Time lapse camera

Just posted this over at cactiguide but figured I might aswell post it here too, might be someone interested.

I've tried this in the past using my DSLR but never got good results, mainly from varying exposure's or flash intensity, so I figured it was time to look into a different way of doing it. Plus it's really not good for the camera itself as the body only is good for X amount of shutter releases before wearing out.
Remembering that my parents old video camera, this is back in the early 90's, could do timelapse so there's got to be something out there nowadays that does it even better. A few google searches later and a camera by a company called Brinno stood out, plus finding out that Lazz used a camera by the same manufacturer shooting is timelapses and I was sold. Didn't help that the main Australian retailer for Brinno had their top of the line timelapse camera on special right now, $50 off retail price is to good to pass up on! Talked the wife into calling it my chrissy present for the year and headed out to buy it today.

Brinno TLC200



Tiny little thing, just 10.6cm's tall and 6.4cm's wide and shoots HD quality video....well 1280x720 atleast. Run's off 4AA's and records on SD card, plus no hassles or extra programs needed to turn the photos into a video as it's all done internally in the camera. Just pop the SD card out, plug it into a card reader and your good to go.

Didn't really have anything interesting to do a timelapse off but I couldn't help myself and had to try it out, first attempt I quickly cancelled as I figured out the settings used wouldn't be any good (5 minutes between exposures at 10FPS) so I changed it to every 30 seconds. Just over 2 hours generated 30 seconds worth of video

Very first test using it, make sure to watch it in 720P quality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FELn7rnIsE&hd=1

Only downsides I can find with it sofar would be the minimum focus distance of ~75cm and that it isn't weather proof, just can't get in close and shoot macro but you never know what they will come out with in the future as there's already an addon wideangle lens and you can buy a weatherproof casing for it.
Likely be playing some more with it over the coming day's and come next spring might rig up a mount over the bench and do some longterm recording. A new set of batteries should last 4 months if it takes one image every 4 hours according the manual, at 10FPS that would make for 18 seconds of video a month. Could make for an interest view of spring growth and flowers

I actually made some videos of cacti growing, and showed them as part of my presentation to the New South Wales Cacti & Succulent Society's October meeting.
I'll see about uploading it to Youtube.
And yeah, I did it with my SLR

Ok, I think I was able to upload this OK.
https://youtu.be/CYiU5Zq2aXo
What do you think?

Looks good to me mate! Wish I could get that close with this camera, just got to hope they bring out a zoom lens further down the track I guess.
Plan on picking out a handful of plants with flowers and setting them up for another go at it tomorrow morning to catch them opening, likely be a mix of Copiapoa, Parodia and Mammillaria's.

I am looking at the sites that have your camera. It might be possible to set up a lens in front of it and change the focal depth. The only problem that I have with my method is that I am taking 2 photos a day manually, 9AM and 9PM. No problems with the lighting or such as the camera was set up in the cacti cube for a month.

i reckon you could set up a web cam to do the same thing. a lot cheaper and does not tie up your good camera for such a long time. was thinking of trying it out on my e. obesa that i am hoping will flower again. would be nice to get the eruption of the buds from the areoles. and since it is inside it is a much easier environment to control.

I thought about that, but they usually don't have the definition and sharpness that I like in my micro-photographs.



You can see individual cells in these two photos if you look closely. You will never see those from a web cam.

yeh, you would never get the macros like a dslr, and the depth of field control either on a webcam. could be good for general stuff tho... can get some reasonable quality tho, that could be used at video standard resolution (eg 720p) 1080 is a bit pricey in webcams atm.


what sort of dslr are you using for these shots?

Amazingly enough, these photos aren't even using a true macro. I used 2 different lenses for the two photos, but the camera itself is a Canon Rebel XS.

Another upside on using a DSLR for timelapse would be that you can set exposure properly! Ran the camera a few hours this morning to capture some flowers opening, looked reasonable on the little 1.4 inch screen on the back when I started but the end result was overblown like crazy! The orange flowering Parodia looked ok but the M. duweii I also had in the frame ended up as a white blob.

That's unfortunate. Did you upload the test video?

Nah, didn't bother as ontop of the exposure problems I also did a poor selection of plants. Out of the half dozen plants I picked only 3 "played ball" and opened it's flowers, the Copiapoa's bud turned out to already have flowered out and 2 Rebutia's never opened at all...likely will tomorrow when I'm at work I'd say.

Here's one I did upload though, shot this afternoon. Just like yesterday not all plants played ball and opened their flowers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBdi7bXlhEs&hd=1

Got to figure out a good background to keep things from getting overblown.

That's a pretty good clip. How much closer can you get to the cacti?

That's about as close as I can get and still keep thing reasonably within focus I'm afraid.
Thinking this thing might be better suited for larger flowers or longer shoots to view growth.

Had the camera up again on Friday, this time not to record flowers but work progress on the new raised cacti bed that I'm building. Recorded 3 hours of me shifting 1.5tonnes of sandy loam from the front of the house into the new bed.
https://youtu.be/QKM4rzOF_oE

Naturally I was dumb enough to forget that even on an overcast day the sun down here is still to strong for a pasty white ex-swede. My back could of doubled for a stop sign yesterday
Still got to mix in about a dozen or so bags of scoria and likely some regular soil aswell before I start planting in cacti.

That's really cool Snowfella, wish that my gardening work was that quick!
I also got a good laugh out of the Seven News clip you posted.....more speed to them(S.A)!.