Timelapse ?

So, I have been watching timelapse videos for a year or so now, and really want to try to make some myself. I have a tripod/intervalometer and that equipment essentially. However, I keep seeing different viewpoints on how to shoot them.

And my main question is... Aperture priority, or Manual?

I have tried a lapse or two before, and shot in manual the whole time, not really psyched about the results, though (both sunsets). I understand that for changing light conditions aperture priority might be better because once thrown into post you can get rid of any flicker, but I also hear to shoot full manual usually, and that the changing light is better seen in that aspect shooting this way.

so... any advice?

Thanks.

Totally depends on the look you are after. Do you want a realistic fade to dark at dusk. Or do you want to still see everything as it moves to night?

Manual will let it fall off naturaly to black. But if you are running Av the exposures will get longer allowing detail to be seen as the light goes away.

I suppose that's how I'll have to evaluate it then, and change based off the situation I am shooting.

I personally dont want to actuate my shutter more than I have to so I have been experimenting with magic lantern and the FPS reduction in video mode. It looks pretty cool on its lowest setting of 4fps but I'd rather it be like 1fps. There is an option to to take stills without actuating the shutter in ML but I have yet to play with that. I love some time lapse though. Before I got my 60D I had been putting together a video taken from my Canon SD1000. It has a low-res timelapse mode which was fun being that it's such a tiny portable camera. I have also heard people say you can film in regular HD 24p and remove frames in post to "time lapse convert" the footage. That way you arent using all 24 frames per second. I need to look into all of this.

Static the main reason that you would be using a dslr for timelapse in the first place is that it gives you amazing quality images, you get several extra stops of latitude if you're shooting RAW and it gives you an incredible amount of control over how your final product will look. The fact they're really hi-res and you can pan and scan in post is a bonus. If you were just to use it in movie mode and then speed it up you would be sacrificing the ability to use slower shutter speeds than 1/30th (which you should be, ideal ratio for shutter speed to interval is 1:2) and introducing a whole heap of compression into your images, limited dynamic range and a lot lower resolution (lower than 1080p). IMO you should be using your camera as a tool to realise your creative potential, if you're constantly worrying about how many clicks your camera is making then you're not going to develop.

In terms of the OP, check out the sticky on timescapes.org, it's a great forum and goes into detail about sunsets. You should be using manual for everything else to reduce as much flicker as possible.

I have just started playing w/ the ML intervalmeter I have tried 1fps and 2fps. Seems to depend on what you are shooting.

Haven't fiddled w/ bulb ramping yet - perhaps in a couple of weeks as the day job keeps me busy until the weekends.

I don't intend to do mountains of work in post, so I set the image capture to s2 = 1920x1080. fiddle with the picture style I want, at 1 fps I can't really change the ISO but can at 2 fps.

With the 5d3 doing in camera HDR, once ML gets ported ( I have heard of one person who has done it, but I don't want to be the first to brick the body) it opens up some very interesting ideas on time lapse.

Not worried about the shutter count, by the time I burn through 100,000 clicks the body will likely need replacing anyway if it hasn't already suffered from some sort of premature demise.