Can you do a time lapse without shutter actuations?

Started by kbrownrigg10, November 22, 2012, 04:59:40 AM

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kbrownrigg10

Inside of the ML software is there a way to take a time lapse without burning 1-2k shutter actuations at a time?
Gripped Canon Rebel T2i and a slew of lenses. i forget them all

Francis

Depends on the sort of interval you're hoping to use. Using FPS override you can record video directly down to a framerate of .2 fps which equates to a 5s interval. As far as the shutter speeds available at those framerates goes, you are limited depending on the camera model. The other limitation is the inability to use all the benefits of the RAW files. Another option is silent pictures, which records from the liveview buffer to .422 files, which then have to be converted to jpgs.

halbmoki

I use silent picture for timelapses. Sure, the resolution isn't great but since it's goin to be a video anyway, I don't really need 15MPx. With ML automatically turning off the display between shots, the battery will last a very long time.
Using video and FPS override is the easiest way. 0,2FPS  (one picture every 5 seconds) gives a rather nice effect and if you want to speed it up even more, you can still do so afterwards by increasing framerate or dropping frames. Again, the energy saving options can help to keep the camera running for a few hours as long as you've got enough memory. The biggest disadvantage is the sensor heating up and producing a lot of noise and hot pixels after a while. Those can probably be removed in post processing (with a black frame, similar to Canon's long exposure noise reduction), but I don't have any experience with that.

Taking full resolution pictures without using the shutter is just not possible. I think, it's on the list of "things that are probably never done" or even "impossible"

MaD_MaX

And is it possible to use Bulb Ramping with Frame Override and SilentPic instead of the working with shutter?
I would like to do TimeLaps of the Sunset/Sunrise and not sure if that can be done with any other means.

Tx. Regards.

a1ex

No. Movie auto exposure might work with FPS override, but I don't know if anyone ever tried it.

1%

yes, i tried both p mode and autoiso (or 600D). came out good but it would be way nicer i ML could do auto expo for movie timelapses. problem is at .2fps 600D get VERY laggy. 6d at 2fps... not as bad. i also crank the rate up way high. 600d made a 4gb 170mbps timelapse, 6D made 100something in IPB on qp1. 600D pretty much recorded all night.

this and silent pic i the way to go. would have to be a paid project for all those shutter clicks.

a1ex

Got an idea: if the bulb ramping algorithm is fast enough for real-time operation, it might be good for auto ISO in movie mode (including timelapse).

Roughly: plug the bramp feedback loop into the gradual exposure thingie, make sure it knows the luma curve, make sure the calculations are fast enough, and you can get quite good results.

1%

hopefully isn't affected when camera lags up. it take like a minute to top recording on the lowest fps setting. I guess only one way to try

niazdokrat

The camera only gets laggy when doing timelapse with fps overide because the camera needs at least one second of video before it can stop recording. so if your video mode is at 24fps and you are using the 0.2 fps overide you need to have 24 frames = 2 minutes (24 x 5s) for one second of video to record. after this the camera responds normally.

Ash

Is there any way to use the Aperture priority mode with silent picture & with the intervalometer?

dthost

From my experience, you can't beat working on the full res CR2 files compared with the undercranked FPS .MOV files... but it's tough on your shutter, especially at 1 fps. That said, I've been a huge fan of the FPS override for TL, even with the mushy image compared with the worked and downrezzed CR2 files. I've recently started testing the RAW video builds for timelapse (inspired by the work of Africashot!), hoping for sharper as well as more workable images... using 20130524 build I can only get a minimum FPS override of 1.5 fps before jitter and frame corruption rears its ugly head at 1.0 fps. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who is mainly interested in ML RAW for timelapse projects... the DNGs are definitely a step forward for the way I work on some scenes. The ability to import DNGs into Lightroom and apply exposure tweaks, grad filters etc, is fantastic. The DNGs also do away with my hot pixels that appear in h264 output (strange). But finding the right combination of ML settings to maximize results is a bit hit and miss for me at the moment... anyone else got some results/thoughts/comments?

Datadogie

I know this is a stupid question. But why do we need a shutter with a digital sensor. I mean if you were to physically take out the shutter. The camera would still think it's there. What would happen? Laymens terms please.
T3i and Kiss X4 (550d (T2i)) Tamron 18-200mm, Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 (need firmware upgrade) Olympus 50mm f1.8  Olympus 28mm f2.8 and Olympus 24mm f2.8
Fancier 370 tripod and LCD hinged loupe. DIY Slider and crane.

Danne

Shutter regulates the amount of light to the sensor. You might be thinking of the mirror?

Datadogie

But in movies mode you can adjust from 1/33 to 1/4200ths second. There is no actuation noise. So why not with full frame.
T3i and Kiss X4 (550d (T2i)) Tamron 18-200mm, Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 (need firmware upgrade) Olympus 50mm f1.8  Olympus 28mm f2.8 and Olympus 24mm f2.8
Fancier 370 tripod and LCD hinged loupe. DIY Slider and crane.

hjfilmspeed

Is there a updated way of doing this with with the new October nightly builds. I guess combining silent still, longer exposures, and the inervolometer would be ideal. This might mentioned else where but i couldnt find it.