Canon Vixia hf r800 random light "lines" pulsating durring time lapse

[Red Squirrel]

I like to do time lapse of random stuff once in a while and instead of putting so much stress on my DSLR's shutter/mirror I like to use the camcorder now that I have one. That, and it does the work for me of generating the video file afterwards. The DSLR also has a limit of 999 pictures which is quite limiting if I want to do a long time lapse.

Problem is at random I will get these weird lines/pulsating thing going on. you can see it in this video:

Is there anything I can do to prevent that? I'm using a LED flood light for the light source. What's odd is that the pulsating is random, like if you watch the whole video you'll see that it comes and goes.

What would cause this and how do I stop it?

 

[AntonioHG]

Definitely LED pulsing. You can probably play with the shutter speed and frame rate to avoid flickering.

Maybe someone else can explain and answer your question more fully.

 

[Red Squirrel]

But why is it random? If it was the LED light it would do it all the time no? Unfortunately this is just a cheap camera so it does not let me play with things like frame rate. Well there's a couple frame rates to choose from but that's about it. There's not even a manual focus or exposure, which is kinda annoying.

 

[sdifox]

White LEDs are in the 500-600 THz range, of course it is going to be random spike on your 60Hz camcorder.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Not aware of any SMPS that can go that high, don't most run in the khz range? Though if they are decent they should be smoothing it out with capacitors so there should be no flicker, not sure if this light is like that or not. Either way what does the frequency have to do with randomness? I suppose the oscillator could drift with temperature since there is no need to keep it accurate. But like if you watch my video it comes and goes over time which is odd. But I wonder if that would correspond with the furnace cycling on and off..

So how do I go about avoiding this random flickering? It's not even full flickering, it's like creating lines, it's odd.

 

[sdifox]

Not aware of any SMPS that can go that high, don't most run in the khz range? Though if they are decent they should be smoothing it out with capacitors so there should be no flicker, not sure if this light is like that or not. Either way what does the frequency have to do with randomness? I suppose the oscillator could drift with temperature since there is no need to keep it accurate. But like if you watch my video it comes and goes over time which is odd. But I wonder if that would correspond with the furnace cycling on and off..

So how do I go about avoiding this random flickering? It's not even full flickering, it's like creating lines, it's odd.

Even at 100khz it will not synch with your 60hz camcorder.

This is what I am going by

Frequency Of LED Lights

LEDs produce light from infrared to ultraviolet, covering all visible colors. The corresponds to frequencies from 400 to 600 terahertz.

sciencing.com

 

[Red Squirrel]

Still does not explain why it's random though. If you watch the video, it will just do it at certain parts. If you have two things at two different frequencies affecting each other, it will still be happening at a specific pattern.

There is no way the actual light frequency would be affecting it either, that's a totally different thing happening at a time scale that is not even relevant compared to a camera.

I'm not the first person to make a time lapse of something using LED lamps and not everyone has this problem. So my question is, what can I do differently to avoid the issue I posted about? Is there a setting I need to look at, or what?

 

[sdifox]

Still does not explain why it's random though. If you watch the video, it will just do it at certain parts. If you have two things at two different frequencies affecting each other, it will still be happening at a specific pattern.

There is no way the actual light frequency would be affecting it either, that's a totally different thing happening at a time scale that is not even relevant compared to a camera.

I'm not the first person to make a time lapse of something using LED lamps and not everyone has this problem. So my question is, what can I do differently to avoid the issue I posted about? Is there a setting I need to look at, or what?

No, it can only be rithmic if the frequencies are divisible. Get a proper camera light or use a diffuser.