Time Laps Car Journey

frostie

frostie

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Chris
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After advice really.....

Later this year I'll be heading over for a mini road trip to Canada, driving throug the Rockies calling in at places such as Banff, Jasper, Kelowna etc etc. We did something similar last year and were very lucky with the weather considering it was Sept/Oct.

This time, I hope to mount a camera on the front of our hirecar and do some sort of time lapse photography of the drive itself, making it into a mini movie. Wondered if anyone here had done something similar already?

Obviously I'll need a cheap(ish) compact camera to mount on the car, one thats waterproof as I don't fancy gaffer taping my Canon 450d down to the bonnet :lol:

Does anyone have any suggestions on a camera that could be used, and also what time lapse settings I should use (to help calculate what memory cards would be required). 1 photo every 20 seconds?

Any ideas or suggestions would be very much appreciated!
 
I recently tried doing some time lapse photography of an apple tree blooming in the garden where I work.
Didn't quite work out as planned because of having to charge the battery all the time and in doing so losing the position of the mini tripod.
you really need a compact that can run on an external power source so you don't have to keep changing the battery.
I used a canon Ixus 85 with a maximum of 2 fps, so I personally wouldn't recommend this particular compact.
For you to find a cheap(ish) waterproof compact will be quite difficult I think, I may be wrong.

Good luck.
 
Cheers.

I am hoping that by only snapping 1 frame per 20 seconds, the battery should be OK?

As for the camer, mayb waterproof was thr wrong terminology.. Splash Proof would be better. I know from my own experience, "waterproof" such as for Scuba Diving etc does mean £££'s :'(
 
how will you operate the shutter while driving?
sounds like a fun idea...
keeping the lens clean from everything could be a problem...

if you have a passenger they can do it from the side window and lean out every whatever
and check the lens etc..
 
2 possible options:

1. Get a cheap Canon Powershot on eBay and then use the CHDK firmware hack to script a time lapse function. I have a friend who has done this - its reliable and works so long as you get a compatible camera.

2. Mount a DSLR inside the car - maybe on the dash - and get a remote with an intervalometer function - like this one

I've done it using the 2nd option - I mounted my camera on a tripod jammed in the passenger seat - video here

As from the description on Vimeo - it was about 900 shots in that film - each one 2 seconds apart. About 1/2 an hour driving around town. Camera set to smallish jpg (can't remember precisely which setting) - you don't need big jpg files - so if you've got a decent sized card, you should have no problem. If you turn the auto review function off then that will extend the battery life.

I think 1 shot every 20secs is not enough. It doesn't take that long to drive through the Rockies - maybe an hour and a half of the very big impressive stuff around Banff, although, of course, there is much more than that (Ive done it, but can't give you the precise timings as we stopped on the way through). You want as many shots as you can get - so maybe think about using one shot every 5 seconds - its a trade off between the vid looking disjointed and you running out of battery or card space before the end.

Try some experiments before you go and have fun. If you can get it right it will make for a very cool film.
 
I have just taken a look at the GOPRO website.
Amazing bits of kit.....well worth a look.
 
Some of the cheaper Samsung video camcorders have time-lapse functions, and you have a video capability as well.

I have seen them for £149 at Argos and PC world.
 
Time laps feature of the GoPro HD is really good, quite effotless to use and the 5mp pictures are not bad at all!
I would highly reccommend this unit!
 
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