[DONE, SCRIPTING] Intervalometer with increments smaller than 1 second ?

Started by spacef2012, April 16, 2013, 04:46:04 PM

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spacef2012

Hello,
I looked over the web for an intervalometer that allows increments of 1/3rd or 1/2 seconds.
I have found nothing.

I would need such function to take 1 pic every 1.5 seconds for example (1 sec expo, 1/2 second record image on sd card).
This is super useful with long exposures, to minimize the un-captured time between two pictures.

example, shutter speed 1 second, interval 1.5 seconds = 50% more captures than a pic every 2 seconds, and more fluidity of movements.

Even in a situation where ypou must avoid "jittering", it could be helpful, to make the interval  longer by 1/2 seconds (or 1/3 or 2/3rd) of a second - instead of 1 full second - whenever possible.

For the moment, i often found myself having to add 1 second just to avoid jittering, eventhough 1/3 or 1/2 of a second added to the original values would be enough to avoid jittering.

I would even like increments of 1/10th or 1/5th of a second, but i don't want to look like i am asking too much :-)


But, i found that nowhere, and everyone seems fine with 1 second minimum... that's sad, even if it is a tech limitation, it would be sad.
Thanks if one can explain the lilmitation, or if the ML team would like to think about a real breakthrough for timelapse photography.
Or, if it exists already, please let me know where.
Thanks a lot  !



spacef2012

I have a 60D and I think I understood that there may not be enough memory to run an intervalometer with a script?

a1ex


spacef2012

But it looks like there is a language to learn first ?
I am no programmer/developper. It is a big thing for me to go into this. So in 1 week, no I did not have the time to try it.
The spare time I have is mainly to shoot and it is difficult to find time to learn something new, and that looks a bit scary :-)
So i haven't tried anything yet.

ecek2

EOS 550D 18-55mm IS - 50mm F/1.8

Francis

Depending what camera you are shooting with, the model might not be able to sustain 3 shots per second. I know a 550D certainly won't. You might get 8 or 9 shots before the buffer get's backed up. Probably even at 2 shots a second it is going to catch up with you unless you're talking about a 7D.

spacef2012

Hi thanks for the replies.
Yes I understand that at low values it is like problematic as "burst mode" or fast continuous shooting modes.

In fact, it is not to use at fast speeds, nor to "shoot like crazy" :-)
It is for slow/long exposures, and could be useful even when using a ND filter.

-->> example: to select intervals of  1.5 seconds, instead of  2sec intervals.
to achieve things like 2 shots per 3 seconds (instead of 1 or 4).
you can have an shutter of 1 second, and a new pic every 1.5 or 1.6 seconds.
or
You could have a shutter speed of 2 and an interval of 2.5, or 2.6 seconds (instead of 3).
This is to allow smoother timelapses when there is fast movements (car lights at night for example...).
Less "time" "left out" of the movie., better continuity of movements.
In fact, the more I make timelapses, the more I find myself looking for reducing the idle time.
I think the 60D (that i bought only because ML was running on it) could deal with it easily..

The deal is to "not" be obliged to workaround and reduce shutter speed or anything else on the camera in order to compromise for this.
You would be able to better adjust the final movies to the current conditions (cars, wind speed for clouds....).

and beleive me, if I knew how to program it and could take time to learn etc, it would be done already  :) 

If I was a (talented) programmer, I would take the current intervalometer GUI
and would add a line that is meant to add a choice of decimale: (add: [off (0), 0.3, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7) 
I would be happy even with only the choice of the value "0.3 and 0.5" :-) (in case 0.5 is not enough between 2 shots, 0.3 may be useful in that case).

The logic I know would made me make a "table" with the decimal values above, and the outputted time would be the current intervalometer time (seconds) + the add decimal line
ie, an addition at the output of the "module" (output of time = x seconds + y decimals )

This is a logic that i use in making virtual electronic/analog circuit, but that I m unable to program in c or other languages that i never learnt (i tried, but... too old may be :-) . so take it as my contribution, hoping that i can be useful, because the way i see it, i would need to make the current ML intervalometer and then add the line :-).

Now, of course, may be there are technical limitations, in various cameras.
regards

Francis

It is not as hard as you might think and maybe 1hr of reading some basic instructions on C would shed a lot of light on how to piece it together.

Try copying this code into a file and save it as 'whatever.c' You should really be able to figure out what values you need to change to get what you want. Copy this file onto your card in the ./ML/scripts directory. Obviously you need to be running a newer build than v2.3 to have the scripting support.

/*
@title Demo intervalometer
*/
//These slashes are used to make comments within code so the camera will not try to interpret them

sleep(3); //Wait 3s before starting to take pics

for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) //Repeat the stuff below in brackets 100 times i.e. take 100 pictures
{

takepic(); //Take a picture with current settings or replace with bulbpic(1.3); to take a bulb exposure with a length of 1.3s
sleep(0.3); //Wait 0.3 (300ms) seconds. Don't forget to start this decimal with a 0 if it is under 1s.
}


Make sure when you save this text in a text editor that it is formatted in plain text.

Francis

If you can't take that sample code and adapt to your very specific needs then we can't help you. I understood your need and gave you very a very specific way to implement your needs. If you read all of the example scripts you would even be shown how to make a 'menu' of parameters to input your exact choice of interval or whatever.

The tools are all there to empower yourself. If you have enough time to go out and do time lapses, you certainly have the time to figure out how to script your specific needs. Hell, start a timelapse, go inside, and start reading about programming in C languages. You'll know more than you ever wanted to before your timelapse is over.

spacef2012

Thanks Francis.
I can try now with the exemple you gave.