Making Time Lapse videos smoother with Twixtor

Just wanted to share a little video that shows how time lapse videos can be edited to look smoother.



As you can see, the twixtored video does look much smoother than the original clip, even if it was slowed down to 70% of its original speed. In fact the video at 70% speed, which was slowed down without the twixtor plugin, does look really choppy which makes it unusable. If you want to make your time lapse videos look a little bit smoother think about slowing them down a little with the incredible Twixtor plugin which you can find here. I'm really impressed with the results and I think this technique could even improve some of the great time lapse videos out there.

If you have any questions on how this was done feel free to ask me.

By the way, this little clip was shot on my Canon 550D with the Sigma 17-50 2.8 lens and my cheap timer remote cord from China. The sky was graded with the incredible Magic Bullet plugin.

Cheers,
jonni

Magic Lantern firmware for the Canon T2i / 550D and 60D

If you're shooting video with your Canon 550D or 60D you should definitely check out the Magic Lantern firmware. It will give you much more possibilities to adjust the settings on your camera.

I installed it today and it really blew me away! It is great!

What i liked most:
- turning off the AGC
- on screen audio meters
- live view zebras !
- on screen cropmarks
- built in intervalometer for shooting timelapses !
- custom (native) ISO steps !!!
- custom shutter speeds !!!
- kelvin white balance !!!
- DOF "meters"
- higher bitrates !!!

These are all the features that I missed on this camera (but there are many more). So if you're interested in "tuning" your 550D or 60D check http://magiclantern.wikia.com - and please consider a donation if you like it.

Here's a nice video by Matt Dennie that demonstrates what the new firmware looks like:




My rating 5/5.

Cheers,
jonni

High Resolution Screens from the "Timelapse test 2" video

Here are 3 original screens from my second timelapse video. Click the photos to see the full resolution.

Looks really great on a full HD television but uploading to vimeo messes it up a little bit.

Cheers,
jonni

Timelapse test 2

This is my second timelapse video. It's made of 393 pictures that I shot on my Canon 550D with the aide of my cheap timer remote control. I think the quality of this video is much better than in my first one. That's because this time I set the ISO to 100 instead of leaving it in automatic mode. What I really don't like is that all the thin lines look interrupted. I think this has to do with the resize filter (nearest neighbor) that I used to convert the video to 1080p.



Here's some data from the video:
cam: Canon 550D
lens: Canon EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6
settings: manual mode, 36mm, MF, f/4.0, ISO 100, 1/2500s, picture size small
production: interval 10s, 393 pictures, 24fps, 1080p

-----

Another thing that I had to deal with this time was the flashing overheating icon on the display of my 550D. It occured after only 250 shots! So I do really recommend to place your camera in some shade or make shadow with some objects before you start the shooting. The low battery icon was also flashing on this shoot, but the camera still had enough power to finish the shooting.

Here are some pictures of my setup and the flashing icons on the display (shot with my 1st gen. iPhone).



As you can see nothing special. Kit lens, cheap timer remote cord from China and an old tripod I got for free ;)

I hope this was helpful.


Cheers,

jonni

Timelapse test 1

Here's the 1st timelapse video that I recorded with my new timer remote cord.

I did a lot of mistakes, but I'm still learning and I learned a lot from this short video. I forgot to set the ISO to a fixed value. Therefore there's a lot of flickering in the video (looks ugly because you can see that the video was created with single captured photos). This won't happen again the next time I shoot a timelapse video ;)

Here's some data from the video above:
cam: Canon 550D
lens: Canon EF 50 f/1.8
settings: MF, f/1.8, ISO auto, AV auto, picture size small
production: interval 4s, 356 pictures, converted to 1080p with VirtualDub, 24fps

If you don't know how to make a video out of a lot of stills, check this tutorial - it's really easy.

Cheers,
jonni

Shoot MC-36B timer remote cord for the Canon 550D

My timer remote cord for the 550D arrived yesterday - here's the unboxing video.



I ordered it for 24.30 Euros ($29.98) on ebay (shipping for free). The seller was "digital-winway" and shipping to Germany took less than two weeks. On the packaging the model is named "RS-60E3", in the instruction manual it's "MC-36B", which I think is correct (google search). Build quality is really good, the buttons seem to last a while and even the display is illuminated. Another great thing is that batteries are included, even if this is not mentioned in the article description. I would say this is definitely a good deal. By the way, the manual is in English.

This is not the cheapest remote cord for the 550D, but I decided to buy this one because it looks reliable and i has two batteries - which means it can work a while. It's also very important to mention that you can set the number of shots to infinity. This is what you need when shooting timelapses - and that's what I bought this thing for ;)

Some data:
timer delay: 0s up to ~100h
exposure time: 0s up to ~100h
interval: 1s up to ~100h
number of shots: 1 to 399 or -- (unlimited)
power: 2x AAA 1.5V alkine batteries
battery life: 2 months of continuous shooting



Here you go with my first and second test video and some tips for timelapse photography.


Cheers,
jonni