6-month Timelapse

My friend Jonathan Tippett is finally going forth and building a full scale version of Prosthesis: The Anti-Robot. Needless to say, this is an epic undertaking. During the next 6 months, they are going to be in the eatART lab non-stop. I have an old Canon 20D and a GoPro that I’d like to set up shooting a timelapse of this whole process. I’ve done long (a few days) timelapses with the 20D before and it works pretty well. There are softwares and protocols which allow you to control the camera and dump all the pictures directly to the computer, which is essential for something like this.

I’m wondering, are there are any other image nerds who have done epic long timelapses before and have any advice?

I thought about making a light switch, similar to the VHS is Open switch, which would turn the camera on and off so that its not running 24/7 for ~6 months. I’ve never done something like that before. Is anyone interested in helping out or taking that on?

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Amazing I am so glad they got funding !

I have done a three month project with a Nexus 5. The cool thing about the nexus 5 is that it can send the images from the device to my Google drive via wifi after each shot. Then I can create small versions of the whole timelapes thought out the process without touching the camera, This lets me make sure that there isn’t any problems during the shoot. The problem is that camera on the nexus 5 isn’t great. Your welcome to use my set up if you like.

I have also used webcams, on a RPi with “motion” application running as a security camera for my front door. Its been running for the last year. Taking horrible photos (my face looks horrible not the actual photos) of my face every time I open my front door. The awesome thing about the RPi set up is that you can remotely update the configuration if you notice any problems with it as its running.

I would also talk to @lukecyca he created a photo booth with a Cannon camera and a Raspberry PI. He might have some good advice for you.

@jon Might be a good person to talk to as well because of his job.

Good luck with this project !
I can’t wait to see the results… literately I can’t wait… and you should post some small version (7 days etc…) of the time lapse during the project so we can see what its going to be like. Amazing !

I, for one, welcome our new mech warrior overlords.

I have not done long timelapse, but I have experience triggering a Canon DSLR camera tethered to a raspberry pi using gphoto 2 Python bindings while also interacting with the raspi’s GPIO. For your application timing isn’t very critical, and the occasional misfire won’t hurt either. You should be able to get it running really easily.

To do what you’re describing I would just wire a regular light switch up to one of the GPIO pins, then have a python script triggering periodically. If the pin is low, it does nothing. If the pin is high, it takes a picture and saves it or sends it over the internet somewhere.

Motion detection might make the switch unnecessary and avoids people forgetting to turn the switch on/off. I don’t have experience with that but I wouldn’t expect it to be difficult.

You could also look at putting the MagicLantern firmware on your camera. You might be able to do it entirely in the camera and not need as raspberry pi at all.

It’s probably obvious, but you should try use a nice wide lens and think about lighting. Do some test shots. As the saying goes: “If you don’t do an experiment before starting your project, then your whole project will be an experiment.”

I’ve done short (2 day) time lapse’s of “ice off” on a lake using Linux and wget to an IP camera.
The script grabs the image and time/date stamps it when saving to disk.

I’ve also done a months long time lapse of a cabin being built. This was with a Windows PC and a camera on a video input card. I used ConquerCam software to grab an image every 4 minutes during daylight hours. I changed the schedule manually over the months. Using an IP camera with the Linux/wget script would be just as easy. Every minute would have been better.

Funvill suggested the software to glue the images together - which I can’t remember what it was. :slightly_smiling:

Steve

Virtualdub is a little bit clunky, but perfectly functional for stitching
images together.

I’ve also been meaning to try out Microsoft’s Hyperlapse, but that fills a
particular niche that is not long-term timelapses.

ffmpeg can also do it pretty easily: Create a video slideshow from images – FFmpeg

Things that have bit me using DSLRs for timelapses:

  • Set and confirm focus, then do as much as you possibly can to prevent focus from changing. Gaffer tape may be appropriate, those silicone wrist bands can also work well.
  • if using a zoom lens, make sure it’s fully in the direction that gravity will be pulling it! if not, tape, wrist band, hot glue, etc.
    • Better yet, don’t use a zoom for long timelapses
  • how much storage do you need? Generously over provision.
  • Camera software is surprisingly shit, test your camera handling the DCF rules for rolling over to a new folder correctly, or does it corrupt a card when it tries?
  • If using a data connection to a computer for control, does the library leak memory and need to be restarted regularly.
  • Can you find someone else who’s successfully run the camera for longer than you plan on?
  • If not, consider some way of automating “reset camera” as a regular thing
  • You’ve got an AC power adapter for the camera, right?
  • Does whatever you’re using to run the timelapse (external device, internal intervalometer, etc) handle coming back from loss of power?
  • test the lighting, and if using auto-metering, make sure it behaves as you’d like.
  • Does the sun shine directly into the lens during the day?
  • Does your location have enough temperature variation to cause condensation issues (less of a concern in vancouver).

No experience with using gopro’s for long timelapses.

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Wow! Thanks for all your input.

Ugly links plz.

I didn’t want to go the webcam route due to quality. I will have to look into motion sensors, instead of a switch.

Nice! Did you have the pictures dumping straight to the card then?

I love this saying. I’ve done a fair number of long-ish timelapses (12 hours - 3 days). Things like exposure ratings, and such aren’t a problem. I’ve never dealt with the software side is the new experimental part.

I’ve made this mistake. Will not make again :slightly_smiling:

Great list of things to think about. I haven’t had bad experiences with the Canon software, once I got it to run. Have you had issues with memory leak and the camera needing to restart?

Not to the camera’s card, no. I typically run the camera without a card installed at all. The software on the raspi triggers a capture and immediately downloads it, processes it with ImageMagik, then then either puts it in an Infobeamer slideshow or uploads to instagram.

For your application, you might want to just have the camera write them directly to a card though, since it might be faster and you don’t need to immediately do anything with the photos. Just make sure to copy them off and free up room periodically!

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I plan on having it dumping directly to a computer so that no one ever needs tot touch the camera and mess up the frame.