Any good dedicated time lapse cameras?

[Red Squirrel]

I like to take time lapse of various stuff, like if I'm working on a project, but in some cases it's kind of cubbersome to setup the DSLR or I'm working in an environment where I don't want to expose it to it. That, and I have to always go adjust the shutter speed if it starts to get dark. It could just set it to auto but every slight light change is going to affect it. I also hate the idea that I'm putting tons of wear and tear on the shutter. Oh, and for if I want to do a time lapse of me working 8+ hours the 999 picture limit is also an issue. I ran into that when building my shed.

So that brings me to the idea that perhaps a small time lapse camera I can just plop anywhere that does light level averaging, and virtually unlimited pictures and can take a bit of abuse (Ex: if it starts to rain) would be a good idea. Any such thing?

How good are gopros for time lapse? Thinking maybe the Gopro session. Any other good options? My budget is around $300 but willing to consider more expensive options. Another nice thing about getting a dedicated time lapse camera is that it would not tie up my DSLR, so if I want to take separate picture or video I can do that too.

Kind of toying with making more Youtube videos of my projects, see where that goes. Oh as far as resolution, 4k would be nice, but probably asking for a lot at my budget, so HD will do.

 

[sonitravel09]

Sony has a time lapse app for its A6000 A7 series cameras. Its not bad.

For a long time lapse you will need an external power pack or a grip with extra batteries.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I was thinking more something self contained though, the issue with apps is they tend to always require to be tied to the cloud and crap. Though I guess one option might be to just get another DSLR that has a better time lapse feature (ex: no limit to how many pics it can take) so I could just look at different models and look at the user manuals or something to get an idea. Though that's more money than I want to spend. The Gopro Session seems attractive for this sort of thing, not sure how good it is though, but given it's price range I may get it just to experiment. And yeah for very long time lapses I'd probably want an external battery pack. For the gopro think a standard power bank works as it just takes 5 volts.

 

[CuriousMike]

If weather really will be a factor, something like a GoPro might make the most sense.

If you're still considering a DSLR, I'd definitely be looking at Craigslist. I bet you could find something like a D5000/5100/3200 with the kit 18-55 for ~$250. I think most Nikons have a limit to ~9999 images. The battery life would be better than a mirrorless, but some mirrorless might let you have them actively charging over USB.

 

[bigi]

Many current bodies have time lapse as simple menu function setup. Even old D800 has it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Issue is the limits. I want to be able to set it for like a day without having to worry about having to go and reset it. Mine has a limit of 999. I guess I could try to find one without the limit though that's not really something that is advertised as a feature.

I may end up just going with the gopro, though I kinda do want to look at a full frame mirrorless DSLR at some point, so I could take the time lapse capabilities into consideration too. One thing that would be cool is a way to programaticly use the camera via SSH or something, so I can set exposure and other settings for each shot. Could have a photocell that measures the average lighting over a period of like 5 minutes. Would be great for day to night time lapses. Do any cameras exist that let you do this kind of thing? Not really ready to spend big bucks yet though.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Toying with pulling the trigger on the Gopro Hero 5 Session. Looking at reviews the battery life is quite poor, but from sounds of it I should be able to connect an external battery right? It uses micro USB so a power bank would work?

But now I would lose the water proofing so this got me thinking... How good are web cams now days? Like could I get DSLR quality photos/video with a good web cam? What I could do is setup a rig with a Raspberry Pi that then uses the web cam to create the time lapse by fetching frames from it. The whole setup could be powered by a 5 volt power bank. Heck I could even put a mini solar panel for outdoor time lapses. Building such a rig would not cost any more than a gopro and possibly be more versatile.

I also want to setup some kind of permanent time lapse rig somewhere like it would be cool to get a 1 year time lapse of somewhere outside to watch the seasons change. So I could probably use the same setup. My main focus now is a portable rig though as I'm kinda getting into vlogging and most of the time I just show a time lapse of what I'm working on, with video footage in between. Having a dedicated time lapse camera that's going the entire time (ex: for 12+ hours) would liberate my main DSLR for taking other pictures and videos while I work. The time lapse would then be broken in post processing.

So yeah I'm kinda toying with either gopro + battery bank, or some kind of RPI setup with a web cam. The web cam idea feels intriguing as I could more or less design a web front end to control it from my phone and the newer RPIs have wifi. Think it could work? Just not sure what the quality of a web cam is now days compared to a dedicated camera like a gopro. Do some web cams actually allow you to control exposure of pictures and other parameters like a DSLR?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Hmm I was kinda liking the USB web cam option but sounds like it's a pain in the ass to interface to a Webcam in Linux. Testing with an old Intel webcam and no luck. I found a program called fswebcam that would in theory do what I want but I get an error about not finding a palette format and aparantly that's a known issue. Then have to try to download a bunch of libraries and crap and not getting anywhere.

So yeah, think I'm just going to go ahead and get the Gopro, and just use a power bank to power it.

Though, getting a second DSLR is kinda intriguing too, maybe a mirrorless (no shutter or mirror to wear out). The issue is the limitations of how many captures you can do though. Is there any DSLRs that won't have a limit and simply run until the SD card is full or battery dies? Mine stops at 999 and I've been burned by that many times.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Welp, just pulled the trigger on a Gopro Hero 5 session. I was intrigued by it's small size and overall versatility because of all the accessories you can get.

Though I also discovered the concept of thethering a DSLR, from my research. I have not tried it but it seems like you ca plug a DSLR to a computer (Ex: Raspberry Pi) via USB and then control it. This would allow to do infinite time lapse as you can simply do it via tethering and not be at the mercy of the limitations of the time lapse feature built into the camera. Could also have a photocell that measures the average lighting so it can adjust shutter speed over time, instead of for each individual picture. This would make clouds and other temporary darkness less harsh and less "flashy" while still allowing to do a sun set/sun rise time lapse for example.

I'm kinda intrigued at the idea of setting up a DSLR high up on a pole pointed north doing continuous 24/7 time lapse and doing some kind of stream. Could capture all sorts of things like northern lights at night. Would want a mirrorless camera with electronic shutter for such project though and to build a proper weather proof and heated enclosure. A project for later.

For general use time lapses I think the gopro should work ok. Apparently you only get like an hour of battery out of a gopro though, but you can connect an external battery bank so that's what I'll do. You do lose the weather proofing aspect by having to open the connection compartment though. But if I truly decide I want to do a time lapse in bad weather I would need to build an enclosure for the battery bank anyway.

I can't wait for this Gopro to come in now. Some time in July.