Comments

Eugenia wrote on 9/19/2008, 2:47 PM
Any camera can do timelapsing. You let it record in one go, you capture it, and then you time-stretch the video in the timeline. Time-stretching is well-explained in the manual, there are 3 ways of doing it.
richard-amirault wrote on 9/19/2008, 4:40 PM
If you want "conventional looking" time lapse footage it's better to use a still camera rather than a video camera.

In general, video cameras (unlike the movie film cameras that preceded them) do not take one "frame" when set to time lapse mode. They take something like a half second of video at a minimum. This is necessary to move the tape a sufficient amount on the video head to prevent problems.

If you have a still camera with a special self timer .. called an intervalometer .. you can get individual frames spaced evenly. You can then import these images into the timeline to make a time lapse video. Most camera do not have such a self timer .. but you can purchase an external remote for many cameras that will do exactly what you need.
RogerB1 wrote on 9/19/2008, 5:46 PM
Thank you both. I do know and use the method you mentioned Eugenia, but was thinking more along the lines of one frame at a time. Brighterside, I will give your method a try. I want to have more control. I used to make film movies, I started a long time ago, about 1954. So I know something about timelapse, but I have never done anything like that with a Digital cam.
Eugenia wrote on 9/19/2008, 6:14 PM
So, you mean "stop motion" instead of timelapse?

You can do that with video as well. Right click on a clip in the timeline, properties, and change the rate to 0.100, disable resample. If you want to make it fast stop motion, also change the other rate in that same dialog to 4.00, to make it go faster.
mickbadal wrote on 9/27/2008, 5:39 AM
If you do decide to capture a bunch of single frame stills, write down this neat and efficient way to import them as an image sequence:

Name the files with sequential numbers, e.g. pic0001.jpg, pic0002.jpg, pic0003.jpg pic0004.jpg ... etc. Most digital cameras will do this anyway, so it's usually not an issue. There are file renaming programs that can accomplish it as well.

Go to File / Open and browse to the directory where the pictures are. Click on the first one, then check the box near the bottom that says "import as image sequence." Specify the range of pictures to use. Then specify a frame rate - i.e. each image lasts 1 frame, 2 frames, etc. Click OK. All the pictures will now be on the timeline as a single video event, just like you had imported an AVI file.
richard-amirault wrote on 9/27/2008, 9:15 AM
RE: shooting single frame 'stills' for import as time-lapse event ... remember to set your camera down to a 'reasonable' resolution. You don't need, or want, 6 or 8 or 10 meg images. I've done it with 4 meg and even then it was overkill for standard def.

Richard in Boston