Time lapse...my first attempt

[aanderud]

I installed some CHDK firmware on my old canon A590IS camera the other day in hopes of getting some lightning shots someday.

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Samples:_Lightning_photography

In the meanwhile I thought I'd mess around with time lapse stuff. On the CHDK software, there's a time-lapse script installed by default and I messed with it a bit today and got a cruddy quality (but still neat) time lapse shot of my kid's caterpillar turning into a chrysalis. It was 39 minutes of realtime, I took a shot every 10 seconds, and then turned it into a quick video using some old version of cyberlink powerdirector that I had installed here.

I have to figure out how to get that sucker to be full manual so that I can focus in on the caterpillar once and just let it rip off a few hundred or few thousand shots using those same settings (and not let it try to re-focus every shot, ending up on the plastic container 1/2 the time). As you can see it's trying to focus on every stinking shot. It's pretty annoying. I didn't have much time to look at it before the action started. Next time...

[Dbl]

Looks like you are figuring it out! I do at least one time lapse per week, they are fun to do. I stopped using my DSLR's though I was putting way too many shutter actuation's on them.

[aanderud]

Yeah you can pick up these point and shoots for like 50 bucks or less on hsolist with just a few hundred shots on them. No sense in ruining something expensive.

With an 'eyefi' card in umlimited-memory mode uploading pics whenever it gets low, you can effectively go forever on a time lapse, perhaps doing such exciting things as...watching grass grow? I've heard of folks leaving CHDK running for weeks on long time lapses.

I figured out some of the manual focus stuff on the a590, it helps to read the manual

The next one will be better.

[Dbl]

I actually use a GoPro for all my time lapse work. This also allows me to combine video and time lapse together. I have three batteries which gives me about 9 or 10 hours of time or I can plug it in to AC. Changing cards is no problem if you need to, can't even see it on the final cut, especially for a long time lapse. You generally are over 20 seconds per shot on a very long time lapse, takes about 10 seconds or less to change a card.

[aanderud]

Yeah for a quick 40 minute deal like this, a video would be a better option (can turn it into a time lapse later). If you get 10 hours on an SD card that helps too. I was really envisioning longer time lapse events someday, this short thing was more of a test run.