Single Frame Shots On GY-HD100U
 

Does the HD-100U permit single frame recording for animation, or auto single frame for accelerated sundown - sunrise, or "fast traffic effect"? I.e Time Lapse capabilities.

Anyone knows, or is this a stupid question that is standard with every HD camera?

Brian

The HD100 does *not* permit single-frame recording, and this is a limitation of the HDV format, so you won't find a camcorder that records still frames to HDV tape. However the Canon XL H1 does have a still-photo record feature and will record 1920x1080 images to an SD card in the camera. Hope this helps,

Thanks Chris,

Unfortuntaly I am gettingt he JVC, not the Canon. I'm actually selling my old Canon XL1 to raise some cash.

Can anything be done in Post to give the effect of timelapse? Any tricks you can think of? I have a couple of shots I need to time lapse. I have the Canon XL1 but I don't think it can do it either. It only permits Photo, but doesn't allow it to automatically record single frames over period of time.

That's a question for one of our editing forums, depending on which software you're using. Chances are that this topic has been discussed before so you might search our editing category and see what you turn up.

If you have a FireStore FS-4 hard disk recorder with the HDV upgrade, then you can do single-frame recording as it actually has an intervalometer function. Check our FireStore forum for more info.

You can, on your timeline, use the 'snapshot' feature which will get a frame grab for you. Most NLE's have some sort of frame grab ability. HD-100 is progressive only so just scroll to where you want to get the snap from (within the footage) and grab the frame. Your grab from the HD-100 will be 1280 x 720 pixel.

Thanks Stephen,
I am a bit of a novice, so I am not fully understanding how to do what you descirbed. Are you saying the HD100U has a "snapshot" feature i can sue for time lapse? IF I understand it correctly, if it can, it require me to stay a location for hours and do one frame shots every minitute or so to get the time lapse effect.

Brian

Not directly on the cam Brian (as Chris points out). I'm referring to getting a screen grab from within you non-linear editor (NLE). You should be able to capture a 1280 x 720 (pixel) picture of any frame in your motion picture and print it to 4" X 6" with good results.

Summary, no picture taking on the camera but you can capture a frame from the motion picture in just about any NLE.

best,

we do this thing all the time. i suppose it depends on how much time you're trying to compress, but for a sunset, etc. we just shoot it in real time and compress it in post (Avid at 6000% for example). you can enhance the smoothness for longer exposure by tweaking the shutter speed and get some really nice effects. also you have complete flexibility over the speed that it will be in the end.

A camera person who does a lot of cloud fly-bys and the like said he shoots in real time and speeds it up in the editor.

as Chris said
 

the best option here to save time etc is use the DRDH100 with intervalvometer, though unless there's been a recent bios upgrade, it will only do it in SD.

This is not with the HD100, but a better option for time lapse is to use a Canon consumer still camera and the Granite Bay software into a laptop:
http://www.granitebaysoftware.com/

The resolution is much, much higher than the video cameras, you can go on for hours, and so forth.

(Note: I don't believe it's a good idea to use a DSLR for this type of shooting, because many have a shutter life cycle of only 100,000. Even if the life cycle is 300,000, that's time lapse puts a lot of wear on a very expensive camera. The consumer cameras can make excellent pictures when the target is video, and the shutter doesn't wear out.)

Anyway, I have used the Granite Bay software and a Canon (Powershot I think) camera with outstanding results.

Or if you don't mind a little techie side-tracking, there's a lot of free software 'hacks' for most of the canon 'powershot' cameras- which allow you to do timelapse and a lot more, with fairly inexpensive consumer models.
The best thing is you don't need a laptop- the 'hack' runs from the same SD card the camera records to, tweaked via the lcd screen.
Read about it here: CHDK Wiki
The cheapish models seem to be best suited.