Timelapse

[Mike Mezeul II]

Okay, I dont know if this should be in here or in "Everything Else" but mods, feel free to put it wherever. Anyways, my question being... I just bought a camcorder (Panasonic GS400) and was wondering how do you shoot timelapse's? I know just to set the camera on a tripod and let it go, but is there a certain speed recording I need to do? Or is all the "timelapsing" done with editing software?

 

[Dennis Gulley]

You may need to check with your camera's manual. I have a Cannon GL2
and it has an option called "interval recording" where you can set it to record for a short period of time at a given interval. example: every 30 seconds it will record for 1 second and it keeps doing this as long as the tape or battery lasts. It is good for recording things like flowers blooming or a thunderstorm developing. This method can appear somewhat jerky though.
The second method that you listed, using editing software is much smoother but you cannot record as long.

Dennis

 

[B Ozanne]

I did some experimenting this winter with time lapse stuff. The shortest interval our camera did was .5 seconds every 30 seconds. It wasn't fast enough for weather, it was way too jerky. We ended up speeding that video by 500%+ and the results were a lot better.

Real time lapse isn't made that way though. Ideally you need to shoot one frame of video at a certain interval. Old motion picture cameras are good for that. Other people use regular still cameras...digital of course and hookup it up to a laptop.

If your camcorder has interval recording I suggest experimenting with that. When you are editting play around with the speeds.

 

[David Drummond]

I have done plenty of them in Adobe Premier in edit and it's pretty darn easy that way. The key to getting a good one though is to NOT move the camera for an extended period of time. I.E. I 30 min shot might end up in the end as a 30 SECOND timelapse, depending on how fast you speed it up.

 

[fplowman]

Originally posted by David Drummond
I have done plenty of them in Adobe Premier in edit and it's pretty darn easy that way. The key to getting a good one though is to NOT move the camera for an extended period of time. I.E. I 30 min shot might end up in the end as a 30 SECOND timelapse, depending on how fast you speed it up.

i concur with Dave. .My higher end panasonic has the interval recording feature.. However you get a better result just recording and then speeding it up in post.. My 2c

Fred

 

[Colin P.McIntyre]

Im glad somone posted this question.I have a sony TRV350 camcorder
with interval recording.Im also using Adobe Pro7.If running it through
the editing program works i will have to try it.Always wanted to shoot
a storm from TCU to Cb stage Have two books on the program and a
entire week off work,will have to look into this.

 

[David Drummond]

Yeah there is a setting in there in Premier that lets you speed up or slow down individual clips. Just experiment with it until you find what works the way you like it.

 

[Mike Mezeul II]

Thanks for the advice everyone! Now just one more piece of advice if I may ask...any suggestions for a good video editing software?

 

[Brad Emel]

I've used Vegas 5.0 and Adobe Premier. For me, Premier is the only way to go. It's expensive, but I am very satisfied with the results.

 

[Kurt Silvey]

Adobe premier elements. can be had for around $100, and will do most everything you'll ever need.