purpose of the time-lapse (eventually) is training/marketing applications. As such, it does need to be at least reasonable quality. I'm looking something like the one in http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=76298, only over a little less area. Maybe not professional quality, but good enough to be able to tell what people are doing. (Al, thanks for the framerate tip. I might not need exact motions... but I do need to be able to show what's going on!)

[artdutra04]

If you have [access to] a Mac, try Gawker.

It's free, and can use both the internal webcam and external cameras, particularly if they have a Firewire port.

[EricH]

I've only seen one Mac at the facility--and it belongs to one of the higher-ups, and is used extensively during the day. Not something I'd have much access to.

Now, if there was Mac-type software that worked with Windows (preferably Windows 7), that would probably work quite well.