Amazing Timelapse Using a Canon Powershot and More
Posted May 16, 08 by AlBaraaGeek Pride! — Some of you may know that I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to technology and when something interesting in the practical sense comes along I get totally excited!
My man Basil (http://www.basilgohar.com/blog/) recently made a post on his blog about “hack” he applied to his Canon Powershot A550 digital camera that enhances the camera’s abilities…kind of like how a Power Ranger morphs into his power suit (told you I’m a geek) and gives the camera abilities that are beyond your normal digital camera abilities.
The “hack” give the digital camera features like HDR, timelapse, and other things. My friend Usman (whoisusman.com) a little while back did the same thing. You can see the results of this “hack” below.
Usman’s Pictures: http://www.whoisusman.com/wp/category/pictures/photoblog/
(this is one of the pictures that Usman took)
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What excites me isn’t the technology and geek factor, rather the practical aspect of this. Cameras are getting smaller and smaller these days. How much easier is it getting to shoot a movie on devices so small. Heck…Spike Lee’s been contracted by Nokia to make a movie using Nokia cell phones.
Basil shot some time lapse footage using his Canon Powershot A550. You are going to need VLC Video Player (download it here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) to view it.
Basil’s Timelapse Footage: http://www.basilgohar.com/blog/2008/05/16/time-lapse-photography-with-chdk/
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If you watch the footage, you will see that they are amazing mashaAllah. I didn’t realize that digicam video resolution has become so high. I wonder what the max resolution for making a timelapse video is (Basil and Usman, I’d like to see some stuff from you guys).
What I’m thinking is get one of these lens attachment adapters for the Powershot and attach a wide angle lens along with a polorizing filter and have it take some awesome shots.
What would be really cool is to rig the camera on top of a motion control unit and end up with some time lapse footage like what photographer Ollie Larkin does.
Below is a video titled “Lapses in Light” by Ollie Larkin.
I highly recommend you see the high quality version on his webiste.
Go ahead leave your comments. Give us your thoughts.
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AlBaraa Says: 16.05.08 at 6:59 pm
Here’s some more motion control time lapse footage by Ollie Larkin:
http://www.ollielarkin.co.uk/blog/2007/10/01/hdr-in-the-ashdown-forest/
AlBaraa Says: 16.05.08 at 8:49 pm
I found a few videos on how to make a motion control rig by hacking a click for the purposes of time lapse:
(ver 1.0) - http://youtube.com/watch?v=_oElbvng7SA
(ver 2.0) - http://youtube.com/watch?v=so10YvtyJkE
(D-SLR version) - http://youtube.com/watch?v=mJf-ZgTKBcw
(D-SLR “ready to buy” version) - http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ni89TBOTCUA
Usman Says: 16.05.08 at 10:22 pm
I bought my Canon A570IS specifically after making 100% sure that it could run CHDK. You have to be very careful, a lot of new Canons don’t support it. My interest is more in producing HDR stills rather than timelapses though after seeing these videos I think I’m going to invest in an AC adapter that will let me take a few hundred photos.
Basil Mohamed Gohar Says: 16.05.08 at 11:06 pm
Usman,
I was able to take over 1000 shots using CHDK and one of the time-lapse scripts on one charge of batteries. My longest single sequence is nearly 800 (I had it set for 900, and the batteries, which weren’t even fully charged, died close to the finish). I should be posting the results of today’s sequences sometime either tonight or this weekend, in shaa Allaah, so you can see even longer sequences than the ones I have up already (assuming you’ve seen them yet…).
I haven’t even started with the HDR features of CHDK.
My web gallery also has some initial time-lapse as well “high-speed” photos that CHDK made easy. Link:
http://www.basilgohar.com/media/v/highspeed/
These were a bit of a challenge because the flash was too bright, even at 1/2000 s exposure inside with the lights off, so I had to try to partially block the flash with my finger…hence the crazy colors. Still, you can see some interesting stuff…all with a $150 digital camera (that isn’t even available anymore). New ones are even better.
By the way, CHDK’s website:
http://chdk.wikia.com/
shirien Says: 17.05.08 at 12:35 am
time lapse videos always look amazing, subhanallah especially when it’s nature. i would love to see more muslims do time lapse nature videos and then have a short islamic wisdom behind that creation as a lesson in the background.
just something to think about…
genieyclo Says: 18.05.08 at 4:48 pm
sweeeeeeet!
Yusuf Says: 06.06.08 at 12:16 am
Ma sha’Allah! this is sooooo coooooool
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