TIME LAPSE

[thesurflab]

Whats the best way to do a time lapse with a super 8 camera.

I have the nautica eumig.

Thanks

[Patrick]

The most efficient and practical way of doing time lapse in super 8 is to use a camera with a built in interval timer. As you know, the Eumig Nautica lacks this feature so you will have to do time lapse manually. Set the dial to the '1' setting and screw in a cable release in the provided socket below the lens. You will have to use a stop watch for accurate time intervals.

For certain types of subject matter, I recommend the following interval times -

pedestrians and traffic - 1 second intervals or briefer
clouds - intervals of anywhere between 4 and 15 seconds depending on the speed of the clouds
shadows - 1 minute intervals
opening of flowers - 1 minute intervals
sunset - 4 to 6 second intervals

[thesurflab]

Which super 8 camera's have the time lapse feature?

[drsanchez]

Which super 8 camera's have the time lapse feature?

http://www.google.com

[sunrise]

You could do with a tripod, a cable release and a stop watch. But I'd go with the intervalometer.

michael

[Scotness]

Which super 8 camera's have the time lapse feature?

I know the Chinon Pacific 12SMR does - I've put two manuals for it here

http://www.mango-a-gogo.com/show/show.htm

I haven't actually read them though but if you download them they might give some tips and info about it as well

Scot

[Andreas Wideroe]

Get yourself the Minolta XL-400 camera. Great little camera with lots of nice functions and it costs $20 on eBay if you're lucky. I have two of them and use them ALL the time for timelapse shots.

This one should also work:
Minolta XL-401

[Alex]

Get yourself the Minolta XL-400 camera. Great little camera with lots of nice functions and it costs $20 on eBay if you're lucky. I have two of them and use them ALL the time for timelapse shots.

This one should also work:
Minolta XL-401

Those are cool little cameras. The one caveat is they only use two batteries (or am I mistaken?) and when the batteries can no longer power the camera there tends not to be too much warning time before the camera batteries must be replaced.

[JGrube]

This one should also work:
Minolta XL-401

Spot on. This is probably the cheapest way to get into good Super 8 time lapse. A friend of mine in college had an XL-401. I didn't like using it for much else but it did consistently take GREAT time lapse shots. I've still got the film reels, now that I think about it.

Best,

Jason

[Patrick]

"Which super 8 camera's have the time lapse feature?"

Actually, the majority of super 8 cameras that I come across can do time lapse, including your Eumig Nautica as noted. In other words - manual time lapse. Though only a handful of camera models have built in interval timers to make life easier. The Canon 1014XLs, the Minolta XL-401 and various Nizo models are among the few that do. There are other cameras like the Canon 1014 Auto Zoom Electronic that accept an accessory interval timer but I don't recommend going this route because these accessories can be so hard to track down.

[Andreas Wideroe]

The one caveat is they only use two batteries (or am I mistaken?) and when the batteries can no longer power the camera there tends not to be too much warning time before the camera batteries must be replaced.

You're right. They use two normal 1.5v batteries, but they last for a very long time! I've never had a problem with them in my camera. You have a battery check button which tells you if the camera has power or not too. The camera has manual and auto exposure and will do intervals from 1-60sec I think.

[jpolzfuss]

Hi,

maybe it's worth to mention that there are some external interval timers (e.g. from Canon or Fuji) that can be used with any camera with a single-frame speed setting and a cable-release. I don't know whether those timers are still available in normal photo shops (since they can be used for still photography, too), but they do show up on eBay quite regularly...

Jörg

[Rollef]

And you can build your own from this Velleman kit if you have some electronic skills.

Velleman itervall timer:
http://www.action-electronics.com/grc/vlmk111.jpg


This is my version:

[etimh]

The Canon 1014XLs...are among the few that do.

The Canon 814XL-S (my primary camera), like the 1014XL-S has "set" intervals, 1 sec., 5 sec., 20 sec., 60 sec., as you know.

Do the Minoltas have some kind of "variable" timer that differs from the set times on the Canon? It appears in pictures of the various Minoltas that you can rotate a dial to set the interval from 1 to 60 seconds and anywhere in between.

If this is the case, is there any advantage to having this "variable" timer as opposed to the set times?

Tim

[Alex]

The one caveat is they only use two batteries (or am I mistaken?) and when the batteries can no longer power the camera there tends not to be too much warning time before the camera batteries must be replaced.

You're right. They use two normal 1.5v batteries, but they last for a very long time! I've never had a problem with them in my camera. You have a battery check button which tells you if the camera has power or not too. The camera has manual and auto exposure and will do intervals from 1-60sec I think.

I seem to recall that when I used the camera for time-lapse the frames would "burp" when the batteries got low. I assumed there just wasn't enough power to move a particular frame smoothly, then it would be fine for a while.

But as you say, there is a very useful battery meter on the camera, I had forgotten about that. And two batteries is a lot less then 6, so by the time you go through 6 batteries, one probably gets even more time-lapse then the batteries with six battery capacity.