Thx a lot Rob!

What I find awesome is that each time I post a video, you manage to be the first to comment!

You're so fast ! :)

Thx again!

you have to be quick when you moderate a channel such as this: vimeo.com/channels/timelapseinhd

...only the best will do ;-)

nice channel indeed! and cool to see all timelapse stuff at once!
how does it work to be in ? can we submit ?

thanks and yeah, you can submit in one of two ways:

1 - post a link to your video in the channel shout box, or

2 - tag your video with time lapse (I check every one out daily)

oh, and most importantly, make it interesting or unique ;-)

Should I understand this showreel isn't interesting and/or unique enough ? Or are you just waiting for me to shout louder ? ;)

lol - It's interesting and just for your cheek I will feature this video for one more day only!

once again, nice one Dave ;-)

Not sure to understand everything you say, my friend...
I feel you're kinda playing with me, but as english is not my first language, I may miss subtleties...
Anyway, thx a lot, once again :)

:)

second music is an old piece of Frank Zappa

and thx for your comment :)

Zappa - I should have known... EXCELLENT Reel

Prolly because some people already know and some people just don't care, hehe...;)

Cams are mainly Canon 350D & 400D, and pans/zooms are done in post.

And thanx for asking! :)

Thx Edvard!

If you liked waterfall shots, you will enjoy the whole program : vimeo.com/1519617
About the ski resort night shot, it was one of the most painful to do : temperature was -20°C and miles away from the hotel I was in, but it's definitely worth it :)
The waterfall pan was also done in post, and was only shot with a 10Mpix 400D camera. However, to get such a long pan, trick was to set cam vertically to pan the width instead of panning the height.

Thx a lot Jay!

Thx Karlo!

In fact, pans & zooms you saw in this program are all made in post. Camera was always perfectly still (at least the more we could).
As DSLR captured image is far better resolution than HD, you can then zoom in or out, or pan inside the bigger picture while cropping to HD size. Something you're probably perfectly able to do in a software you're comfortable with...

Yeah, I've just bought a 5D MII, and now I need a lot of money to buy all the damn lenses I need :/

I didn't yet have a chance to timelapse with it at nite, but based on stills I did in very low light, I guess awesomeness is just in front of us :)

Dave, what software are YOU comfortable with - and what hardware are you running it on?

Hey Dave! I'm running macs only, as I started out 25 years ago with a Apple IIc, and then followed all the mac line until now. I've never touched a peecee, not because of a reject attitude, but simply because I've never had the need to use a peecee. It's very common to people that macs are good machines, but still more expensive. That's right. And that's cool also, because it they are such stable and effective machines, it is just because Apple use that extra cash to develop things that really do the job, and not half the way as so many do in peecee world...
So I recommend everyone to consider getting a mac, if not yet done. Your life will be changed, believe me...

About softwares I use, it really depends on my own experience thru years, and doesn't reflect a choice that should be considered as better than another one. Still, I feel I have found the perfect tool to process timelapse, and it's called Shake. This app is used in Hollywood to composite 3D renders over real shots, and has been used on King-Kong, Lord of the Rings, and so on...
This is not something everyone should go into, but still it has a good learning curve, and very detailled manual & tutorials. Also it will only run on mac or linux, as it is entirely based upon unix.
I'm also running DPP from Canon to convert raw to rgb, and will avoid Adobe camera raw, that has many more features than DPP, but gives you poor results when banding is prone to appear, as well as unwanted solarizations.
Editing is done naturally with FCP, and encodings with Compressor, which is part of FCP Studio 2.

So short answer is : mac, DPP, Shake, FCP. That's it! :)

TY, Davo! Your comment about Adobe banding was particularly instructive.

Hey Brad, as you stated out, some drawbacks have to be dealt with when shooting with 5DMII.
First you can't get manual control over either shutter time, ISO and aperture. All you can do is locking auto settings before start shooting. So by choosing light amount in your frame before locking auto settings, you can adjust in some way exposure settings. Being locked or not, you always have the ability to correct exposure by +/-2F, but only ISO (and shutter speed if needed) will vary, not aperture. There's also a trick where you lock aperture, unscrew lens, and rescrew it, but not completely to avoid camera to take control over it.
I think the best for manual exposition would be to find lens with continuous and manual aperture control, with a good old aperture ring...

Focus is also quite hot to manage. Back screen is really good, but still very small to set focus precisely, and there's no peaking feature as on video cams. Follow focus seems mandatory, as well as HDMI monitoring on bigger screen...

Handling is also quite a problem, when you simply take the camera in your hands. It is absolutely not made for shooting and watching back screen at same time, so redrock rig or equivalent seems also mandatory...

In general, I'd say yes you can shoot with a 5DMII, but you have to rig it like a red or 35mm cam...

Post is pretty straight forward. If you have a 30fps workflow (what we don't, here in Europe), nothing special is to be mentionned. A bit noise may appear at high ISO, but not more that any HD regular video cam. Motion blur is quite heavy because of progressive scan, so you'll probably have to limit mvt speed, as in 35mm...
Source file is H264 QT file, with embedded audio (mono built-in mike is ok, but you hear lens stabilizer working) that you can directly play into FCP if you have a killer machine (octo mac for ex), otherwise a compressor conversion to ProResHQ is recommended, being a real production format, and way more easy to be played back on your machine. Basically, H264 is lightweight, but hard to decode, PRHQ is really easy to decode, but needs faster drive...

btw, I don't like Zappa. I'm a complete addict!

You probably know what I mean... :)

Great stuff! (And I do know what you mean about Zappa!) What do you use for an intervalometer? And how long are your intervals for some of these?

Hey Mark! Thanx for your comment!
I use the TC-80N3 intervalometer from Canon, as well as chinese copies, way cheaper, but same design as TC-80, with a connector you can choose depending your EOS model. If you need 2.5mm jack plug, for a 400-450D for ex, you'll have to buy a chinese copy with such a connector. Canon model is only with their own round plug type, that fits pro EOS line, but not cheaper models…
Intervals greatly vary from 1-2s up to 30-40s at nite...

And I'm glad to know you know what I mean :)

I've been doing some time lapse shots with a Nikon D90 and Nikon's Camera Control Pro 2.0 software running on a MacBook Pro. Works well, and for short shoots, it's nice to have to check the picture, but then there are 2 batteries to worry about. Thus the search for a small intervalometer. I've been looking at the Phottix (a copy of the TC-80N3... or are these rebranded items from the same manufacturer?) and the Pclix, which is much more expensive... and the cable is extra! Thoughts?

For scenes where the light changes dramatically, how do you automate the exposure? Aperture priority? Shutter priority? Auto ISO? Thanks for all the great info!

Mark, I was looking for an old answer to an old question in this long thread, and found your 2 months ago message...
Obviously missed this one :/

Still need some help for your intervalometer ?

Yo Steve! Je connaissais déjà la 1ère vidéo, c'est pas mal du tout en effet...j'ai un peu tchatché avec le gars, et c'est vachment de boulot de tracking et de calage manuel...un boulot de moine, quoi...
Sinon, tes tofs sont sur mon serveur, dans la section members DB/

A + mec

If you love watching time lapse go to youtube/user/crookedmouthdj .nearly all my films have t/l in them somewhere and some of them are all time lapse,enjoy!

Of course, this is Leon soundtrack, a Besson movie, written by Eric Serra.