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Time lapse photography with the OMD EM-5 (first attempt)

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Clyde Coman said:
Great I bought a JVC camcorder do do that and motion detection. I am sure the Olympus does a lot better job than my JVC GZ-HM440/ I wonder if Panasonic G2 does time lapes?
Click to expand...
My one does, with the aid of a PiXeL TC-252, an intervalometer, not very expensive, got mine via eBay, very useful. As an alternative Hahnel do one which is wireless, and includes remote off camera flash.

I use LR4 to process, using a set of free timelapse presets, for calculations there are some Timelapse Calculator apps available.

--
Cheers. Ken.
Panny G2, & Fuji W1.
http://www.pbase.com/kentel
 
You'll make me cry.

The best way to get started in timelapse is with a cheap "disposable" camera, preferably a CHDK supported Canon P&S. That way, you can concentrate on the technique without worrying about the equipment getting wet, stolen or wearing out.

There is quite a lot to learn about timelapse, and the best way to do this is by experimentation.

While the OM-D will produce superb results, this is irrelevant when learning how to do timelapse, and you are just wearing out a very expensive camera unnecessarily.

All of my timelapses have been done with a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS; I could use my E-P1, but with around 80,000 exposures on the Canon to date I'm pretty sure the E-P1 would be nearing the end of its life if not dead already..

https://vimeo.com/album/108671

With wide landscape shots, under expose for the clouds slightly. I find that about 5-6s between exposures works well for most weather, and gives me the right compromise between filling the card and running out of battery. Don't capture larger files than you need, unless you plan on cropping (or even panning) in the final result.

I use Avidemux to make the videos, it supports a decent range of filters and output formats.

I suppose I'm lucky with my location, as there is always something happening over the front fence.
 
In the UK we are very fortunate in that we get fantastic cloud formations .... = not surprising really ..since it rains almost every day
 
..several in fact.. but can a mirrorless camera REALLY wear out? Dunno ...not bothered ..... having great fun with this camera
 
Your videos are nice, but they are slightly irritating on the eyes due to the changing of exposure/flashing. A camera using manual control would look much nicer in that respect.
hindesite said:
You'll make me cry.

The best way to get started in timelapse is with a cheap "disposable" camera, preferably a CHDK supported Canon P&S. That way, you can concentrate on the technique without worrying about the equipment getting wet, stolen or wearing out.

There is quite a lot to learn about timelapse, and the best way to do this is by experimentation.

While the OM-D will produce superb results, this is irrelevant when learning how to do timelapse, and you are just wearing out a very expensive camera unnecessarily.

All of my timelapses have been done with a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS; I could use my E-P1, but with around 80,000 exposures on the Canon to date I'm pretty sure the E-P1 would be nearing the end of its life if not dead already..

https://vimeo.com/album/108671

With wide landscape shots, under expose for the clouds slightly. I find that about 5-6s between exposures works well for most weather, and gives me the right compromise between filling the card and running out of battery. Don't capture larger files than you need, unless you plan on cropping (or even panning) in the final result.

I use Avidemux to make the videos, it supports a decent range of filters and output formats.

I suppose I'm lucky with my location, as there is always something happening over the front fence.
Click to expand...
--
Rick Krejci
http://www.ricksastro.com
 
Nice effort. I do see a lot of banding in the sky. It seems to stop and start, needs to flow better, Great effort though.
--
Dave
 
Morpho Hunter said:
Never done this before with any camera - it's not perfect by any means - still trying to work things out with this tiny wonder (subject= sky view from my patio in Birmingham, UK):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lk3Jv-g590&feature=youtu.be
Click to expand...
Interesting ! Thanks for sharing.

We are in the same case. I have also made my first time lapse tentative this week-end. They look relatively good on my desktop, but I haven't yet found the best way to share them on the net without a dramatic loss of quality.

I took about 400 pictures, with an interval of 15 seconds between each shot. That lasted from 18h45 to 20h30. The camera was in manual mode with WB fixed to daylight. I set the camera on a tripod, with the antishock mode set to 15sec and I used a remote release set to sequential shooting. I chose a relatively small picture size. I didn't change the exposure value during the shots (in fact I discovered that I couldn't.

I imported the pictures in LR where I sharpened them and resized them for Window Live Movie Maker. Movie Maker can only produce wmv files, which are mainly HD files or 540x480pixels files. Then I used a free software called AVC in order to convert those files into .mov files or mp4 files... etc. I made different tests, but they were not so successful. I'm not sure what the best files could be. The Window wmv files are very big : almost 30 Meg for a little more than 20sec. of video ! So I'm still looking for better alternative.

The smaller version is at Flickr (be sure to click on the magnifier to get a better IQ, because on the white page, the video is upsampled and look dreadfully).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rrr_hhh/7827183492/

I have put the link to the full HD file on SkyDrive if you want to have a look but it is a 30 mega file, so be warned ..

http://sdrv.ms/OSEOZB

I made a first small test before that one, using the E-M5. But then I had second thoughts and took the E-P1 instead.. and wow.. I have found a future for the E-P1 : it will become my time lapse camera. If the shutter breaks, then it is already an old camera. But I don't want to wear out he shutter of the new E-M5.

@ Hindesite : your time lapse pictures are wonderfull ! I really enjoyed them.

--
rrr_hhh
 
Re Timelapse using LR4, just a short one here, an 82 year old gardener at work.

http://sdrv.ms/Oum1Rj

All images taken with my G2 on 055 tripod using PiXeL Intervalometer. Sorry can't remember the timing, but 326 exposures.
--
Cheers. Ken.
Panny G2, & Fuji W1.
http://www.pbase.com/kentel
 
Ken Yull said:
Re Timelapse using LR4, just a short one here, an 82 year old gardener at work.

http://sdrv.ms/Oum1Rj

All images taken with my G2 on 055 tripod using PiXeL Intervalometer. Sorry can't remember the timing, but 326 exposures.
Click to expand...
This is a great time lapse, I like it. The image quality is wonderful : do you remember at what size you shot the pictures ? And what image quality ? Because your final video looks really sharp !

A bug thank for your reference to the LR presets one can use for time lapse editing in LR I'll give it a try : it may should allow me to keep a better IQ.

--
rrr_hhh
 
hindesite said:
You'll make me cry.

The best way to get started in timelapse is with a cheap "disposable" camera, preferably a CHDK supported Canon P&S. That way, you can concentrate on the technique without worrying about the equipment getting wet, stolen or wearing out.

There is quite a lot to learn about timelapse, and the best way to do this is by experimentation.

While the OM-D will produce superb results, this is irrelevant when learning how to do timelapse, and you are just wearing out a very expensive camera unnecessarily.

All of my timelapses have been done with a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS; I could use my E-P1, but with around 80,000 exposures on the Canon to date I'm pretty sure the E-P1 would be nearing the end of its life if not dead already..

https://vimeo.com/album/108671

With wide landscape shots, under expose for the clouds slightly. I find that about 5-6s between exposures works well for most weather, and gives me the right compromise between filling the card and running out of battery. Don't capture larger files than you need, unless you plan on cropping (or even panning) in the final result.

I use Avidemux to make the videos, it supports a decent range of filters and output formats.

I suppose I'm lucky with my location, as there is always something happening over the front fence.
Click to expand...
very cool shots!
--
'I have no responsibilities here whatsoever'
 
Ken Yull said:
All taken with G2 using jpeg quality fine, size 4000 x 3000. All processing, resizing, and converting to mp4 done in LR4. Just put your whole series of images into a collection, process the first, then select all and sync the complete lot. There are many wonderful presets available for LR4, try
Click to expand...
Already done this afternoon before I saw your sat mail. I downloaded the preset this afternoon and everything went as intended :

The first video in the folder was made with Windows Live Movie Maker and the second one with LR4.1; it is really nice to be able to make everything in LR and the quality is really better, but then you can't add titles, although I may find a work around (like doing some in PS and duplicating them 24 times (so that they would show up for one second)

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=820deda377597547&id=820DEDA377597547%21394&Bsrc=Share&Bpub=SDX.SkyDrive#cid=820DEDA377597547&id=820DEDA377597547%21394

Reading the comment section in one of your link was helpful; the best explanations I have found were in that link; may be ths could help someone else :

http://www.stillframemylife.com/2011/09/tutorial-how-to-put-time-lapse-together.html

--
rrr_hhh
 
That is a good find, the only site I have used for tips so far is http://www.gavtrain.com/
But you need to go into his archives to find his timelapse lessons.

I'm tempted to buy a P&S type camera, with manual options, and external shutter release facility. The quality really does not need to be as high as our main cameras, and will take the
high number of shutter operations. Better than overloading ones best camera.

At present I think the Canon range of Gx may be the best choice. I believe some even have a remote release included.
--
Cheers. Ken.
Panny G2, & Fuji W1.
http://www.pbase.com/kentel
 
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