What type of cameras are best for low-maintenance time-lapse videos?

Question

There are a ton of videos on YouTube where people have high-speed time-lapse videos of themselves driving from like NYC to LA. I am not sure what they are using? Because the camera stays on overnight/when the vehicle is off? Also the quality of the images is really good. Do you know how to achieve this? What puzzles me is where do you find a memory card which can store 40-50 hours worth of video without any interru

Asked by antonpug

Answer

My suggestion is a little bit involved, but in my experience in this field of photography is the way to go.

You need:

1. A net book with a good battery life (get an SSD hard disk so the battery life is further improved) (mine lasts for 7 hours) you could get even more if you setup the power options and disable the screen
2. A HD web cam
3. A copy of http://www.nimisis.com/projects/flix.php
4. A DC to AC car charger (charge in the day when the car is running)
5. Plan the trip - if you want to get through the night and into the morning and sun rise - you need to drive into the night and then wake up before the power on the net book goes and drive through the sun rise
6. Some sort camouflage to hide the cam and net book when the car is unattended (don't over heat the net book)

I know that’s a lot of kit for a time lapse but its all reusable and solves several of your problems

• Space - not an issue with a hard drive really
• Battery life - a laptop battery life far out guns a camera

This is one of the best guides on the net for time lapses.

If your interested What settings should I use for a timelapse of my wedding? is a time lapse I did of my wedding which was well over 15 hours of coverage

Good luck!

Answered by Rob

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Softbox selection for my hobby room

Question

My hobby room is a fairly standard room size, say 3x3M. The lighting isn't that great which doesn't help when I take photo's or record videos of projects etc.

I have a softbox that I use for 'product' type shots, but most of my pics are taken on the workbench, ie, during construction. Ok, so that's the situation. I am looking at lighting solutions and have stumbled onto this product:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Photography-Photo-Studio-Softbox-Continuous-Video-Light-Lighting-Kit-VL-9026S3-/120804403445?pt=AU_Cameras_Photographic_Accessories&hash=item1c2080e8f5

This kit appears far more high power than other 'budget' kits (less than $300). I am sceptical about the light thrown though. My hobby bench is about 1.8x1.1M and I'd like to know (without going into to much detail) will these lights throw 'enough light' to scrub the shadows from my workarea for photos and videos? I am a little worried they will only be suitable for portrait type stuff.. Please rid my fears.

Bonus question - what max distance do you think these lights could adequately light a subject?

Asked by Graham

Answer

Reading the details of the eBay auction, you're right, it's not quite what they claim.

• 7650 watts / 15 bulbs = 510 watts/bulb.
• Each softbox takes five bulbs, and two softboxes are included (or three, depending upon what part of the description you read). That will therefore supposedly output 5100 watts, and give you five extra bulbs.

They are supplying 85 watt fluorescents, which are supposedly equal to 510 watt traditional bulbs. Based on a little searching, I'd say an 85 watt fluorescent bulb is probably more like 375 watts from a traditional bulb. The best way to judge light output would be to know lumens or a guide number, but they don't supply those. Also, note the size of those bulbs. They are not your standard compact fluorescent -- they're much bigger at about 4.5 in diameter and 9 in long. So, five of those means this is a big package.

For photo-only work, I would avoid getting a continuous lighting system because of price, size, and heat. But since you mention video, continuous lighting is necessary. Is it worth it? I think this all looks like low quality gear, and a cheap light stand would drive me nuts because it's likely to move too easily... but it may well be worth it, yes.

Answered by Dan Wolfgang

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What are the differences between dslr lenses and video/film lenses?

Question

I've heard several times that one of the reasons videographers are so interested in DSLR video is access to the wide range and low cost of dslr lenses.

It would seem to me that they would be very similar, other than some specialized features such as gearing for focus pulling on video or image stabilization on still photography, so what make the two lenses different? Why would professional video lenses cost more than professional photo lenses?

Asked by cadmium

Answer

This is a good question and one I've recently wondered about, I found this article to be very informative once you ignore his complaints about 'cheap plastic photography lenses with no focus rings and variable apertures'. Lets assume we're talking about professional lenses here (L lenses etc), his points were

• Cine lenses have more of a 'oiled' or damped focus/zoom feel which aids in not jarring the viewer with the fact that focus/zoom is changing. I agree, all my (many) L lenses are very snappy on focus and zoom which is helpful when quickly changing focus & zoom before shooting a photo but could be jarring if not compensated for when shooting video.

• Cine lenses have more variable aperture adjustment ON the lens which he points out that even if your camera can adjust aperture while recording it can only do it in 1/2 to 1/3 steps which can be jarring for the viewer.

• Cine lenses have gearing built in for follow focus (but you can add this w/varing degrees of succes with aftermarket modifications to photo lenses).

It looks like it comes down to photo lenses are optimized to help you quickly change settings before/between shots and cine lenses are optimized to prevent viewers from noticing changes you're making while recording.

Answered by Shizam

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What camera has the highest number of frames per second?

Question

This is not meant to have any opinions; simply number-to-number comparison.

Asked by Timothy Mueller-Harder

Answer

Vision Research Phantom cameras are very fast. The Flex can shoot 2,800 fps at full HD (1920x1080). At lower resolutions, the v711 can shoot at 1.4 million fps!

Answered by Dan Wolfgang

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Is there a firmware hack which enables AVCHD recording in video mode on Pentax K-5?

Question

The Pentax K-5 supports only recording video in the MPEG format. Does a firmware update or hack exist that would allow recording in AVCHD?

Are there software hacks for the Pentax DSLRs at all?

Related: Can a Pentax K-5 record more than 4 GB of video with an SDXC card?

Asked by Unapiedra

Answer

Short answer to the basic question: no, there's no hack to do this on the K-5 that I'm aware of (and I've been a Pentax shooter pre-digital).

As to the second, sort of, question: yes, there is some software hacking. The Pentax line does have a debug mode and people are accessing it, details can be found on the Pentax Hack site, though I don't think they've managed to kick the K-5 into this mode.

Answered by John Cavan

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Why do two cameras with different resolution but both with 2/3″ sensors, and same mount and lens, give a different view?

Question

In testing, I have a circle on a piece of paper. I need to mount a camera at a fixed distance so that the circle just captures the top and bottom of that circle.

Im testing this because I need to make a case for a camera that I do not have. But I do have 2 other cameras with the same 2/3in sensor size. So I figured I would test with them to take the measurements for the case.

When setting this up, one camera ends up being .5in closer than the other camera. I tested it with both a 12mm and a 16mm lens.

Both cameras are 2/3in sensors with a c-mount. I am literally using the same lenses for the measurements, just moving it to the other camera.

One camera is a 5mp sensor, the other is a 3.5Mp sensor. But I figured the sensor size being the same this wouldn't be an issue. Also the Flange focal distance of a c-mount lens is fixed too.

Any ideas on what could be causing this?

Extra Information

• The cameras are industrial video cameras made by allied vision. The prosillica GX 1920 and the manta 504
• I do not think this can be a viewfinder issue because I am reading the raw sensor output for the testing

Asked by Adam Meyer

Answer

The two sensors are slightly different sizes. It is possible that sensor position varies but that is likely to create focussing problems, a sensor plane shift of half an inch would probably lose you infinity focus.

But by far the most probable explanation is differing sensor sizes which give you a different field of view, which you have to compensate by moving one of the cameras.

Lots of camera specifications, such as sensor size, focal length, even the number of megapixels are rounded for convenience and are hence not accurate enough to base other measurements on.

Answered by Matt Grum

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Why does Canon 60D stop recording automatically?

Question

I have read a few posts related to video recording using a DSLR so I decided to try my 60D for the first time. I've had the camera for about a year and a half but never tried recording a video.

Anyway, after a few seconds the video recording stopped and a message was displayed on the LCD screen "Recording was stopped automatically" or something like that.

Does anyone know what the problem here is? Is this SD read-write spead related?

Asked by Jakub

Answer

I have the 60D myself, and haven't experienced this. My first guess would be the write speed of the SD-card. If the card isn't fast enough you can't record video. I can't remember the required speed, but it's in the user manual.

Answered by Håkon K. Olafsen

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Shooting with the Nikon D7000?

Question

Does anyone know how good the movie features in the D7000 is in real-life compared to a film camera to the same price? Is it very poor on autofocusing? Can one use it to shoot an action scene for instance?

Asked by 50ndr33

Answer

I am sure manual focus is used almost exclusively on a DLSR for video making. How good of a video can you make? I think a very good bordering professional which I did not know until yesterday when some kids in my town made THIS VIDEO using the D7000. This video should pretty much answer your question as it is of action scenes shot in low light (4AM in the morning).

BTW this is worth watching if you are interested what some Canadian teens do for fun in the winter; hockey in the day and street skiing in the night...

Answered by Jakub

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Bad video camera + little money = decent video quality

Question

I have a kodak easyshare z950 camera.Previously I only used it to take some pictures while travelling.Now I want to seriously work with video.Not that seriously as in TV studio, but still I want to produce high quality videos.

It shoots HD720p which is pretty good.Until I'm outside it looks well, but if I shoot inside the footage I produce is grainy with lots of background noise.

I think if I installed some proper illumination it would be fine.The problem is my budget is very limited smth around $50-$100.How do you get the most lightning with least amount of money ? I thought about just buying the most powerful light bulbs in the store and using some aluminum foil as a reflectors.Any better ideas ?

I also thought about waiting for spring and when it's at least 10Celsius I could shoot outside.Problem then would be the sound, because wind blows into the mic.Should I build some hard cardboard walls or smth ;D

Answer

The difference in brightness outdoors compared with indoors is much greater than you'd think due to the way your brain compresses the dynamic range. If you've ever been on a location shoot that's been properly lit for video you'd see the difference - it hurts your eyes!

I'm afraid the point here is that you're not going to recreate outdoor lighting for that price range. You are better off trying to rearrange your shooting to make the most of natural light.

If you really need to shoot indoors, getting some work lights and using hard, direct (undiffused) lighting will give you the biggest bang for buck. It's a distinctive look that can work well.

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Can a Pentax K-5 record more than 4 GB of video with an SDXC card?

Question

When using an SDHC card, the Pentax K-5 can only record up to 4 GB of video in a single clip. This is said to be because SDHC cards use the FAT32 file system, which has a 4 GB maximum file size. At the highest video size and quality settings, this permits only about 5 minutes of recording in a single clip.

There are suggestions in various forums that the use of an SDXC card (64 GB+) with the exFAT file system will allow recording larger files, up to the 25 minute hard cutoff imposed by the camera. However, those suggestions often seem to be based on logic ("it ought to work that way") rather than testing.

Does anyone know, through actual experience or reference to reliable sources, whether the K-5 can record more than 4 GB when an SDXC card is used?

Answer

No it cannot. It will only write a 4 GB file using the Motion-JPEG codec.

There are a number of cameras which use the AVCHD format and they can often record longer clips because the simply split the video stream into separate files. The K-5 is not one of them.

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Does canon EOS 1000D support video recording?

Question

I want to buy an entry level DSLR and EOS 1000D seems like a good buy but I have some doubts regarding it. Does it support video recording?

Do I need to install some software for the video recording to work? If yes, does that record the videos with sound? If no, how can I record video with sound on the Canon EOS 1000D?

Answer

It cannot officially record video, but there is an open source project to allow recording direct to a computer.

Source

Given that it doesn't support video natively then there won't be a built in microphone to record sound. If you went with the open source software you'd have to record the sound separately and sync it afterwards - which is not a straightforward process.

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D7000 HD video format - can each frame contain metadata?

Question

In fact the question is the other way round:

I shoot a HD video with my Nikon-D7000, and along the way things happen, such as I change zoom, focal length, light levels change such that the D7000 adjusts its sensitivity during the recording...

Is all this data available for reading somewhere, and if yes how?

I could not find the information on regular websites (Nikon's, www.imaging-resource.com, general google search).

I tried exiftool, but it seems to only show general metadata that is true for the overall video recording.

So is this data recorded somewhere, and can I read it on my Linux system?

Any answer or hint appreciated.

Answer

No. Standard video formats do not work like that and the D7000 is no exception to this. Conceivably it can be done but I am sure it is not on anyone's priority list. I worked for 9 years on video processing and rendering software and there are more important problems to solve. Indexing and managing that data would also become a problem. When working on functions that process video from a series of still images, it makes it vastly simpler to assume the metadata of the first frame applies to all subsequent ones.

Obviously I understand why it would be desirable but this is the same on all cameras. GPS is another perfect example. On cameras with built-in GPS, only the location of at the time video recording starts is recorded while you may be shooting from a moving vehicle and cover some ground while recording.

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Do video cameras use the same image sensors as still cameras?

Question

Do video cameras have the image sensors cameras have?

I really don't know what I'm talking about, so if the answer was explained, I would really appreciate it.

Answer

Yes. Digital video cameras use these sensors, usually CCDs but CMOS too. These are the same designs use for still cameras but with less pixels, since even HD footage only needs 2 MP. For HD cameras, the shape of the sensor is often different to match the 16:9 aspect of widescreen footage.

The major difference you will encounter are cameras labelled as 3 CCD. Again this is the same type of sensor but there are 3 of them, one for each of red, green and blue. Special prisms are used to divide incoming light and reflect it towards each sensor. One a conventional digital camera, colors are almost always divided between adjacent pixels using a Bayer filter. There are some Sigma cameras which use special Foveon sensors which capture different colors in layers instead.

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What are the advantages camcorders have over zoom digital cameras?

Question

It seems that the latest models of compact digital cameras come with many features which used to be only in camcorders: image stabilization, low-light shooting mode and of course high-definition to name a few. This article shows some candidates which IMO give pretty good competition to modern camcorders. I already have a decent SLR camera for taking still pictures, and now i am interested in buying a camera for shooting home videos. I thought of buying a digital camera instead of a camcorders - but only if I will not be missing out anything that only camcorders have to offer.

Answer

The video capabilities of even the best digital cameras are but a small fraction of these of video cameras. The gap is smaller now but only marginally so.

Where digital cameras compare very well is in terms of image quality, particularly when it comes to low light shooting. For almost everything else, video cameras trump digital cameras.

Camcorders have sophisticated and detailed control over audio recording. They can set levels and recording angle which almost no digital camera can do. You can plug an external audio source on some still cameras but that is about it.

The optical zoom of camcorders is specially designed for video. It moves silently and smoothly to give a natural look. Camcorder lenses are built with a continuous variable apertures so that the brightness of images can vary smoothly rather than in steps (only a handfull of SLD lenses can do that). The focus system works equally smoothly and quietly while most digital cameras record AF noise in the audio track.

Camcorders have tons of features which are meaningful to video. Fading, transitions and even video effects are the norm. They can also record for much longer both continuously and in sequence than still cameras. You can get up to a 128GB SDXC card for a still camera but it is costly while a camcorder can easily have a 200GB HDD built in.

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What shutter speed to use when shooting video?

Question

My camera is Canon 60D and I will be using it to shoot a short parkour video, that means:

• a lot of motion, moving subjects, moving camera
• focal length usually from 24 mm to 75 mm, but there will also be a scenes shot at 200 mm
• a lot will be shot in 1080 at 24 fps (or should I use 25 fps or 30 fps ?)
• some scenes will be shot in 720 at 60 fps

Accessories:

• I do have a steadicam
• I have got 1.8 lenses (24 f/1.8, 35 f/1.8, 50 f/1.8) so I can use low f-stops.

Questions:

• What shutter speed should I use? I have read that it should be double the FPS. Why so? What if I break this rule?
• When I use low shutter speeds (1/120) and I'm shooting during the day, I need f-stop at around f/12. Does this mean that my f/1.8 lens are useless in this case and I can use any bundle f/4 lenses instead?
• Any tips on improving whatever I wrote above?

Answer

The reason that many people will recommend to shoot at double your framerate is because then the 'shutter angle' is 180 degrees.

This is back from when film cameras were used. To cover the negatives whilst the next frame was 'wound on', a disc would spin, blocking the light as the negative moved. When the negative was in place, this disc would spin open again. Wikipedia has a good animation of this here.

The amount of covering the disc provides and the framerate give this 180 degrees that is as close as you get to a 'standard' in filmmaking. For further reading on this (or a better explanation!) I'd suggest looking over here.

As for a specific recommendation of shutter speed, it depends on the look you want. For example, some action films (using these as an example because they have lots of movement within the frame) will use a very fast shutter speed for sharp images, but being professional films they are still shooting at a framerate (or 23.976). Others will use the slowest they can get away with, and this will give them lots of motion blur within the shot. A good film that shows examples of both of these is The Bourne Identity.

TL;DR - It's a creative decision.

As for the problem with your F-stops, this is (unfortunately, because you have some real nice lenses) just something you're going to have to live with. Consider whether a slow shutter speed is absolutely necessary for these scenes. Using a faster one could allow you to use your f1.8. Also, depending on the camera you're shooting on, sometimes setting it to 'Auto ISO' can actually let the camera reduce the ISO below the minimum (100, normally) using some metadata hacks or something. (This may just be for stills, though!)

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CSI image resolution enhance: How real is it?

Question

So I watched the following 1 minute long Youtube clip from CSI New York. In the clip, using what seems to be the recording from a standard bank camera, they zoom in at least 100, and see the image of the culprit in the reflection of the eye of the girl.

Now, I thought this was completely ridiculous, so much so that I thought it was actually really funny.

However, my friend argued that there are very good tricks for image enhancement, such as "super resolution" a procedure where multiple frames of a video to produce a much higher single resolution image. He did think the show bends the truth quite a bit, but how much?

Honestly, I don't actually know anything about these things, so my question is:

How good is modern image resolution enhancement? Also, how far off are the CSI television programs?

Thank you,

Remark: This is cross posted on the Skeptics site. I was told I might receive better answers here.

Answer

Short answer: you can obtain some very good results, but only under certain conditions and absolutely not even close to what is shown in the linked video clip.

My company, Amped Software, develops image and video processing software for forensic and intelligence applications, so basically we are the real world counterpart of the CSI software.

With reference to the general problem of quality enhancement, I can tell you that for our market it is a huge problem to live up to the expectations created by TV series and Hollywood movies. You can see on our samples page that sometimes the results we are able to get are really amazing, but it is important to understand that we can obtain them only under some conditions: if there is information that is covered by disturbs, but it is there, we are able to recover it. If there is no information, we can't and we must not recreate it. In this particular application is essential not only getting the results from a visual point of view, but also following a scientific workflow that must be accepted by the court.

Last year I presented a research describing issues and results on almost 200 cases I've worked on and the final result was the following:

• in more than 50% of the cases there is nothing to do (for example recovering a license plate that is 5x2 pixels is completely impossible with any software on the world);
• in about 30% of the cases we can get some little result (for example restoring some letter of a license plate or improve the overall appearance of a face);
• in 10% of the cases you get good results (you get most of the license plate, for example).

Please note that all these cases had severe quality issues. If their quality was good, we weren't asked to work on them.

For what regards specifically resolution enhancement:

• when you zoom on an image you are interpolating missing pixels: from a single image you can improve visually the appearance of the image but you will not add any real detail;
• super resolution techniques may yield good results under certain conditions: you should have enough frames, shifted by a non integer amount of pixels and preferably with few compression artifacts. In the best case you can expect good results within 2x and 3x zoom.

What is shown in the video clip can be possible only if the original video has been shoot at several megapixels and then you will have the resolution to zoom very close (more or less like you do on Google Maps). Of course, at that point there still would be other problems, like the right focus, low light condition, the fact that the perspective of the eye is different from that of the whole subject in the video, just to mention a few.

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Is it normal for a Nikon lens to make noise when zooming in or out?

Question

I read a lot of reviews when buying Nikon D5100 but no where did I hear this. Check this video on youtube. When you zoom in/out you can clearly hear the lens itself. This is highly undesirable. Is it normal with any DSLR or with Nikons only? Is this a genuine flaw? Canon Guys, do you hear this zoom as well?

Answer

Noises on the camera, such as the zooming of a lens or even an IS/VR motor, are often picked up by on-camera microphones. That's the disadvantage of an on-camera microphone and isn't specific to this camera or the Nikon brand.

The solution is to use a better mic that's either mounted off-camera or is a shotgun-style mic on the hotshoe where it won't pick up camera noise.

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What are the pros and cons of a video camera versus a DSLR that can take video?

Question

I have made a few short films and plan to get more serious about it, but professional digital video cameras are generally expensive and the recent line of beginner DSLRs which can take HD video like Canon 550D gets cheaper. I wonder what pros and cons of video DSLRs over traditional video cameras are and if I should buy a new DSLR for film-making if I have already had a DSLR (Nikon D50).

Answer

I tried to list the pros and cons in a vacuum (ie ignoring external factors). For example, handycams have much better mics than than dSLR's, however you have the option of using either a dedicated recording system, or a solid quality mic. So the mic is still a con, but it's easily mitigated.

Pros

• Access to awesome lens lineup
• Amazing low-light performance
• Use existing equipment, instead of separate video hardware
• Lighter travel
• Great performance for low cost compared to dedicated video cameras.
• AWESOME photo image quality
• Lens based image stabilization
• build format (this can be a con as well)
• Familiarity with camera body
• In the right hands, with the right accessories, produces professional results.
• Depth of Field
• Huge image sensor

Cons

• Dedicated video cameras are designed for video
• Auto focus
• Video Format Support
• Video File Size
• Only flash media
• Sensor overuse causing heating issues
• built-in audio sucks
• very few bells and whistles for video. Since camera bodies are first and foremost for photography, most features are geared towards still photos (bracketing, AEB, etc). Features that you expect from a dedicated video camera (stereo mic, video outputs galore, jog-scrolling, enhanced playback features, dub over, etc) may not be present
• "Jello/Jelly" Motion Effect caused by the CMOS Sensor when panned quickly. Not all dSLR bodies exhibit this.
• build format (this can be a pro as well)

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Does anybody get a strobing effect when filming video with the D90?

Question

I often shoot indoors for interviews with my D90, but I often get a sort of strobing with it. Check out the attached picture, to help you see it on a picture, I added red marking, so simply look on the curtain on the right of that.

My best explanation so far was the type of lighting in the room, which is common in most offices, similar that was is in the picture:

Does anybody know what is going on? Similar experience? Solution? Explanation?

Thanks for any input.

Answer

You seem to be on the right tracks, fluorescent tubes are notorious for flickering and CMOS sensor is read row-by-row in video mode.

Try shooting under window light and/or use your own lighting, e.g. a LED video light. Try shooting so there's not much office visible in background, you won't be able to light it all.

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Suggestions for photographers / videographers to best work together at the same event?

Question

I want to get a wedding photographer's perspective on videography. It seems like there can exist a natural tension between the two, as they are both under pressure from the bride to shoot the same once-in-a-lifetime experience and the presence of another person vying for the same camera angles can complicate matters. Specifically, how do you as a wedding photographer interact with and share the same space with a videographer?

Also, what advice do you have for photographers and videographers to make the best of working together and maybe even cooperating to helping each other out?

Answer

I work as a professional photographer AND as a professional videographer. I have worked with other photographers and other videographers on a shoot. There is more than enough space at a wedding for everyone to get the good angles if you have a shooting plan and discuss it before the event. Decide who will be where at which moment and stick to the plan.

What photographers don't get is that for video you need to maintain good framing and smooth movements the whole time you are recording. It is therefore much more difficult to move around. When I shoot photography it is the simplest thing in the world to move and shoot. I can crouch under the video camera or shoot around it without having to worry about my movement affecting the shot. We can EASILY stand next to each other in the aisle to get the ring shots etc.

ultimately, the client doesn't care about the technical difficulties. She has hired 2 people to do a job for her. No vendor is more important than another. We are all equally responsible for providing the best possible product to the person that hired us. This means you need to have the inter-personal skills to negotiate the shooting plan so EVERYBODY wins and the client gets what they paid for. You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar... and do you really think a bride is going to enjoy working with a pompous ass who thinks he is running the show? Do you think the bridesmaids will hire that guy for their wedding? Do you think the other vendors will recommend them to future clients?

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