Long Term Time Lapse ...

[Digital Prophet]

Ok. So here is my situation. I work for a company that does small airport engineering. And we are about to start a very long term, large scale construction project to build a general aviation complex. I have an ideal location to view this project from. And my firm would like to set up a camera to take images over the course of the next 3 years. That is right, 3 years.

The idea is to be able to set up a camera with a timer to take pictures at certain times of the day. I am thinking 3 pictures a day to make sure that a useable image is take for each day. As the project progresses, take the image dumps and build time lapse progress reports for municipal or state use. So by taking more pictures we can have a useable time lapse sequence from the beginning. Then as more image accumulate, begin to show images from greater intervals so that the “action” happens faster.

I have done some research on the process and am confident I can handle that part. But, it is the equipment I am concerned about.

If I build a water tight box (sealed plywood and caulk with weather-stripped hatch) would a camera last in that condition. Now of course I know I would have to change the CF and batteries. Or maybe I will just hook an old PC up and AC power supply. But what about the lens and the body? I believe that since the camera is at the same temperature as the environment and rises and falls with it that condensation shouldn’t fog the lens. But is this really feasible? Could a 300D or a 1D stand the elements if enclosed? Since this is in Houston I am not really concerned about the cold (it freezes like one day a year here) but what about the heat?

Any time lapse experience advice or any information would be greatly appreciated.

- Digital Prophet -

[CoolToolGuy]

It sounds like you are pretty far along with the still camera strategy, but is it possible that a video camera and a surveillance VCR would be more appropriate/cheaper? They are available, and there are all sorts of weatherproof cameras out there. You may need to run a cable from the site to the VCR, but these types of VCRs have all sorts of interval recording capabilities.

That said, if you are going ahead with the camera in a box, I would add a roof to the box with an air space between it and the box structure, sort of like a tent uses a fly. Make it larger than the box (length & width). The roof will take the heat, and the box will be cooler than if it is exposed to the direct sun.

Just some thoughts. Hope this helps.

[PacAce]

If you're only going to be shooting 3 pictures a day, why even set up the camera permanently, unless you're going to set it up in an inaccessible or really hard to access place. If accessiblity is not a problem, why not just set up a tripod in that location and make sure that it is really "locked" so that the camera will alway be pointing in the same direction each time you mount it on the tripod. You can use a quick release place to make the mounting easier. Just make sure that the quick release is not moved or use the aligning pin that most quick release plates have.

Doing it this way, you don't have to worry about whether sealing, except for the time when the camera is actually mounted and used for taking a picture. You don't have to worry about the memory card filling up. You don't have to worry about the battery running out of juice. You don't have to worry about using any type of intervolometer at all.

[Digital Prophet]

We had thought about a scenario where the camera could just me mounted each day, but the problem is access. As it my vantage point is on a aircraft control tower. And they are very particular about having people up there. So it isn't very likely I could get access every day let alone several times a day. In addition to which if this project worked it could find assingments at some of our other jobs all around the state of Texas. So again, daily access wouldn't really be possible. Good thought though.

Oh and thanks for the venting idea Cool. I will definately take that into consideration.

- Digital Prophet -

[iwatkins]

DP,

We had a similar project here in the UK when our main headquarters relocated (http://www.metoffice.com/corporate/relocation/progress.html). I think the overall time lapse video covered just under 2.5 years elapsed time.

I'm not 100% on the setup, but I do know we used an Axis camera (http://www.axis.com/) stuck up on top of a pole in a sealed housing. We were taking shots every five minutes during daylight hours.

There was a PC attached that commanded a snap shot every five minutes and this machine also made time lapse videos of the day every day (at the end of each day) and also updated a day to day video at the end of each day.

The PC obviously has a clock and using a small sunrise/sunset routine could calculate what time to start and end each days snap shots.

The end video, using a single day shot per frame, looked really impresive but very fast. A much better video was hand made I.e. when the huge flying roof went onto our building, I think something like 12 shots of that day went into the final video.

I.e. capture most shots than you need and for the final video put it together by hand, OK, you don't get a smooth day to day, but there again you get all the interesting developments a bit slower and the boring bit happen quicker.

Obviously, the Axis cameras were fairly low res. at the time, so using a digital camera would be better I think, at least would allow high quality video at the end, and also high quality snaps during the build. Still, I would check out the Axis offerings (and similar) as I hear they have gone digital, and are networkable these days.

Failing that, I would suggest something like a 300D or maybe even a G5. Have it powered via an AC feed (no need for batteries) and also have it tethered to the PC via USB (remember the shortish USB cable run lengths allowed).

Then the PC could capture and download images almost for ever with no need to visit the machine or camera, except to maybe backup images from the PC or to clean the glass that the camera looks through (I think our guys did this once a week, after all, the camera was on a building site).

Cheers

Ian

[stopbath]

Sounds like a really interesting project.
Not knowing too much about the project, it seems that the best way would be to use a dedicated camera.

See this for what looks like a decent digital network camera...
http://www.stardot-tech.com/netcam/index.html

They even have software to make AVI movies out of your images... Worth checking out. Makes a lot of sense. Could even have several cameras at different views.

In no way is this an endorsement of the product...

[Tbel]

heres a link to a site where they set up a cam that is set up outside 24hrs a day seven days a week. I don't know if it will help. but it's all I got.
http://www.cabincam.net/cabincam.html

[robertwgross]

Is security an issue? You might want to mount all of this semi-permanently inside a steel box.

If you shoot three shots per day, then you are going to get three different sun angles. If you shoot one per day, then you will have a little more consistency between one frame and another. If you were shooting for only 50 days, then the shadow flashes from one to another would show daily movement, but if you are shooting for 1000 days, that will get to be a lot of shadow flashing.

---Bob Gross---

[karusel]

Here is my opinion of it:

It will definetely be better to take more shots than fewer, 5 min interval is a bit extreme, perhaps 10 would be nice. Resolution is an issue since they can later decide to print or enlarge certain images for whatever reasons - it just won't hurt if the images are big and detailed. Due to small interval and therefore high number of shots I would disadvise any SLR. A Pro1 would be far better choice. 8 megapixels and virtually no limit for shutter releases as far as I know. Setup: camera protected in a box with very sturdy tripod or whatever of your choice, I won't suggest anything here, then connection to PC (it doesn't have to be exactly a top model, a $200 piece of junk would probably suffice) which triggers at intervals and downloades images onto harddisks, preferrably RAID 1 setup, and UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for both, the camera and Computer in case of power failure or error.

This maybe seems like an overkill, BUT, after 3 years it won't look like it. It is an investment, for whatever gear you're going to use it will be virtually worthless after such long time. The price difference between say, $500 and $1000 setup is negligible, compared to the long term result you will get due to much higher quality. In addition I suggest you prepare everything as cautiously and securely as if you were gone for three years, of course you would still be monitoring and checking it on a daily basis, since you can connect the PC via LAN to the one you normally use.

Also, after 3 years the computers will easily handle 8 mp files even in video mode, so no worries about final editing CPU requirements.