IISAC Timelapse - Third Night Lucky

[Phil Hart]

Originally Posted by Octane

Phil, you're absolutely right -- the equipment is designed and supposed to be used. I just feel sorry for the shutter, that's all. : P

I do recommend sleeping while timelapse is running rather than standing by the camera listening to the shutter ticking away

But don't sleep near the camera.. one time I was sleeping on a beach with a timelapse running and eventually I had to get up and stop it cause the shutter noise on a quiet night was keeping me (and others) awake - worse than a dripping tap ;-)!

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by philiphart

I do recommend sleeping while timelapse is running rather than standing by the camera listening to the shutter ticking away

But don't sleep near the camera.. one time I was sleeping on a beach with a timelapse running and eventually I had to get up and stop it cause the shutter noise on a quiet night was keeping me (and others) awake - worse than a dripping tap ;-)!

IF YOU SLEEP YOU MISS OUT ON THE NIGHT with my 10m Fisheye lens i was able to get away with 60 second exposures with 2 second gap to upload on the 30D. i normally operate the TL while i am imaging other stuff - keeps me busy checking on things and keep me alert all night you get to see some great meteors that way. I will probably have to try to do a scenic timelapse soon so i can be a copycat , somehow i feel as though with the 30D i wont get anywhere near the quality of yours shot with the 5D.

I did miss out on your talk, how did you transition from daylight to night shots?

[Phil Hart]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

I did miss out on your talk, how did you transition from daylight to night shots?

I haven't actually done this very often cause it's hard to get a pleasing result. All I do is shoot auto through twilight.. exposure will jump a bit and more so if there's clouds as well, but that's the way life is. I overexpose a little and then switch to manual once it's reached the right exposure level near the end of twilight.

Interestingly, the compact cameras (G11 etc) can do much finer exposure control so when you set them to auto you get much smoother transitions. But they're not really up to much serious night time stuff.

[h0ughy (David)]

so do you shoot auto in daylight with a specified time gap (30sec? or 60? or shorter). When you were talking about continuous before is that with a time gap of 1-2 sec or nothing at all? would a camera less than the 5D do that or is that limited to the speed of the CF memory card?

[iceman (Mike)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

so do you shoot auto in daylight with a specified time gap (30sec? or 60? or shorter). When you were talking about continuous before is that with a time gap of 1-2 sec or nothing at all? would a camera less than the 5D do that or is that limited to the speed of the CF memory card?

For my daytime, I set it to do Auto Exposure (TV) at a fixed focal ratio (f/2.8), with a 5-second gap between images.
At night-time, like Phil, I just had the shutter locked in (on the timer remote) with the Manual setting of 25s exposure @ f/2.8 ISO1600.

The images were taken in small jpeg, which is still larger than full HD and meant I could fit at least 2000 on my 8gig CF card.

My 40D could easily save the images fast enough, so yours would too.

[Phil Hart]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

so do you shoot auto in daylight with a specified time gap (30sec? or 60? or shorter). When you were talking about continuous before is that with a time gap of 1-2 sec or nothing at all? would a camera less than the 5D do that or is that limited to the speed of the CF memory card?

sorry.. forgot that bit. yes.. shooting with a gap during the day (eg 3-8 seconds) so you really need a programmable timer release for that bit (not so at night when any manual bulb cable will do).

i've shot in continuous shooting mode on the 20D fine too for night sequences. haven't measured the gap between exposures in that mode but it's pretty short (<1s).

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Excellent Phil, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Cheers Petra d.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Although stargazers hate clouds, the forming and moving is lovely to watch, I liked Orion rising through the gaps. Lots of detail, the red lights buzzing around in the background... Delightful to watch

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Very beautiful Phil, I love these time lapse movies!!
I promise myself to give it a try when I will have a chance to be under a dark sky

Clear Skies
Marco