SLR Dollys - Timelapse experts

Phate

Phate

Phate

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
Posts
35,691
Location
Lisbon, Portugal
Hey guys,

Was thinking about Iceland next year, the idea of timelapses came up...

I don't know much about dollys, but I know it adds a whole 'nother dimension to it when in the timelapse its moving.

I thought about possibly investing in a cheap portable yet durable dolly for the trip, it'll be the only time it's used...but this is going to be a true one off of a trip for me.

So, can someone offer any guidance/info or know of any better sites, please let me know. :)

Thanks,
Jake
 
The cheap option, rather than buying a motorised timer dolly is just to shoot full resolution photos. Turn the photos into a video clip at the same resolution (or as many NLEs allow these days, it will automatically turn it into an image sequence) then you can pan and zoom the image sequence, giving that same sense of movement.

You could be working with stills of 5K resolution, so putting that into a 1080p clip gives you a fair old bit of room to pan and zoom a timelapse about. People have used it effectively for years and I think its pretty good unless you really want to have the camera pan a large way around.
 
Thanks for the reply, NLEs?

How many frames per second does it need to be at to turn it into an image sequence? and wont I need a ridiculously fast card to write all of that data constantly? making say an 8gb card fill up pretty quickly considering they only hold about 250RAWs? :)
 
NLE - Non-Linear Editor (Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut, Windows Movie Maker)
You can make it what ever frame rate you want it to be.

Obviously the time between photos will determine space requirements and how smooth you want the motion of things in the frame to be. I don't think card buffering is to much of an issue though.

It's best to just use a laptop though, rather than recording to a card. I recorded my first photo based one using my Canon 350D and the provided Canon DSLR software back in 2006.
 
Ah recording to a laptop, interesting didn't think of that.

Problem is travelling, we will be in Iceland at night at minus FC temps so that might be an issues, enormous memory card might be the way forward :)
 
I'm not sure I agree, I've seen plenty of fantastic timelapses without the camera really moving.

Plus inregards to Phate's case, if travelling is an issue then surely a large dolly system is not very practical. Sure if you are getting paid to make a timelapse, then take all the gear you need. If it's just for your own personal enjoyment, I wouldn't want the hassle of all the kit and to pay money for it, when you can get a great effect without it.
 
Nope not getting paid to do it, got a Iceland photography trip next year so its an idea I'm pondering.
 
Yeh, I used the post approach in a video I did, about 45 secs in. That was on a HD Hero 2.


I'd only use a dolly if I wanted the timelapse perspective to change. That is a very cool effect if you find terrain that suits it.
 
You could always make a rotational mount out of an egg timer (there are a few tuts out there) if you want to go cheap. I know the Radian guys are working towards making a cheap thing like that, but not sure when they'll be out for production.
 
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