My Timelapse Project
 

Hello,

I recently did a timelapse of a sunset. I think it went fairly well, although there is one thing that concerns me. There seems to be some sort of movement or jitter as if the tripod is being slightly moved, although I know for a fact the tripod stayed stationary with no movement for the full hour. I'm shooting with a Sony HDR-HC1, 60i, working in premiere pro - native HDV. Maybe this wierd judder could be a camera setting or a setting in PP2.0? You can find a link to my timelapse below- I wanna know what you guys think and if there is anything I could do or set on the camera to improve my time-lapse skills. I plan to shoot a bunch when I get time. Heres the video: DivShare File - jm-sunset.wmv

Hi Julian,

The effect is really cool (can u tell i'm new) heh

can you elaborate on settings and technique?

My camera does not have built in time lapse recording capabilities (FX1) however i have read other posts that have used a digital camera with a megapixel rating greater than that for HDV and then cropping down - assembling the images in PP and rendering the timeline - this works pretty cool also.

The stutter is definitely visible, i dont know what it could be - i guess someone with more knowledge will reply soon and suggest what could be causing that jitter.

regards,

I don't know what to tell you. It looks like the camera was shaking to me. I'd check various frames throughout the entire raw footage, and use reference points to make sure that the cam isn't being jostled around. From my experience, timelapse requires and incredibly steady camera, any movement over time will be noticable. I haven't seen any software issues that would create this effect.

Even if you think the tripod is stationary - it may not be.
Looks like the camera is moving every so slightly...
wind perhaps?
Make sure you Optical Image stablizer is off - I don't know if that camera has one?
Make sure you are totally manual, this effect could also be caused by auto-focus???

I think maybe Mike has some reasoning behind the issue, I have examined the footage more closesly to find that it does move ever so slightly at times. It was quite windy on that day, maybe it was moving but not noticeable to the human eye. Nevertheless, I think the timelapse came out alright overall.

Looks maybe like wind to me. What kind of tripod are you using?

I'm guessing that SteadyShot was on and small wind movements triggered it to react. I'll bet that you can fix this with Deshaker or Steadyhand. The most important part is that the exposure for the sun was correct and stayed that way.

Wind.
 

Wind. That's my bet. The sensation of flicker is more b/c you're speeding it up so much. Sometimes shutter can matter (not with video), but it must have been windy...

If your steadishot was on, then I am with Marcus on this one.

Using steadishot with tripod shots has been discussed at various places on this forum.
I know for a fact (and I have the shots to prove it) that with my Sony Z1 and FX1 - if I have steadishot ON and the camera is on a tripod capturing a scene with little or no movement - then the steadishot tries to adjust itself thus causing a judder.
I saw this first time when I was filming the entrance to a Japanese shrine and the whole structure began to shake in the viewfinder....... I thought that an earthquake was beginning. I switshed off the steadishot - and the "earthquake" stopped.

I can imagine, in your case, that if you were using steadishot and a large slow moving cloud was passing the steadishot was trying to adjust to keep the cloud stationary.

Wow, I think that may possibly be a good reason as well. This camera is EIS, next time I tripod a slow moving time-lapse I'll be sure to take the shake function off.