Time lapse

[Quinten Densak]

Im looking at trying to shoot time Lapse in high def. What are the frame rates availiable? Do i need any external gear to do frame rates like 5 seconds per frame. What do i have to do in post. Are the frame rate settings easy to key in using a varicam?

 

Quinten Densak

 

Student

[Ed Scott]

Im looking at trying to shoot time Lapse in high def. What are the frame rates availiable? Do i need any external gear to do frame rates like 5 seconds per frame. What do i have to do in post. Are the frame rate settings easy to key in using a varicam?

 

Quinten Densak

 

Student

 

I've only shot a few time-lapse sequences with the camera, but the results were great. The Varicam has an Intervalometer as a feature in the menu "Function" (5:1)

 

You can shoot a minimum of 10 frames on up to 15 frames in bursts of 2-8 frames. You should refer to Goodman's Guide to get specifics.

 

Good luck

 

-Scott

[howard shack]

The Panasonic HDX-900 offers true single-frame time lapse. It records the image to a RAM cache and then dumps it to tape every few seconds of recorded material. You can also use the Digital Super Gain Mode to create blur in moving objects as the DS-Gain mode effectively uses a frame accumulation method to increase the CCD's sensitivity without increasing the gain. You have to shoot in 1080i mode to do this, you can not shoot in 720p and use the DS-Gain mode (not very obvious in the manual, btw.) Play around with it - I think it is quite a good tool for time lapse. Of course, if you can use a digital still camera to the same effect (and folks are definitely doing that these days) that would free up the video camera for other things. A good way to work.

[howard shack]

I'm just wrapping up a two week shoot in the Indian Himalaya where we did numerous time lapse shots using the Panasonic HDX-900. The results are beautiful. Just what you'd expect from true single-frame time lapse recording. We're shooting in 720/30p (the format and frame rate Geographic requests) and I couldn't be happier. 7,000 meter peaks with clouds billowing up and over the top... fantastic.