Intervalometers

[Andy Wilkinson]

Finally found time to test the Shoot Remote Cord Intervalometer I mentioned earlier. This test is actually on a Canon 5DMkII - where it works equally well to my 7D. Very quick test just to check the operation and workflow before I do any (hopefully!) high quality filming, encodes and night time stuff!

Ely Cathedral - 2 Day Timelapse (Canon 5dMkII) 1st Test on Vimeo

[Andy Wilkinson]

Just some advanced notice that, assuming the skies are clear tomorrow morning in my part of England (by no means likely with all the fog, snow and ice we're getting!) then there will be some time lapse opportunities with the lunar eclipse (the moon turns pink).

More UK timing details here.

Lunar eclipse on its way - Telegraph

Get your Intervalometers ready (assuming you're free and not stuck at Heathrow!)

[Michael Middleton]

Originally Posted by Andy Wilkinson

Just some advanced notice that, assuming the skies are clear tomorrow morning in my part of England (by no means likely with all the fog, snow and ice we're getting!) then there will be some time lapse opportunities with the lunar eclipse (the moon turns pink).

More UK timing details here.

Lunar eclipse on its way - Telegraph

Get your Intervalometers ready (assuming you're free and not stuck at Heathrow!)

Any of you experts have suggestions on settings (camera and intervalometer) to best capture the eclipse for time lapse?

[Michael Middleton]

Originally Posted by Andy Wilkinson

Just some advanced notice that, assuming the skies are clear tomorrow morning in my part of England (by no means likely with all the fog, snow and ice we're getting!) then there will be some time lapse opportunities with the lunar eclipse (the moon turns pink).

More UK timing details here.

Lunar eclipse on its way - Telegraph

Get your Intervalometers ready (assuming you're free and not stuck at Heathrow!)

Any of you experts have suggestions on settings (camera and intervalometer) to best capture the eclipse for time lapse?

[Andy Wilkinson]

OK this is how it went for me. Bit of a disaster really!

Got up a 3.00AM and sorted best local position out by scouring Google Street View (needed low horizon/vast open skies, no telegraph wires, big trees or houses etc.). This was important to ensure I had the best chance of catching as much of the totality as possible before the moon dipped under the horizon (as southern England was not the ideal location for this eclipse).

5.00AM put on long johns and lots of layers of warm clothing!

Scraped all the ice off the car's windscreen etc. at 5.30AM (under perfect clear sky conditions, hence -5C, warm compared to what we've had recently!) and drove to the chosen location near Ely, UK.

When I got there, just after 6AM, all I then had was cloud (with a glimpse of the moon now and again). Thought very hard about my warm bed back home... but I pressed on regardless in near pitch black and freezing conditions and headed to the chosen field (I took a big torch - wise move!).

Set both my Sony EX3 and Canon 7D on tripods. Canon had 200mm lens plus 1.4X converter (= approx. 450mm equivalent lens with my crop body 7D) and an Intervalometer set at 1 picture per minute (wish I'd set it much more frequently now). Sony was set up at 1 frame per second. Started time lapse work about 6.20AM as the eclipse was about to begin and luckily the cloud started to melted away. (Melt is the wrong word in freezing conditions but you know what I mean). Thought I was going to get lucky....not so fast! Both cameras kept freezing over, especially the front of the lenses, obviously giving blurry, "frost filter effect" images. Not good! This is despite the fact I'd deliberately left them in our very cold conservatory all night to acclimatise them in preparation for the task at hand (Note: apart from the frosted lens effect they both worked perfectly even though both were ice white within an hour). I struggled with focus, exposure, constantly cleaning the lens fronts and very cold fingers but the cheap Intervalometer worked just fine all through this! Gave up on the idea of a time lapse and just hoped to get a few decent pics (in vain!)

By day break the moon was in the full shadow of the Earth but had, unfortunately, totally disappeared as by then and the sky had become hazy/misty (whilst the moon was still well above my carefully chosen low horizon!) .... so I went home to a tropically warm house!

Ah well, better luck next time! It was much more beautiful in real life than my simple snaps show and I wouldn't have missed it for the world (and I think I've got something salvageable from the EX3 as well - looking at it now).

Quick compilation of the least blurry crops from my hard won snaps attached!

EDIT: OK here's a very quick edit of the Sony EX3 Time lapse stuff on YouTube. See notes on YT page for more info!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry4vg29MOCY

Hope you enjoy it. I'm still thawing out!!!!