Perseids?

[chupathingie]

Ya know, you’re up way too late when you come home from work and see Rigel well-risen and the Pleiades approaching zenith in August. Got some pretty skies tonight, but only an hour before pre-dawn twilight.

Peeps are lucky I love my job. 😉

[orionid]

Yikes. Although, pre-dawn twilight can give a beautiful backdrop when stacking frames with the “lighter color” method in photoshop.

King of Twilight by Orionid, on Flickr (Stacked image)

video made from stacked frames. You can see the shift in color as twilight kicks in.

[CauseISaidSo]

That’s pretty cool, Orionid. What did you use to create the HD video from the images?

Yet another thing that’s long been on my “things I wanna play with” list is to load my old Powershot G2 P&S with CHDK firmware, run an automatic “picture every x interval” script, mount it to my cycle and create a time-lapse video of some of my trips.

[chupathingie]

That’s how I broke the auto-focus on my Rebel… it kinda came apart after a few tens of thousands of frames.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFAuoA4JPo0
There’s one of the timelapses I did after applying ducktape to the secondary mirror.

[orionid]

That’s pretty cool, Orionid. What did you use to create the HD video from the images?

Yet another thing that’s long been on my “things I wanna play with” list is to load my old Powershot G2 P&S with CHDK firmware, run an automatic “picture every x interval” script, mount it to my cycle and create a time-lapse video of some of my trips.

Magix Video edit 11.

[orionid]

That’s how I broke the auto-focus on my Rebel… it kinda came apart after a few tens of thousands of frames.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFAuoA4JPo0
There’s one of the timelapses I did after applying ducktape to the secondary mirror.

That looks like a fun idea. Hmmm…..

[linguine]

That’s how I broke the auto-focus on my Rebel… it kinda came apart after a few tens of thousands of frames.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFAuoA4JPo0
There’s one of the timelapses I did after applying ducktape to the secondary mirror.

That was awesome.

[CauseISaidSo]

That’s how I broke the auto-focus on my Rebel…

An awful lotta passing going on there. Got a bit of a leadfoot, do we, chup? 😉 Don’t worry, you won’t get any condemnation from me. “Let he who’s without sin…” and all that.

Did you use CHDK? Is the exposure manually set by the first pic or measured for each pic? You say the autofocus broke – were you auto focusing each image? And finally, what software did you use to combine the pix into a movie? (Is that enough questions? :-))

That’s pretty much what I’m looking to do, except on a cycle and over a shorter period of time (3 hrs condensed into 5 minutes or so).

[chupathingie]

Thanks, linguine 🙂

Cause, I have a tough time keeping the speed low on the RX8… 😉 I’m in the habit of 7MPH over/engage cruise/change lanes as needed. I think I had the auto focus set for each shot, but even off it would have made no difference. I sheared the plastic pin off of the secondary mirror mechanism; so that when the primary mirror flips up the secondary doesn’t retract and hangs down in front of the shutter covering 80% of the image path :(. Full auto, BTW. I just locked the remote shutter release and let ‘er rip. You can see where I pull over a couple times to change the battery (had an inverter charging the spare). I’m not familiar with CHDK.

Software: Normally for this kind of stuff I run a command line for ffmpeg, but I was having issues at the time (HUA… was still learning my way around linux). I wound up feeding the directory into Blender as a sequential background texture and outputting to avi. Getting everything set up in blender took longer than I hoped… I’m much more familiar with 3DS MAX. It’s actually a very easy process with ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i IMG_%4d.JPG video.mp4

-i = input file follows

IMG_%4d.JPG = input filename. My camera shot as “IMG_0001.JPG”.
If your camera shoots, say, “pic00001.jpg”, it would
be “pic%5d.jpg”. These must be in order, none can be
missing or corrupt or ffmpeg will halt at the error. Also,
your first file should be 0001 unless you specify a
starting frame.

video.mp4 = output file and type.

There are a lot of options that can be specified, ie. framerates, scaling, bitrates, etc. This is just a scaled-down minimal command that works using defaults. There are also a lot of front-ends built for ffmpeg ported to whatever OS you’re using if you’d rather drive a mouse.

[CauseISaidSo]

Thanks for the info, chupathingie. When you say you locked the remote shutter release, you mean you were taking pix as fast as the camera would take them? If so, that had to be a ton of pix.

You’d probably find CHDK interesting and possibly useful, especially being a linux/opensource kinda guy. From the project description:

CHDK is a firmware enhancement that operates on a number of Canon Cameras. CHDK gets loaded into your camera’s memory upon bootup (either manually or automatically). It provides additional functionality beyond that currently provided by the native camera firmware.

In a nutshell, it extends your camera’s firmware to allow you to write scripts to automatically control your camera. For example, there are several intervalometer scripts that would be perfect for what we’re talking about.

It only works with Canon cameras (it stands for Canon Hack Development Kit) and only (several) selected models. You can find it here: http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK

[chupathingie]

Ahh, cool. Currently I have a remote shutter release that’s programmable for interval, duration, # of shots, etc… but that looks like a nifty addition to the PNS cam. The timelapse linked above was almost 15,000 frames. Keep in mind, that was with a 300D, so once the buffer filled up I had to wait for the image to transfer to the card before another image would take. This slowed it down to about 4-5 seconds between frames. I’m using a 5DmkII now, I’d likely fill an 8G card in under 1/2 hour with it; at full rez the raws are like 20 meg each and it doesn’t slow down nearly as much as the original Rebel when the buffer fills up.

One thing anyone attempting to do timelapse with a DSLR should consider is some way to lock the mirror in the up position (this is not the same as the “mirror lock-up” function on some models) for the duration of the shoot. It’s very easy to run off many thousands of frames and wear&tear on the mechanicals is an issue. You can’t avoid running the shutter, but if you slap that mirror assembly up and down 100,000 times something’s gonna break.

[CauseISaidSo]

I’m using a 5DmkII now

I’m sorry, I couldn’t see the rest of your post through my jealousy! 😆 Some day, some day.

I don’t think I’d put a DSLR (anything decent, anyway) through that kind of punishment. I’m not sure you really need one, unless you’re looking to use a particular lens, since even HD resolution is easily handled with a P&S.

[chupathingie]

Yeah, a PNS is better suited for that kind of thing. The “good” camera won’t get used for that unless I need the extra light sensitivity or longer exposures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t0WCwadKm4

I really want to re-do that with the 5D. I could easily crank the ISO up to 25600 and get clean HD after reduction. That kind of thing would benefit from abusing it a bit, though I think I will see about wedging the mirror up for it. 30 second exposures thru L-series glass aughtta look tack-sharp and bright.

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