TC-80N3 and Time lapse Issues

[Freff]

I'm doing an event on the weekend which is involving time lapse over a 5 hour period. The setup is a 1D2N suspended high up in a hall on a fix bracket. It will be set to take shoots of the party at probably 1 every 20sec or so (suggestion welcome) over the 5 hrs. The party will start at 7pm, so it will still be light outside. The hall is well lit by natural light due to the many large windows until it starts to get dark then of course it all changes. It's not a disco type party so there wont be bright coloured lights or near totally darkness.

My concern is what do I do about the changing light. What is going to be the best camera settings to give me a chance of getting somewhere in the ballpark. Thanks.

[Team Scream]

I did a super long time lapse a few months ago changing cards every 6 hours.
The camera was set to shutter priority to keep the blur consistent with the movement against the background, that way the camera will set the aperture accordingly as the light changes.
It came out pretty darn good.
If I was to do it again I would set it up with Aperture priority so that the exposure remains constant across the board, but as it gets dark, the shutter will obviously stay open longer so the people will start to blur a bit more as the light goes away, but the background will remain constant.
You need to decide whats important, the people or the background?

[Freff]

Many thanks TS sounds like you had great results. How did you set the initial camera settings. Were they set for the moment or an average of what the lighting was going to be. I thought of setting to P(program) and let the camera do it all. I have never used P so I'm a bit in the dark. (sorry for the pun). I'll try and get my head around this over the next few days. Sorry for the ambiguity. :confused:

[Jon]

Like he said - if you want to be sure you stop the action, set it to Tv; if you're more concerned about a good exposure and motion blur's OK, use Av. I think I'd be inclined to use Tv and enable Safety Shift so when it runs out of aperture (but not before) it'll shift to a slower shutter speed. Set the initial shutter speed to use a fairly small aperture so you get as much time as possible with it.

[Freff]

Ok, starting to get the idea. Thanks Jon.

[Cathpah]

Like he said - if you want to be sure you stop the action, set it to Tv; if you're more concerned about a good exposure and motion blur's OK, use Av. I think I'd be inclined to use Tv and enable Safety Shift so when it runs out of aperture (but not before) it'll shift to a slower shutter speed. Set the initial shutter speed to use a fairly small aperture so you get as much time as possible with it.


totally agree. What I think the OP maybe doesn't realize is that you don't need to set one aperture/shutter speed and have that suffice...the camera will re-meter every time as long as you're not shootin in manual.

[EOSAddict]

I used mine to catch my back garden firework party last Nov. Set on Manual focus, P mode. Worked great!

[Freff]

totally agree. What I think the OP maybe doesn't realize is that you don't need to set one aperture/shutter speed and have that suffice...the camera will re-meter every time as long as you're not shootin in manual.

That clicked a bit later on. I always shoot manual and as such always meter for the moment. Of course with Tv/Av it meters at actuation, Duh!!:)

[stormyguy]

If I may chime in, is there no limit to the number of exposures you can program in?

I have been researching this with my 5D or 20D and I have a TC-80N3 - does anyone know the max I can dial in? I am wanting to make a short "HD" (or "better than iSight" type of thing) lapse of clouds shooting perhaps 1 frame per second but of course at that rate to get even 10 sec of movie needs many exposures....

Sorry to go in on yr thread but seems relevant...

[EOSAddict]

Withouth having it here to check I think there is a maximum, not sure if it is 99 or 999 !

[Freff]

If I may chime in, is there no limit to the number of exposures you can program in?

I have been researching this with my 5D or 20D and I have a TC-80N3 - does anyone know the max I can dial in? I am wanting to make a short "HD" (or "better than iSight" type of thing) lapse of clouds shooting perhaps 1 frame per second but of course at that rate to get even 10 sec of movie needs many exposures....

Sorry to go in on yr thread but seems relevant...


If you leave the exposure count set to 00 (blank setting) the number of time interval shootings will be unlimited, or until the camera battery quits.:)

[stormyguy]

If you leave the exposure count set to 00 (blank setting) the number of time interval shootings will be unlimited, or until the camera battery quits.:)

Hehe thanks for that - I just got to that same page in the ol' manual myself! That'll teach me! Better get a decent sized CF card then I guess!! :)

[Freff]

Same here, played with it for days before getting out the manual.;)

[stormyguy]

Same here, played with it for days before getting out the manual.;)

Yup, always the way - they say it's a "man" thing :-)

[tylercooney]

Well, I wish I had known that little trick. I had been wishing mine would do more than 99 for long time. I used to do a lot of time lapse. Thanks both of you. That just made my life a whole lot easier.

[Cathpah]

Withouth having it here to check I think there is a maximum, not sure if it is 99 or 999 !

nope, I believe as long as you set it to repeat exposures, and don't set a number for how many exposures, it should keep shooting till the card is full or the battery is dead.

edit: shoot, freff beat me to it...sorry for the duplicate reply (maybe now you're even more sure of freff's reply! :p )

[EOSAddict]

That's useful - thanks!

[rickbrad]

Like he said - if you want to be sure you stop the action, set it to Tv; if you're more concerned about a good exposure and motion blur's OK, use Av. I think I'd be inclined to use Tv and enable Safety Shift so when it runs out of aperture (but not before) it'll shift to a slower shutter speed. Set the initial shutter speed to use a fairly small aperture so you get as much time as possible with it.

Jon,

I have always wondered about the availability of a "Safety Shift" feature. Is this a custom setting?

I have often thought it would be nice if the camera would adjust the ISO if it ran out of aperture as well, but don't know if the 30D does such a thing. A friend of mine has a Nikon 200 and claims that his camera performs a similar function using ISO.

Now, to go search the User's Manual PDF... Yep, I found it in the C.Fn 16. I am going to have to play with that.

[Cathpah]

Jon,

I have always wondered about the availability of a "Safety Shift" feature. Is this a custom setting?

I have often thought it would be nice if the camera would adjust the ISO if it ran out of aperture as well, but don't know if the 30D does such a thing. A friend of mine has a Nikon 200 and claims that his camera performs a similar function using ISO.

Now, to go search the User's Manual PDF... Yep, I found it in the C.Fn 16. I am going to have to play with that.

30d won't shift ISO for you...they finally released that function on the 1d3.

thanks for bringing this thread back though...Freff, can we see your results? certainly would be interested to know how it turned out.

[r.morales]

Storm guy , If you get the ac adapter for cameras and a laptop , you are only limited by the space left on hard drive - add a USB drive and send pic's there .
Your big problem will be picture count , mine resets after a thousand and I get do you want to replace first picture with this one and it locks up until I do something .
So I am limited to 999 before I have to step in .