Time Lapse for A7RII - Details on How To

[SteffaneGrace]

So I have perused this forum and gathered most of the information I need to create a time lapse with my Sony A7RII, there are just some additional details I need to iron out.

 

For 3 days, I will be doing a time lapse 8 hours each day. I am photographing a tiny house being built from scratch so I'm thinking shots every 5 or 10 seconds. I also don't need the photos to be extremely hi-res.

 

Questions:

• What Intervalometer have you had the most success with?
• What program do you use to create a time lapse? This will be quite a massive set of photos (approx 2880 photos per day @ 10s per shot)
• What size memory card would cover an entire day?
• Any additional A7RII settings that are important to change for the lapse to be a success?

Thank you so much for your help everyone!

[jayteepix]

There is a Time Lapse app you can download to you camera.

I would have thought 30-60 mins would suffice not much building can be done in 10 secs IMO

[cws]

Hi SteffaneGrace, I agree that 5 or 10 sec intervals are probably too fast, you'll catch so much data in that time, but then it depends also on what sort of motion you want to capture, eg, whether its fast and jerky, with the building itself being the main focus of attention, or the work being done is of equal importance so perhaps a smoother flow of motion of the build team.

What res & format are you going to shoot?  That will then calculate out to what size card you need, also consider additional power usage and using a power pack.
Simple would be to shoot jpgs at a smaller size... but at the loss of some detail.
Best quality & editing options obviously full-frame RAW... but then you may run into issues with data management.
 

Here's a little timelapse of a build I did at work with GoPro's at 1 frame every 30 seconds a few years back, just for some comparative sense of movement/build speed:

 

You can easily create a video clip with Qucktime Pro, otherwise any editing program should be able to import your stills.
I like the quick/easy way... create the moving QT first, can edit it more later.

[SteffaneGrace]

Hi SteffaneGrace, I agree that 5 or 10 sec intervals are probably too fast, you'll catch so much data in that time, but then it depends also on what sort of motion you want to capture, eg, whether its fast and jerky, with the building itself being the main focus of attention, or the work being done is of equal importance so perhaps a smoother flow of motion of the build team.

What res & format are you going to shoot?  That will then calculate out to what size card you need, also consider additional power usage and using a power pack.

Simple would be to shoot jpgs at a smaller size... but at the loss of some detail.

Best quality & editing options obviously full-frame RAW... but then you may run into issues with data management.

 

Here's a little timelapse of a build I did at work with GoPro's at 1 frame every 30 seconds a few years back, just for some comparative sense of movement/build speed:

 

You can easily create a video clip with Qucktime Pro, otherwise any editing program should be able to import your stills.

I like the quick/easy way... create the moving QT first, can edit it more later.

 

 

Thank you so much for both of your replies! I apologize for the delay on my response. I will definitely switch to 30s instead of 5-10. The main focus is on watching the house being built from start to finish, not so much on what the people are doing. Also for power--I was going to get an AC Adapter but will look into power packs as well. What is a good power pack you can suggest?

[Chemman]

Thank you so much for both of your replies! I apologize for the delay on my response. I will definitely switch to 30s instead of 5-10. The main focus is on watching the house being built from start to finish, not so much on what the people are doing. Also for power--I was going to get an AC Adapter but will look into power packs as well. What is a good power pack you can suggest?

 

 

There are a couple things to consider.  The resolution you will be playing back, and related would be the resolution of the subject you would like to achieve, ie. what is your interesting stuff and how many pixels do you need to see it well.    The number of frames per second you would like to play the video back and related would be how long you want the video from the entire time lapse to last, ie. how long can you keep your audience entertained for.  As for power, an AC adapter backed by a power pack would be the most reliable in the off case you lose AC power.  

 

my 2¢

[cws]

If you have constant AC power available, then I'd stick with that, eg https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/712856-REG/Sony_ACPW20_AC_Adapter_for_NEX3_5.html

Also assume you have some sort of weatherproof housing/position for your camera?

 

and... most importantly... TEST this out well before you are ready to start... make sure the timelapse settings you go for (speed, resolution etc) actually give you what you want to see at the end.
nothing worse than missing the moment due to a poor selection.

Just recently had my own home rebuilt... and I couldn't face what it would take to timelapse doucment it all, plus go through the rebuild....   good luck to you!      

 

 

edit:  external power packs... have a read here:  http://timfordphoto.com/using-external-battery-packs-on-sony-a7-and-other-cameras/

 

[Chemman]

So to continue, 

 

8 hours a day and 3 days is 24 hours or 1440 minutes and it would be 86,400 seconds.  If you shot at 30 frames per second you would have 2,592,000 pictures.  

 

So the question is how long can you keep your audience entertained for?  

 

1 minute = 1800 pictures @ 30 per second

5 minutes = 9000 pictures

 

So 1 picture every 10 seconds would be 8,640 pictures played at 30 per second would be 288 seconds or just under 5 minutes.  

  1 picture every 20 seconds about 2 minutes 30 second video, and 1 picture every 5 seconds would be 10 minutes of video.  

 

Download the time lapse application for your A7 and set it up and let it run plugged into AC with a full battery.  I would do some dry runs first.  Figure out the particulars you forgot.