Tips for filming clouds

[simonsee]

Can you use a single frame camera for filming clouds, or is it best to get a camera with an interval timer?

I think single frame every second (depending on windspeed) using a stop watch and cable release switch will do????

Will a camera be able to cope with being switched on and off every second?

Any other cloud tips appreciated.

Simon.

[Cranium]

If you can get a circular polarizer, and you can film facing away from the sun, you can get some stunning definition in the clouds. Polarizers are great if you can spare the light.

Where are you located?

[studiocarter]

I did that using a Bolex H8 with a cable release. It pushed the button for me, but the camera eventually did jam from lack of lubercation on the slideing bars of the switch. I did get some stunning clouds rolling over downtown Pittsburgh from Mt. Washington. An orange or yellow filter was used over the black and white film. Red would have been even more dramatic.

[S8 Booster]

Hi.

I filmed moving skies for a quite long period at automatic setting 1 frame / 5 seconds. Great results, quite fast moving clouds on a bright sunny summer day.

RGDS

[Scott Jones]

I have done clouds with my minolta XL400 which has an intervalometer and i set it at one frame every 60 seconds, then leave the camera alone for a couple hours while doing other things and the results are way cool! the clouds go by so fast and look way cool. I think I would like to try it with more frames like 1 per 5 or 10 seconds just to see what the speed would be. but the intervalometer is for sure where it's at since you can set it and then leave. it's also cool for filming large crowds of pedestrian traffic.
~Scott

[vidwerk]

I've been shooting time-lapsed photography for a while now. I started out using a basic super 8 camera(my first) with a shutter-release cable. My thumb just about fell off after a couple of weeks. Now, I make it a point to buy all my super 8 cameras with an intervalometer. I think time-lapsed clouds make the most beautiful high speed shots, especially around sunset. I'm starting to shoot highway traffic in the evenings using an intervalometer and timed exposure for a tail light trail effect :idea: .

[Scott Jones]

Wow, what kind of cameras have timed exposure? that sounds like something I would like to do. Can anyone think of a cool idea that would require 2 cameras with intervalometers? just wondering because I have 2 identical minoltas and I want to figure out a project that involves both of them. anyway...
(have I mentioned that i dig the new forum?)

[vidwerk]

Prehaps if you have the cameras side by side, you could animate a panorama effect in post. Try setting up one camera on the left. Set up the otherto the right of the first so that the two cameras field of views(framing) make up a rectangle (instead of a square using one camera). This will creat a panorama. Set the intervalometers on both so that they are exposing frames at the same rate and time. After developing and transfering to video, you can place the two clips(one from each camera) side by side matching them perfectly in a program like Adobe After Effects, and have the entire image pan from left to right or vice versa.

[Cranium]

If they're Minolta XL-400s, you could wire the flash socket of one into the remote trigger of the other, so that one intervalometer fires both cameras (set the camera with the input to single frame, the one with the out to interval)
Line 'em up right, and you could do some sweet 3D.

[Scott Jones]

what kind of wire would I need to do that? that sounds way cool!!! is there a wire from radio shack or would i need a special one for super 8 cameras?

[Cranium]

One end needs the flash connector, the other end needs a sub-mini phone plug (2.5mm? Anyone?) It's the size of a standard tape recorder remote.

A flash cable can be bought at most photo shops. The plug probably at Rat Shack.

[Scott Jones]

So if I do get the 2 wires, would i just have to splice them together or would i be able to get an adaptor? I am really excited about this idea!
thanks for the help,
Scott

[eggbertsmith]

Hello,
based upon what I have heard....I simply MUST have this minolta. I cannot find the exact version you mentioned, but I did find a MINOLTA XL 400. Will this one do the same?

Merci.

[studiocarter]

There are two holes on the left side of the camera body; one takes a male mini? plug and the other has a dimple in the center and takes a different type of plug, femail?
Does anyone have the manual for this camera? The one for the 440 on this site does not show the same holes in the same places on p.8 so it is no good.

The interval motor is great running the 400 when on a pillow on the handles of a bike while rideing through the woods shooting at about 2 frames a second.

Michael

[studiocarter]

Those two holes are for single frame and remote. There is one on e-bay for sale (May 5, 02) Item # 1350692746 . It's not mine! I still want to play with that intervalometer.