CineSkates Camera Sliders - Roller Skates for Your GorillaPod

Here's the video to a very interesting project by Justin Jensen, a mechanical engineer from Austin, TX. Definitely the best idea I saw since a long time ago - roller skates for a GorillaPod. What I like most is the fact that you don't need to buy an extra slider and carry around tons of equipment with you. This product is super simple, small and as it works with 3 wheels instead of 4 you can roll over bent surfaces, too!


Definitely something you should support. So please visit this site for more information.

Cheers,
jonni

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

Super cheap and lightweight video / timelapse setup (Canon 550D, 10-inch flexible tripod, Bilora Professional 1153 fluid head, H&Y Fader ND, 3-way rubber lens hood)

A fried of mine sent me this link where you can buy a 10-inch flexible tripod for $11.90. Basically it is the same as the "Joby GorillaPod SLR-Zoom" (the biggest GorillaPod) which you can get here for $49.95. The only difference I know is that the joints of the cheaper one are a bit stiffer. I decided to get one because I don't want to carry my tripod with me all the time. Shipping to Germany took 2 weeks and I'm really satisfied with the quality of this product. It carries my 550D with the 50mm or the 18-55 kit lens, a metal stepping ring, the H&Y fader ND and a big 3-way rubber lens hood without a problem. And the best thing: It also works nice with my new "Bilora Professional 1153 fluid head" mounted to it. I got the head for 39.99€ ($52) from a local electronics store in Stuttgart. I tested a lot of fluid heads (cheap and expensive ones) and decided to get this one. It's really cheap, build quality is great and panning is comparable to some of the cheaper Manfrotto heads. So all in all it's a great small head for shooting stills and videos - and it comes with a nice quick release plate.

This is a really lightweight and small setup with all the basic accessories you need for shooting nice timelapses or videos with some smooth pans. But you'll definitely need some more stuff for handheld shots or if you need to record usable sound.

My rating:
10-inch flexible tripod: 5/5
Bilora Professional 1153 fluid head: 4.5/5
3-way rubber lens hood: 4.5/5

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

Tips for timelapse photography (updated)

How to shoot nice timelapse videos:

- Turn off the auto focus before you start shooting. This will avoid image "pumping" and also increase the battery life of your camera. I do focus with AF and then switch to MF - this helps me to find the right focus.

- Select a shutter speed that captures the movement in your shot. This will result in a fluid video. If your shutter speed is too fast, your video will look clipped. So choose longer shutter speeds. If your image is to bright go for higher f's or use a ND filter to reduce the light that gets into your lens.

- If your subject is moving fast (cars) select a short interval time. If it's moving slow (flowers) the interval can be longer.

- Check your camera settings before shooting the timelapse. Manual mode should be preferred. You don't need RAW and big sized images for a timelapse videos, so change it to JPG and choose a smaller size.

- Think of the ISO you want to set (keep it low to avoid noise), don't leave it on automatic. If you do so you will se ugly flickering in your video.

- Turn down the brightness of the screen and swith off the image review to increase the battery life.

- Last but not least, check your battery power and the space on your memory card before shooting the lapse. This will avoid a freak out that - in the worst case - can lead to a broken camera ;)


Continuous interval shooting is not the best treatment for your camera. Mirror and shutter are designed for a specific number of shots (some say 100.000 some say more - I don't know how long they last, but I don't want mine to get repaired). Mirror lock does not work for liveview mode (which I prefer because I think the mirror has to work less in liveview mode), but it can be very helpful when your exposure is around 1/15 and you don't want your shots to get shaky (remember that you have to turn off liveview and that only every second shot is recorded to your card).


I hope this helps. If you have other tips or if you know how to protect the mirror and shutter write a comment please.


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