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Sunrise Time Lapse with a Pan and Tilt


James Brown

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Hi,

 

I want to do a time lapse of a Sunrise panning across a city and then tilting into the sky. Does anyone have some examples of work or gear that they have used in the past. Format will be REDONE, or if it can be achieved with a CANON 5D and intercut maybe the CANON.

 

I understand it can be achieved in a low fi way with a geared head (our shot will probably be over a 1.5 hour period) or a motion control unit (probably out of the budget). But is there setups you can hire for an O'Conner or does it have to be a modified head specifically for time lapse.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Regards, James.

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Hi,

 

I want to do a time lapse of a Sunrise panning across a city and then tilting into the sky. Does anyone have some examples of work or gear that they have used in the past. Format will be REDONE, or if it can be achieved with a CANON 5D and intercut maybe the CANON.

 

I understand it can be achieved in a low fi way with a geared head (our shot will probably be over a 1.5 hour period) or a motion control unit (probably out of the budget). But is there setups you can hire for an O'Conner or does it have to be a modified head specifically for time lapse.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Regards, James.

 

 

there's tons of examples in Koyaniquatsi (sp?) and Kronos if you havent seen those films.

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A cheap, homemade solution could be done with a couple of electric motors with worm gears meshed into another larger gear. The shaft of that larger gear runs a rubber belt that rides on the shaft for the gearhead's handles. A combination of an electric dimmer, the gear ratios, and the different gears on the head would determine your speed. I would attach the motors to a steel plate that sandwiches between the crown of the sticks and the head.

 

Building this isn't very hard but it will take some time to get right. You do have to know exactly the move you want so you can set the pan and tilt speeds and then be able to test it.

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If you've been diligently googling you will have found this out by now, but the favourite toy of timelapse people is an automatic-tracking telescope mount, which, by its very nature, does very long slow pan and tilt moves.

 

Google for more.

 

P

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automatic-tracking telescope mount, which, by its very nature, does very long slow pan and tilt moves.

 

I have and it looks like a great cheap alternative to the "film" products out there.

 

Thanks for all the responses.

 

Regards, James.

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We have a whole forum dedicated to timelapse now at timescapes.org.

 

The easiest solution would be a simple multi-axis telescope mount, like the "MiLapse" system.

 

The inventor of MiLapse, Jay, is an admin at Timescapes and can certainly help you:

 

http://timescapes.org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=24

Edited by Tom Lowe
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Hey Tom,

 

Thanks heaps - you rock.....

 

Cheers, James.

 

 

Cheapest way to do it; shoot on the 5D 2 and use the mega pixels in post to move the frame around. Frame wider than you want, so you can punch in and move around. ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I'm excited because I just got one of the Meade telescope tripods to use with our 40D. Can't wait to get some cool TL's going.

 

If anyone gets one, I found this online calculator tool which takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. Who ever made it should get a prize.

 

http://www.tmophoto.com/tlapse/meade_calculator.swf

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