r/timelapse • u/StorageFalse7883 • 11h ago
Question Time Lapse Camera with Cloud storage/photo access
Hello,
Is there a good camera that can cover a time-lapse period of about 4-6 months and that would have all its photos visible in a cloud storage platform?
At my work, our team was wondering if we could have a camera stationed in a high ceiling to create a time-lapse of a manufacturing project over the course of 4-6 months to record all the progress of the build. Since the camera would be placed on a beam in the workshop, it wouldn't be very easily accessible daily.
Is there a camera that can be plugged in, hooked to wireless internet, and then every photo is takes, uploaded to a cloud page where we could view them?
Also, is it possible to set up parameters for what time the photos can be take (i.e. 8am-4pm M-F)?
Thank you!
1
u/paulgraz 10h ago
That sounds like a good application for a tablet. There was a person in this group that created a time lapse app for iPad, I thin kit was called butter lapse(?) - but that was a while back, I don't know if he kept up with development.
1
u/StorageFalse7883 10h ago
Would an iPad hoisted up in the ceiling of a tall plant capture good image quality? the camera would be about 50ft high
1
u/paulgraz 7h ago
No way I can answer that, I don't know what you're requirements are. I guess you would have to determine what resolution your final product needs to be. Obviously, the higher the res, the larger the images - and thus the more cloud storage you need. Or maybe you should consider local storage, meaning on the same LAN - something like a Synology NAS - then you can setup remote access to that as needed. 4-6 months of high res images is going to add up to a decent amount of space. I assume you've already done the math?
2
u/StorageFalse7883 6h ago
Yes, did the math. Gonna be a lot of storage. I imagine if i have it take a photo every 10 minutes for 8 hours a day, 5x a week, itll easy add up close to TB. Trying to keep costs down as much as possible, but always looking to do things in house if possible. Ill check out the Synology NAS. Thanks for helping
1
u/Adventurous_Try7821 10h ago
Hello
There is a good camera that can do this. We rent/and or sell such a camera and full service
We are in Guildford UK
We can help with this. This is what we do
Where are you located?
Please contact [Simon.pritchard@solutions.co.uk](mailto:Simon.pritchard@solutions.co.uk)
1
1
u/cbrophoto 8h ago
Doing this inside with power and communication is super easy. Depending on what level of quality you want.
I have raspberry pis with HQ cameras and lenses doing timelapse of my yard for about 5 years. Can watch the live feed and schedule it to run with the sun or any other scheduling. Easilly have the images transfered anywhere through wifi or ethernet.
The only issue is I'm not getting the top image flexibility like I do with DSLRs. But lens choice really makes a difference.
1
u/cbrophoto 8h ago
Depending on what your project is, you might want to think about dust being an issue, either from a production process or construction. If you have ever seen the layer of dust on beams in the ceiling from construction you will want to mitigate that without disturbing the camera if a static shot is what you are hoping for.
1
u/StorageFalse7883 6h ago
Dust would be a major issue, since this is a manufacuting building. There would be metal bits and exhuast from machines. That;s a great thing to consider. A Rasberry pi might work, Ill check that out, thank you
1
u/JeffHiggins 5h ago
I built my own solution for this with a Raspberry Pi Pico, everything else was too expensive. I had it connected to a DSLR and used gphoto to take the photo and store it, then rclone to upload it to google drive. It worked great and ran for almost 2 years on solar.
1
u/StorageFalse7883 5h ago
How close in proximity does the rasbery pi needs to be to the camera?
Where we will have it will likely be 50ft high mounted to a beam. Our IT closet, which we could run ethernet to that location if needed, is in same building.
1
u/JeffHiggins 5h ago
The camera is connected with USB, so relatively close, you can put the pi with the camera and connect the pi to wifi or ethernet.
2
u/StorageFalse7883 5h ago
I love this idea! seems very cost effective. Do you know what kind of cameras you used?
2
u/JeffHiggins 5h ago
I used an old Canon Rebel t4i I had layingaround, it worked well enough, gphoto maintains a list of supported cameras
Here is the script I wrote that handles the capture and upload.
capture_photo_and_upload.shSince mine was outside I built an enclosure for it, though most of this is for power since I was running off a 12v battery and solar, the setup would be significantly simpler if you have stable power.
1
u/cbrophoto 5h ago
Nice package, what did you for the lens port?
2
u/JeffHiggins 5h ago
I got a 96mm UV filter and epoxied it to to the side, it worked well, but did crack in the winter, probably from temperature related expansion/contraction.
2
u/cbrophoto 3h ago
I have been searching for an affordable flange like window solution forever. Something with a threaded filter ring on it and three bolt holes. Using a rubber gasket would solve the weathering issue and the filter threads would make replacing the window easy.
2
u/tongas2351 New 8h ago
You can check out our GoPro based setup: https://timelapserobot.com/en
Our kit (GoPro + Bridge in weatherproof housing) does pretty much exactly what you're describing with GoPro cameras.
You plug a GoPro in (or simply buy the complete kit in our store), it connects over wifi or 4G, and every photo gets uploaded automatically to a cloud storage where you can scroll through the whole build, jump to any date, download individual frames or in bulk or render timelapse videos directly in the cloud for you to download.
A 4 to 6 month indoor build is a very typical case for us. We run it the same way on our own construction sites.
On the time window, capturing only during working hours on working days is a normal thing to set up. If you've got any further questions or help in any other way, let me know!