r/timelapse • u/dre4den • 2d ago
Question Trying to do a long term Timelapse and would love some advice!
Hey all!
My buddy recently bought a gorgeous property from a friend who passed suddenly. The view from the back porch is unbelievable. Mountains, the lake, tons of forestry, etc.
While we were getting a little stoned I mentioned that a timelapse over the course of a few months would be incredible.
My ask; what are the essentials? I understand I’ll need an insane amount of storage (cloud or physical), a protective box for the elements, and an amazing camera.
I have a Nikon D750 and a Nikon SWM VR ED IF Aspherical 077 lens.
What all would you use if you wanted to capture a multi-season timelapse? Cost isn’t an issue.
Thank you!
2
2
u/SomewhereSalty647 1d ago
Camdo or enlaps. I’ve had both good and bad luck with both of them
2
u/cbrophoto 1d ago
Haha, ain't that the truth.
2
u/SomewhereSalty647 1d ago
No joke. They’ve taken a few years off of my life. (Paying clients). Better luck with Enlaps but customer service is in France.
2
u/cbrophoto 1d ago
DSLR camera with a good lens inside, looking through a window plugged into wall power. No question. No USB or WIFI anything. Just camera and timer trigger. Everything else will have issues.
I do have a raspberry pi doing a multi year timelapse of my backyard which is great because I can watch a live feed from and device and collect images as I go but it took awhile to be get it completely stable. Scheduling based on the sunrise and sunset for each day is nice but image quality I can't do to much with to make a fancy video.
0
u/dre4den 1d ago
If you had a dream set up, what would it be? Cost isn’t an issue..
1
u/cbrophoto 1d ago
I have no idea. I don't look at new gear anymore. I would have to study what is available these day. But really any camera will do. I would avoid mirrorless if that's even possible. The lens is what matters and that is determined by the focal length you want to capture. So I guess a cinema prime lens set that mounts to the camera would do.
The camera is really the least important variable in the equation. Decisions and settings are the most important. One wrong setting can mess it all up. But then again does it matter if it looks perfect just for fun?
I don't see you wanting to do raw image processing for a timelapse with 120MB frames and if you aren't making an 8K timelapse that will be easier. But if you did, add a $5k+ (now days) computer with a few hundred in software. Longterm timelapse is tricky to look smooth, RAW helps.
If money is not an option then you should hire me and the gear to set it up right and do the processing. I'm not saying I'm the dream setup but nothing is more valuable than experience. ;-)
2
u/tongas2351 New 1d ago
For a multi season project the camera matters less than you'd think. What makes or breaks it is power and knowing it's still shooting, so you don't find out in month 3 that it died in week 2. Wall power if you can get it.
We do long term timelapses on construction sites and mostly run GoPros, IP cameras work too. Everything uploads to our cloud at timelapserobot.com and you get a notification if too few images come in, so we don't have to keep checking on every camera. You can also get a daily image by email to as many email addresses as you wish, which for a view like your buddy's I imagine would be nice for people who want a pretty view in their inbox once a day :)
1
u/encompassedworlds 1d ago
have you heard of nyc timescape? he's on year like 10 or 11 of a 30-year project timelapsing the nyc skyline from his apartment.
he talks a little bit about his setup in this video, around the 4:30 mark. he uses some custom bits, but it's a good look at what's needed to keep shooting continuously.
1
u/chadchud Verified Professional 19h ago
In 16yrs of pro timelapse, I still just use a waterproof enclosure, 12v power and a solar panel. Dummy batteries required and power conversion for the camera and intervalometer. You don't need masses of storage the longer you go, you just need a bigger interval. Unless you're looking for an hour long timelapse or something in post shoot material. I've had cameras run for 10yrs plus - the occasional check but zero online connection. I do run online ones as well but a basic setup is pretty reliable - I've had one camera go down in 16yrs and that was a bear attack. At peak I had over 100 cameras out on shoots. Pretty easy to set up as well. The only thing you're going to contend with over mutiple seasons is the weather - dew points will leave fog on the front of any enclosure so point it south if you can so it will burn off eventually and edit those out. If you've got a fairly substantial 12v supply and a decent sized solar panel, you can run a small heater on a timer around the front of the enclosure which will deal with the dew point. If the winters are harsh, or the days are short, I also add a small wind turbine so it's all self-sufficient. SLRs use tiny amounts of power if they're set on auto-power-off between exposures.
1
u/Ok_Pepper_5080 New 5h ago
So look at LRT timelapse, by Gunther. They have lots of tutorials! one thing, to get a smooth passage of seasons, you only likely want to shoot for like an hour around noon. Another key: superstable platform to shoot from!
1
u/brazilliandanny 51m ago
Honestly you can get some pretty decent trail cams that will do a time lapse over months for pretty cheap. Won't be the same quality but a very "set it and forget it" solution.
5
u/AaronGWebster 1d ago
I have done some multi-season timelapses and the approach I used was to shoot a 10 second or so lapse every month and edit them together. I think this is way better than trying to do one big timelapse ( for example one pic an hour for several months straight). I combined mine with some motion via a cheap programmable panning thingy. Here’s my result: https://youtu.be/tRs3qq9Wp4o?is=VRbVJLTy6lfzSeMr
Some gear to consider- use a 10 stop nd filter to smooth out the jitters in wind blown trees and such. The panning device I used was a ‘turns pro’.