Timelapse Question For Newbie
 

I need to understand a few basic things before doing my first timelapse. I've watched the Philip Bloom 7D video but I still have a few questions. If I'm shooting day to night should I shoot in manual or AP mode? I bought the Chinese version of the canon TC80N3 the controller is easy to navigate but I am a little confuse about the delay (before shutter is released) and long (exposure) settings. Let say I want to take 1 picture every 2 seconds what would the settings be 2 seconds interval with 2 seconds long exposure? Should I use small Raw in still mode? What's the shutter speed to get nice streaks at night?

thanks!

just read the remote control manual. It says to choose an interval at least one second longer than the exposure time. So if I take one picture every two seconds should the exposure time be 1 second with 2 second delay and slow down the shutter on the 7D to stay open for 2 seconds? I'm a little confused about this please help.

Day to night is difficult - for your first time shoot other stuff first. Search for the other thread on this.

Interval should be more like 6 secs not 2 which is too close together. At 24 frames work this out yourself how long you want the timelapse to be. As you go to night the exposure will increase thats why, so 6 secs is my min interval.
I get best results with Aperture priority for day to night - all others I do on manual mode. If you want the timelapse to go to black as night approaches then stick with manual. But then you need to manually open the iris at some point in the timelapse then fiddle in post to correct this ... I do not like this method myself.

Here is a sample of one of the last oen I did. As you see I adjust for evening in Ap. This is 6 sec intervals.
I shoot in small raw - small size will avoid buffering and its still larger than HD.

Hi Jon,

I checked out the other threads, thanks for the advice. I will try the 6 second delay and different intervals to see what works best for me.