New 5D2 Timelapse and 30p Video: "Timescapes Learning to Fly" at DVinfo.net

Thomas Lowe · April 9th, 2009, 11:59 AM

Just some new stuff I've shot on the 5D2 DSLR over the last couple months...

I LOVE this camera. The shots I'm doing at ISO 3200 are cleaner than my ISO 800 images on my old Rebel XT.

Most of these were done with the EF 24 f/1.4. The video was shot with a cheapy Sigma 28-300, which has the advantage of having an iris ring to control the f/stop. I got a nikon>eos adapter on ebay for like 40 bucks, and it seems to work fine.

Here is a video showing the little custom dolly I made to shoot the timelapse:

Matthew Roddy · April 9th, 2009, 12:02 PM

Absolutely awesome.
Love the footage, love the technique, love the location.
Good Show!

Ben Curtis · April 9th, 2009, 12:59 PM

That's some really beautiful work... could you explain a bit more about the technical details of the timelapse stuff, how you did it, etc?
Is there a way for the camera to automatically fire every x seconds for timelapse stuff, or did you have to press the shutter manually?
And how did you do the panning of the camera during the timelapse sequences?
(Edit: Sorry re: panning - I see you've already posted about your Timelapse Dolly Project on vimeo)

Congrats again, it's really nice stuff..

Julian Frost · April 9th, 2009, 01:32 PM

Tom,

Fantastic video, well done! Sorry, but I have a ton of questions!!

Someone on Vimeo asked you about the moving shots taken from your car and your answer was just that you shot at 1/2". Could you explain what you meant? I assume you moved your vehicle at a constant (slow) speed and shot once every 1/2 a second, right? If so, how did you estimate the right speed and distance for the shot?

Were you shooting RAW or JPG for your shots?

How did you handle the changing exposure (night to day and vice-versa)?

How did you color balance?

For the star-field shots, how often did you fire the shutter? And, as asked above, did you fire the shutter manually, or do you have an intervalometer?

I have the Canon TC-80N3 which allows me to set the number of shots desired and the time between them. I've not tried timelapse photography/video, but your video has inspired me! My weekend begins on Sunday... looks like it's going to be a long night! :-)

Julian

Greg Joyce · April 9th, 2009, 01:35 PM

Just awesome stuff, Thomas!

I downloaded the larger file for an even more majestic effect, if that's possible. Makes me want to take a vacation in the desert.

Great work.

Luis de la Cerda · April 9th, 2009, 02:19 PM

I love it :)

I'd try to stabilize the car shots a bit though. They seem a bit wobbly.

Thomas Lowe · April 9th, 2009, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Julian Frost

Tom,

Fantastic video, well done! Sorry, but I have a ton of questions!!

Someone on Vimeo asked you about the moving shots taken from your car and your answer was just that you shot at 1/2". Could you explain what you meant? I assume you moved your vehicle at a constant (slow) speed and shot once every 1/2 a second, right? If so, how did you estimate the right speed and distance for the shot?

i mounted the 5D2 onto my windshield with a simple suction mount, and drove like 1mph. it's really hard to do, though. my suv has huge off-road ties, which makes it bumpy. i think i did some mental math to figure out how to make it look like 30mph and 60mph. if you drive really slow, it just works out nicely.

Quote:

Were you shooting RAW or JPG for your shots?

sRAW 1for some of the driving, JPEG for other shots. full RAW might not be fast enough to the CF card, plus you are left with the post nightmare of trying to demosaic 21MP RAW in AE with thousands of frame -- total CPU destruction! haha.

Quote:

How did you handle the changing exposure (night to day and vice-versa)?

I always shoot locked down. for sunsets i start 2 stops over and end 2 stops under.

Quote:

How did you color balance?

most of this is RAW, so i use Camera RAW in AE.

Quote:

For the star-field shots, how often did you fire the shutter? And, as asked above, did you fire the shutter manually, or do you have an intervalometer?

i use an intervalometer. you can buy a TC80-N3 knockoff on ebay for like 40 bucks. for a typical star shot under the moon i might do 20s exposures with 4s intervals. maybe 400 - 800 frames on average. obviously at 24fps you need at least 240 frames to make a 10s video.

Quote:

I have the Canon TC-80N3 which allows me to set the number of shots desired and the time between them. I've not tried timelapse photography/video, but your video has inspired me! My weekend begins on Sunday... looks like it's going to be a long night! :-)

Julian

yeah the TC80 is all you need to get started! try shooting small jpegs on your first outing, because they are really easy to post in programs like premiere pro and fcp. shooting raw is much better, but save that for once you get the hang of things.

hope this helps.

Jon Fairhurst · April 9th, 2009, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Lowe

...for a typical star shot under the moon i might do 20s exposures with 4s intervals...

Is this right? The exposure duration can't be longer than the shooting interval.

Luis de la Cerda · April 9th, 2009, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Lowe

i mounted the 5D2 onto my windshield with a simple suction mount, and drove like 1mph. it's really hard to do, though. my suv has huge off-road ties, which makes it bumpy. i think i did some mental math to figure out how to make it look like 30mph and 60mph. if you drive really slow, it just works out nicely.

If you had a smaller car with manual transmission, you could just release the parking brake and push it manually. I've done this with a Toyota Yaris and suction cups to use the car as a dolly inside a warehouse.

Be careful though. Safety should always be your first priority. Don't try to push the car unless A) You're in a closed area with no other traffic B) The ground is perfectly level (or else you might end up in a runaway car situation or worse, being run over by your own car) C) You don't suffer from any back problems or other health issues.

Thomas Lowe · April 9th, 2009, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luis de la Cerda

If you had a smaller car with manual transmission, you could just release the parking brake and push it manually. I've done this with a Toyota Yaris and suction cups to use the car as a dolly inside a warehouse.

Be careful though. Safety should always be your first priority. Don't try to push the car unless A) You're in a closed area with no other traffic B) The ground is perfectly level (or else you might end up in a runaway car situation or worse, being run over by your own car) C) You don't suffer from any back problems or other health issues.

yes, i am planning to try this. i've also built a custom western dolly that i can push by hand very slowly.

Thomas Lowe · April 9th, 2009, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

Is this right? The exposure duration can't be longer than the shooting interval.

in other words, the camera exposes for 20s, then takes a 4s break, then exposes for 20s, etc. that way i can view a 2s "review" of the shot on the LCD, which is always nice to watch in progress.

Daniel Browning · April 9th, 2009, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Lowe

Just some new stuff I've shot on the 5D2 DSLR over the last couple months...

Welcome to dvinfo.net, Tom!

The Milky Way timelapses are fantastic.

Luis de la Cerda · April 9th, 2009, 04:04 PM

Tom:

Have you ever tried to get a hold of one of those crazy ND filters that schneider kreuznach manufactures for industrial applications? I've always wanted one. There is a 10 stop ND filter that would be a dream to shoot daylight timelapse. Stacking a couple should allow you to get rid of people for daylight timelapse in parks and urban environments.

Chris Barcellos · April 9th, 2009, 04:20 PM

Tom:

So not knowing much about still photography, I did my first photo testing with the same intervalmeter a few weeks back. Your work gives me new inspiration.

I had come to the conclusion it didn't makes sense to shoot any higher than the lowest Jpeg level, because my hd out put wasn't going to be any higher. Can you expound on your reasoning to choose a higher resolution like sraw 1 for your still series.

By the way, for those using Vegas, you can rapidly create a still sequence on your time line by isolating your consecutively numbered photos in a folder, and importing them into Vegas. What you do is select the first picture in the sequence, then check a box in the window asking Vegas to import as a sequence. You will endup with the sequence in your media files appearing as a single file that you can add to the time line from there. Crop and adjust as you see fit from there.

Luis de la Cerda · April 9th, 2009, 04:46 PM

Chris:

Off the top of my head, my main reasons to shoot bigger than delivery format would be:

A) To allow for better quality, those extra pixels mean a lot when doing color correction, masking and such.
B) Reframing, zooming, panning, etc...
C) Stabilizing footage without losing resolution.

My .02 :)

April 9th, 2009, 11:59 AM	#1
Thomas Lowe Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 33	New 5D2 Timelapse and 30p Video: "Timescapes Learning to Fly" Just some new stuff I've shot on the 5D2 DSLR over the last couple months... Timescapes Timelapse: Learning to Fly on Vimeo I LOVE this camera. The shots I'm doing at ISO 3200 are cleaner than my ISO 800 images on my old Rebel XT. Most of these were done with the EF 24 f/1.4. The video was shot with a cheapy Sigma 28-300, which has the advantage of having an iris ring to control the f/stop. I got a nikon>eos adapter on ebay for like 40 bucks, and it seems to work fine. Here is a video showing the little custom dolly I made to shoot the timelapse: Timescapes: Timelapse Dolly Project on Vimeo

April 9th, 2009, 04:20 PM	#14
Chris Barcellos Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Elk Grove CA Posts: 6,838	Tom: So not knowing much about still photography, I did my first photo testing with the same intervalmeter a few weeks back. Your work gives me new inspiration. I had come to the conclusion it didn't makes sense to shoot any higher than the lowest Jpeg level, because my hd out put wasn't going to be any higher. Can you expound on your reasoning to choose a higher resolution like sraw 1 for your still series. By the way, for those using Vegas, you can rapidly create a still sequence on your time line by isolating your consecutively numbered photos in a folder, and importing them into Vegas. What you do is select the first picture in the sequence, then check a box in the window asking Vegas to import as a sequence. You will endup with the sequence in your media files appearing as a single file that you can add to the time line from there. Crop and adjust as you see fit from there. __________________ Chris J. Barcellos

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

April 9th, 2009, 12:02 PM	#2
Matthew Roddy Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Riverside, Ca Posts: 307	Absolutely awesome. Love the footage, love the technique, love the location. Good Show!

April 9th, 2009, 12:59 PM	#3
Ben Curtis Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Cairo, Egypt Posts: 26	That's some really beautiful work... could you explain a bit more about the technical details of the timelapse stuff, how you did it, etc? Is there a way for the camera to automatically fire every x seconds for timelapse stuff, or did you have to press the shutter manually? And how did you do the panning of the camera during the timelapse sequences? (Edit: Sorry re: panning - I see you've already posted about your Timelapse Dolly Project on vimeo) Congrats again, it's really nice stuff..

April 9th, 2009, 01:32 PM	#4
Julian Frost Major Player Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: California USA Posts: 576	Tom, Fantastic video, well done! Sorry, but I have a ton of questions!! Someone on Vimeo asked you about the moving shots taken from your car and your answer was just that you shot at 1/2". Could you explain what you meant? I assume you moved your vehicle at a constant (slow) speed and shot once every 1/2 a second, right? If so, how did you estimate the right speed and distance for the shot? Were you shooting RAW or JPG for your shots? How did you handle the changing exposure (night to day and vice-versa)? How did you color balance? For the star-field shots, how often did you fire the shutter? And, as asked above, did you fire the shutter manually, or do you have an intervalometer? I have the Canon TC-80N3 which allows me to set the number of shots desired and the time between them. I've not tried timelapse photography/video, but your video has inspired me! My weekend begins on Sunday... looks like it's going to be a long night! :-) Julian

April 9th, 2009, 01:35 PM	#5
Greg Joyce Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 106	Just awesome stuff, Thomas! I downloaded the larger file for an even more majestic effect, if that's possible. Makes me want to take a vacation in the desert. Great work.

April 9th, 2009, 02:19 PM	#6
Luis de la Cerda Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Mexico City Posts: 181	I love it :) I'd try to stabilize the car shots a bit though. They seem a bit wobbly.

April 9th, 2009, 04:04 PM	#13
Luis de la Cerda Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Mexico City Posts: 181	Tom: Have you ever tried to get a hold of one of those crazy ND filters that schneider kreuznach manufactures for industrial applications? I've always wanted one. There is a 10 stop ND filter that would be a dream to shoot daylight timelapse. Stacking a couple should allow you to get rid of people for daylight timelapse in parks and urban environments.

April 9th, 2009, 04:46 PM	#15
Luis de la Cerda Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Mexico City Posts: 181	Chris: Off the top of my head, my main reasons to shoot bigger than delivery format would be: A) To allow for better quality, those extra pixels mean a lot when doing color correction, masking and such. B) Reframing, zooming, panning, etc... C) Stabilizing footage without losing resolution. My .02 :)