Messages

In 2020.07.02 Sigma came up with a Camera Control SDK for Windows: https://www.sigma-global.com/en/news/2020/07/02/10916/

Would it be possible, to "translate" ML functions, modules etc. for the Sigma fp and Sigma fp L?

Cannot say if this workflow is a proper one (not fluent in astro)

Then every few seconds in the finished video there is a jump in time. I can't imagine it looking good.

I also thought about this and in meanwhile I looked after a bit and I found a video, the guy speaks about interval ramping and based on this I should plan with max. 3s steps in 15 mins between the keyframes. This way there will be a speedup, but hopefully not with sudden jumps in time. I have to try it in practice.

Before 2017: ETTR will ignore intervalometer settings, and might choose exposures longer than interval time.
After 2017: ETTR will not choose exposures longer than interval time.

Since you use long exposures, I'd recommend operating outside LiveView (in plain photo mode). There, Expo. override and ExpSim will have no effect.

Thanks for the advice a1ex, I will use the latest stable build. Would the 2s image review time be enough for calculating the next ETTR shot? For motion I hope it's enough.

I would not make that dependent on the time but on the current exposure situation.

How do you mean? Auto ETTR will do the job in theory.

Thanks for the replies guys.

There was a post in 2013 by dmilligan in the adv_int.mo topic.

I think I will do the following. I'll use the Advanced Intervalometer module combinded with the Auto ETTR module, ML build 2016 vers.

1., On the day, when I'll go out to shoot day to night timelapse with my pan/tilt head, I'll check the exact sunset time and the sun "movement" with the help of Stellarium. I used this little software ealier and it's very helpful. Let's say the sunset is at 19:00 o'clock.
2., Canon settings: Image review: 2s, max ISO: 1600, Long exp. noise reduction: off, High iso speed noise reduction: standard
3., ML settings:
a, Expo menu
* White balance 4600K
* Picture style: neutral and contarst -2
+ Auto ETTR: Always On, Slowest shutter: 20s, Exposure target: -1 EV, Highlight ignore 0.1%, Midtone SNR limit: 6 EV, Shadow SNR limit: 2 EV
* Expo. override: on
* ExpSim: on
b, Overlay menu: Global draw: LiveView, Cropmarks: HD, 16:9, Histogram: RAW RGB, Log
c, Shoot menu
* Intervalometer menu: Strart trigger: Leave Menu, Start after: 3s, Stop after: Disabled
+ Advanced Intervalometer menu: Enabled: on, Use global time: on

• Keyframe 1: Keyframe time: 18:00:00, Aperture: ON, F8.0, Interval time: 5s
• Keyframe 2: Keyframe time: 19:10:00, Aperture: ON, F8.0, Interval time: 5s
• Keyframe 3: Keyframe time: 19:40:00, Aperture: ON, F2.8, Interval time: 15s
• Keyframe 4: Keyframe time: 20:10:00, Aperture: ON, F2.8, Interval time: 25s
• Keyframe 5: Keyframe time: 21:10:00, Aperture: ON, F2.8, Interval time: 25s

What do you think? Will Auto ETTR take care of the shutter and ISO settings automatically?

BTW, when used together with intervalometer, AutoETTR will limit its maximum exposure time to intervalometer delay minus 2 seconds. This is in the AutoETTR help text, but only appears when you enable both options. This change was merged into mainline in early 2017.

In other words, your idea of taking a picture every 5 seconds, and extending the exposure time to 32 seconds when it gets dark, will not work out of the box - the only way would be to write a custom intervalometer script in Lua.

That's not so good news for me now, so I have to use an older ML build in this case. I don't have enough coding knowledge to write a custom intervalometer script in Lua.

... if your exposure time is 5 seconds, yes.

The script only enforces a minimum delay of 2 seconds between two pictures (with the above settings). Nothing more, nothing less.

If you want to take a picture every 7 seconds, simply dial 7 seconds in the intervalometer menu ("Take a picture every 7 seconds").

Now I got it working, but I only tested with a 30s exposure without AutoETTR.

In theory there is a 2s image review time for calculating the next settings, if AutoETTR is on or not? So this gap hopefully would be enough to trigger the controller for moving the pan/tilt head and chill a bit.

I tried the script on my 5D3 and all looks ok.

It means that eg. at interval 5s and force delay 2s you get a 7s long extended interval?

How about writing your own timelapse script?

That is out of my kwonledge.

To maintain a constant frame rate during the timelapse, I'd suggest a fixed interval of about 35 seconds between 2 pictures. ETTR is not going to ramp the shutter speed nicely, so with the above settings, you'll end up with a sudden jump in the frame rate.

I know that there will be a jump in the frame rate, because of the differenct intervals, but in this case I don't care so much about it. But as you suggested, I will experiment with the adv_int.mo. The problem is that the sensor in the 550D isn't so sensitive at night and I don't want eg. 30s intervals during the day lights.

I made a day to night timelapse ealier, but without movements. Auto ETTR was always on, aperture was f5 and it ramped the exposure and ISO from 1/640s, ISO100 to 30s, ISO1600. Because of the different lightning situations the interval was ramping from 6s to 35s also. The AutoETTR did the job very well. I used thirdparty softwares to correct/smooth out the exposure jumps and finish the movie, you can read it in the description.

I don't know what kind of signal you get through the hotshoe port, though - is it a logic signal active during the entire exposure, or something else?

That's a good question, but I think the controller only gets a short trigger signal right after the exposure.

BTW, if you set "Take a picture every 5s" and "Force Delay: 10s", a picture will be taken every - roughly - 10 seconds (actually every 10 seconds + time required to capture the image + a small overhead). So, the script works as expected, enforcing the minimum delay between two pictures to 10 seconds, no matter what. Obviously, in this case, the intervalometer won't be able to keep up with the requested frame rate of 1 picture every 5 seconds.

That's ok, but if I'm using a motion controller, what gets the signal after the exposure through to hotshoe port to move a pan/tilt head, then there will be a problem at shooting a day to night timelapse.

eg.:
AutoETTR always on, longest shutter 32s, max ISO 1600, fixed aparture 2.8 and interval 6s

As the exposure time exceeds the interval time there will be a problem, because ML would take a pic as quick as it can. I need the gap to have enough time for moving the pant/tilt head and enough time to chill the whole setup on the tripod.

I tried the script on my 5D3 and all looks ok.

Are you running the latest Lua fix version for your Cam?

I'm using the latest nightly vers. for 550D, 2018. Jul. 3, and that lua.mo what's inside the zip.

If I set the interval to 5s and the force delay to 3s, there isn't 3s extra gap before the next shot, so the shot happens at the 5th second instead of at the 8th second.

Sorry, I copied the wrong code, so this is the latest, what I used:

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force_delay_menu = menu.new
{
parent = "Intervalometer",
name = "Force Delay",
help = "Add an extra delay to each interval",
min = 0,
max = 300,
unit = UNIT.TIME,
}

event.intervalometer = function(count) msleep(force_delay_menu.value * 1000) return true end

Hi guys!

I would like to run a script, which would be enabled when the picture is taken with the intervalometer and the AutoETTR module is also in use. The idea is to force a delay (2-4 seconds) between the shots independently from interval time. I would like to use this gap for pan/tilt motion.

Could you please help me out for updating the previous script, that was this one. It's not working anymore on the latest nightly for 550D.

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force_delay_menu = menu.new
{
parent = "Intervalometer",
name = "Force Delay",
help = "Add an extra delay to each interval",
min = 0,
max = 300,
unit = UNIT.TIME,
}

events =
{
intervalometer = function() msleep(force_delay_menu.value * 1000) return true end
}

I made another Auto ETTR sunset timelapse with experimental music/sound/noise. (The frequency is from ~50hz to 10000hz, so watch out with the volume!)

https://vimeo.com/155222151

Auto ETTR: ramping from F8, 1/800s, ISO100 to F8, 0.6s, ISO100
Intervalometer: 6s

@mothaibaphoto: Sorry, I just guessed. I can't get it working till now, let's wait for a pro...

Is the MLVFS folder at the path and environment variables?

It works , you have to rename all "ap4x"s to "ap4h", but I don't know any batch processing, just search for "hex editor batch process", I'm sure you will find something usable.

update: I did a quick grade on Windows with AE CC 2015.

All I need is his pc to support ProRes 4444 XQ files that would be converted from dngs from MLVFS in After Effects. I just want to make sure because if I export ProRes 4444 XQ, and his pc won't support them, well, yeah, that would be bad.

Try this, maybe it works:
- render a short ProRes 4444 XQ movie on your MAC.
- give the file to your friend.
- open the file in VirtualDub's Hex editor (Tools -> Hex editor -> File -> Open)
- Search for "ap4x", rename it to "ap4h", save the file.
- Play the file on the PC.
- Come back and say something... is it working or not?

You could upload a short ProRes 4444 XQ movie somewhere and I could try too.

Thanks, I will try as soon as I can compile a new build from the LUA repository.

@garry23

I don't know what is the problem now. Sometimes the compiling works, sometimes not. Maybe it's a Codio service issue?

Here are the two lines (+pastebin links), what I tried:
1. Cloning the unified repository (click here to see the code):

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wget -q -O - http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=1Fh8eyhz | sed "s/\r//g" | bash
2. Compiling the unified build for 5D Mark III (1.1.3) (click here to see the code):

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wget -q -O - http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=vRDmTAT6 | sed "s/\r//g" | bash

@dmilligan: Could you please help me out, that how could I update the Force Delay script for working well with the updated LUA module?

You can get your own Pastebin URL without an account too:

0. Copy this code. I make it universal, so people with another camera can use this too:

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cd
curl -OL https://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded/4.8/4.8-2013-q4-major/+download/gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_8-2013q4-20131204-linux.tar.bz2
bzip2 -d gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_8-2013q4-20131204-linux.tar.bz2
tar -x -f gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_8-2013q4-20131204-linux.tar
curl -OL http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/docutils/docutils-0.12.tar.gz
gzip -d docutils-0.12.tar.gz
tar -x -f docutils-0.12.tar
cd docutils-0.12
python setup.py install --prefix=~/.local
cd
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
echo "export PATH=\"\$HOME/.local/bin:\$PATH\"" >> .bash_profile
cp .local/bin/rst2html.py .local/bin/rst2html
cd workspace
hg clone -r unified https://bitbucket.org/hudson/magic-lantern
1. Go to the Pastebin site and paste the code to the New Paste area.
2. Copy the (I say now) platform code line to the end of the previous code lines at the Pastebin site:

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cd magic-lantern/platform/PLATFORM.FOLDER.NAME/
You can get your platform folder name from the nightly builds download site. Eg. "5D3.113":

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cd magic-lantern/platform/5D3.113/
3. Write this to the end of the code lines at the Pastebin site:

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make zip
4. Submit
5. Captcha -> Submit
6. Open a Notepad and copy this code to there:

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wget -q -O - http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=HERE_COMES_THE_LAST_8_CHARACHTER | sed "s/\r//g" | bash
7. Copy the last 8 charachter from your browser address line, you will see something like this

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http://pastebin.com/ABCDEFGH, so you need "ABCDEFGH":
8. Replace the "HERE_COMES_THE_LAST_8_CHARACHTER" with that last 8 characher, Eg.:

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wget -q -O - http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=ABCDEFGH | sed "s/\r//g" | bash

Copy this code line and paste to the Codio Terminal and hit enter.

This way you can get a unified build, but (till now) without the dot_tune, dual_iso and raw_rec module (gcc 32bit issue).

You can make two Pastebin URLs too. One for cloning the repository and one for compiling the build. In between you can make your unique modifications with your own responsibility.

Read this again and don't forget, that where the many code lines are, there is a scrollbar too.

I just tested and it works for me.

You leaved out this 3 lines, run them before docutils.

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curl -OL https://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded/4.8/4.8-2013-q4-major/+download/gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_8-2013q4-20131204-linux.tar.bz2
bzip2 -d gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_8-2013q4-20131204-linux.tar.bz2
tar -x -f gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_8-2013q4-20131204-linux.tar

@Licaon_Kter: As I know, dmilligan has a pull request for that gcc 32 bit issue.

Get your own pastebin URL.

1. Go here.
2. Paste your code to the New Paste.
3. Submit
4. Captcha
5. Copy the last 8 charachter from your browser address line and paste it:
http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=HERE_COMES_THE_LAST_8_CHARACHTER