wear and tear doing a timelapse

[CaveDweller]

Basically I am wanting to get into doing timelapses and I read somewhere that it causes quite a bit of wear on all the shutter mechanisms. What is the difference in taking 500shots normally as to takin 500shots for a timelapse?

 

[Big Andy]

There is no difference as far as I know, it's the fact you will need a lot more than 500 images to make a decent time lapse video. At 25 frames a second you will only get 20 seconds of viewable video so will probably need far more shutter actuations than a normal days togging.

 

[CaveDweller]

Cheers, thought so. I am playing around with my 550d which I downloaded Magic Lantern onto, which has an intervalometer feature. It shows how long you have to leave the camera and how long the timelapse will be. The amount of shots you need for a decent length timelapse is just crazy, as well as the tome you have to leave the camera to it depending on the time between shots.

 

[StewartR]

What is the difference in taking 500shots normally as to takin 500shots for a timelapse?

No difference.

Timelapses cause wear and tear on the shutter simply because they generally require a large number of actuations, but otherwise there's nothing different.

 

[MWHCVT]

As said no difference an actuation is an action it matters nothing in reality if those 500 actuations are over a day a week or a year a lot of what I do is actuation intensive its just not something to worry about at least I don't

 

[redhed17]

Yep, the shutter actuations build up. I did about 3k in one afternoon few months ago.

I use an old camera for my time lapses as I couldn't afford to replace my main camera if it wore out.

 

[pingu666]

you can use a old camera if your really worried, after all its going to end up as a 2mp set of pics in a video

 

[ronnus]

you can use a old camera if your really worried, after all its going to end up as a 2mp set of pics in a video

Great advice this... I'm currently messing around with my old Canon A590is which I think has a 7.1MP, by the time I've chopped the final video resolution down even to 1080 HD 7.1MP is about 3 times the resolution I require (very roughly).

Any old Canon compact with a 4MP+ sensor and CHDK (broadly speaking, the compact camera equivalent of magic lantern) and you'll be good to go.

I've also done some timelapse with a gopro, but the FOV is fixed which is limiting.

 

[CaveDweller]

Cheers for the tips. I have an old Olympus PEN EPL-1 that I could use. The live display is completely smashed though so it will be a matter of guess work as I never bothered getting an electronic viewfinder for it (no wonder at the price of them). Will get it fixed though through Domestic an General, £6 a month for full insurance cover...not bad at all. I bought it new to start me on in photography about 2years ago so it has plenty life in it yet. My 550D was given to me by my sister when she upgraded to a 5diii, and sod knows how many pictures she took with it.

 

[redhed17]

Any old Canon compact with a 4MP+ sensor and CHDK (broadly speaking, the compact camera equivalent of magic lantern) and you'll be good to go.

You have to check whether the Canon you plan to get has the Magic Lantern hack with the features that you want, and then be lucky enough that the camera you get as the correct firmware version. I bought a Canon S95 a few years ago, and hoped that I would be able to use the Magic Lantern software at some point, but when I looked into it, the firmware in my camera was incompatible.

I would rather have used the S95 for my timelapses than my D200, though the D200 is better quality, but I don't have that option. :shrug:

I set the D200 to the smallest Jpeg setting btw, which gives a me a 1936x1296 file which I can crop to 1920x1080 for widescreen. A higher megapixel file could give me options to crop, or pan an crop, within the file, but I haven't needed to do that yet, so I keep the files small.

 

[ronnus]

You have to check whether the Canon you plan to get has the Magic Lantern hack with the features that you want, and then be lucky enough that the camera you get as the correct firmware version. I bought a Canon S95 a few years ago, and hoped that I would be able to use the Magic Lantern software at some point, but when I looked into it, the firmware in my camera was incompatible.

I would rather have used the S95 for my timelapses than my D200, though the D200 is better quality, but I don't have that option. :shrug:

I set the D200 to the smallest Jpeg setting btw, which gives a me a 1936x1296 file which I can crop to 1920x1080 for widescreen. A higher megapixel file could give me options to crop, or pan an crop, within the file, but I haven't needed to do that yet, so I keep the files small.

I might be being thick here, but... As I understand, and I'm no Canon guy (can't stress that enough!), magic lantern is meant for Canon DSLRs, Canon compacts can use something called CHDK instead, and it is indeed available for the S95 as well as pretty much any other Canon compact I've come across. The firmware of the camera should be changeable by loading up an older version of the firmware, which would generally be available from the manufacturers website, but your mileage may vary and all that...

Here's a link to the S95 version of CHDK

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/S95

 

[redhed17]

I might be being thick here, but... As I understand, and I'm no Canon guy (can't stress that enough!), magic lantern is meant for Canon DSLRs,

You are correct, I made a mistake.

Canon compacts can use something called CHDK instead, and it is indeed available for the S95 as well as pretty much any other Canon compact I've come across. The firmware of the camera should be changeable by loading up an older version of the firmware, which would generally be available from the manufacturers website, but your mileage may vary and all that...

Here's a link to the S95 version of CHDK

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/S95

Thanks for the link, I've been there before and it made little sense and found myself going round in circles. :shrug:

 

[ronnus]

You are correct, I made a mistake.

Thanks for the link, I've been there before and it made little sense and found myself going round in circles. :shrug:

Yep CHDK can take a wee while to get your head round when installing, I have to remind myself just how to get a camera to load it every time I go to use it with a different camera! From last time the trick is something to do with the lock switch on SD cards... Maybe

 

[gnirtS]

Ive been using CHDK on various powershoots (RAW mode enable etc) for years and on my S95 for time lapse for a long time.
It was around long before magic lantern first appeared and still works extremely well.
I use the S95 over my DSLR for timelapse purely to stop all the shutter actuations. Or rather i did until this month where it appears some Indonesia baggage handler nicked my battery charger for it meaning i now have a flat, useless camera.