Hmmm... What interval should I use for my time lapse???

[Jim T]

I am currently working on building some furniture for my son and would like to give him a few clips of the the construction so he can see just how much damn hard work I have put into it but am not sure what interval setting to choose. I was looking towards condensing a hour or so into 30 seconds or a minute. I have had a look at the Steele Chart and it seems that to cover 48 mins in 30 secs of screen time (@24fps playback) I would need to shoot 15 frames per minute.

My question is whether that would render the building of the furniture as being too jumpy? I have tried to look for examples online but most time lapse sequences are either fast at rates such as 10fps or are time lapses showing rolling clouds etc... which don't really give me a good idea as to how constructing furniture at 15 frames per minute is going to look.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank you

[super8man]

It's supposed to look jumpy. In my experience, there is no real "wrong" timelapse speed. The end results are ALWAYS interesting and you basically learn from that. If you wanted it to last longer, then increase the film rate and the resulting number of carts to tell your story.

Generally, you have two constraints: how long the "thing" takes (a flower to bloom, etc) and how long of a time you want to show it in. Everything else is just math.

Cheers
Mike
PS - On my website, I show driving from Sacramento, CA to Monterey, CA in 2 minutes and 30 seconds (ish). Worked out well - total guess.

[Jim T]

Sorry, yeah my post sounded somewhat idiotic. I understand that it will be jumpy but I was referring more to the fact that exposures too far apart might not work so well as I don't sit in one place so I would end up flying all round the screen.

One thing I don't get is how to work out the shutter speeds for the different setting when shooting a time lapse sequence using the NIZO PRO camera? The manual says that for 6fps the SS is 1/8 and for 1fpm the SS is 1 minute. How do I work out the shutter speed settings in between or do I even need to, will the camera expose the images correctly when set to time lapse when in Auto? By Auto I don't mean Auto B as I can't use that setting in this case as the fps rate would be much too fast for a successful time lapse given that I don't work in darkness!

Thank you

[rlorenz2]

The Nizo Pro will work out the shutter speeds for you. All you have to do is set metering to auto and intervalometer for the frames per minute you want. And like Mike says it takes some practice/experimentation to get what your looking for.

[Jim T]

Thank you for your response though I have to admit that this super 8 business is slowly sending me to the loony bin as one question answered always seems to lead to another asked!

If I were to use a canon camera for time lapse, I have read that from the manual that the shutter speed is set at that of 18fps which would be 1/40 I believe. In this case I would know what I was working with (and would set the camera down and walk away in a hump as it wouldn't work in the low light scenarios I needed it for.)

The thing is that when using the Nizo for (non Auto B) time lapse I don't understand how I am supposed to know whether there is sufficient light. The room in which I will be shooting would not have enough light to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/40 but will be fine at 1/8 but the light meter in the viewfinder seems to give readings based on the selected shutter speeds related to the chosen frame rate of 18 fps or 24 fps and not that related to the intervalometer shutter speeds. I would have thought that, when in the intervalometer mode, the aperture needle would have moved as I selected different intervals (and therefore different shutter speeds) but clearly I was wrong and so am baffled as to how I judge whether there is enough light for an exposure when I am unsure of the shutter speed.

Maybe I am overcomplicating this or not understanding it but it is destroying my head! My brain is perhaps too old for super 8 film-making but I'll be damned if I am going to give up!

[rlorenz2]

When I have been shooting time lapse's I have trusted the meter reading even when in intervalometer mode. And each and every time the film was exposed correctly. If the meter is in the red indicating underexposure then you will need to switch to auto B or a faster film stock.

I think the camera sets a constant shutter speed when using the intervalometer no matter how many frames per minute you choose. ( not sure if someone has more info please correct me). On my camera the needle stays even when I move the intervalometer as you reported.

One pointer that I have learned is if the lighting in the room will remain constant. Take a auto meter reading then set the meter manually to that reading. This will help eliminate flickering.

Hope this helps.

[Jim T]

I trust that the meter will expose the footage well but am just baffled by what it says in the manual concerning time lapse shutter speeds e.g. surely if the shutter speed was was set at 1 minute when shooting at 1fpm then almost every image you'd shoot would be completely overexposed.

Added to which I can't hear the shutter staying open for longer as I decrease the number of frames per minute. I am sure some people are wondering what I am worrying about if the camera exposes well in inter mode but I would ideally like to know what the camera is doing as I feel like the camera is keeping secrets.