Camera to record timelapse with changing exposure

[bradleyheathhays]

Hey thanks for helping with this all too often asked question. I need to get an affordable camera that can time lapse record (say 4 pics a minute) the painting of a barn in changing light conditions, capturing the scene through sunrise to sunset. What would be a good camera for a neophyte like myself to get this accomplished?

 

[photo1x1.com]

Hi,
what would be your budget?
Things to consider:

1. you need constant power for a timelapse longer than a few hours. Changing the battery in between usually results in a visible shake - even on the best tripods (you can correct that in post if you have a bit of experience)
2. know the amount of data you are going to produce and get a card that can easily store that.
   
3. do you want the painter to be sharp at all times, or will it be OK if the painter is not visible due to motion blur (when the light gets very low)
4. If you need the camera only for that single project, consider buying used and selling the camera again afterwards with very little to no loss at all - or rent one for two days (one for test).
5. A camera that has a setting for ISO Auto maximum does help a great deal. Otherwise, the camera will choose extremely high ISO values to keep the shutter speed down and that will result in very bad ISO noise when it gets dark.
6. If a camera does not have a built-in intervalometer, you can get external ones that are rather cheap.
7. 4 pics per minute are going to produce a 96-second clip (if you record 12h)
8. If you want a perfect result, you need to deflicker the clip - a software can do that for you and delivers great results, especially if you shoot RAW files. LR Timelapse is an awesome piece of software for that if you plan to work with Adobe Lightroom.
9. Turn off any stabilizer the camera may have

All that said: of course it depends whether you like this to be of good quality or just a private clip for your memories.

 

[bradleyheathhays]

Thanks so much this is great advice.

The goal isn't so much to create a technically great film but to do the best I can within a reasonable budget. I'm a commercial paint contractor and the intention for this film is as a selling point for my business. I'll be showing it to potential clients for an 'oh that was kind of neat' reaction. As such, top quality isn't a large consideration as the film would mostly be displayed on the web and on on clients phones.

I like the idea of buying and reselling a used camera but I'm in somewhat of a hurry and will probably have to go with a 'good enough' camera bought new.

Does a particular camera come to mind for my situation?

 

[photo1x1.com]

Usually, I´m the one to encourage people to try things themselves. But to be honest, if time is an issue, I´d rather look in your area for talented timelapse shooters to do the job for you. You should do some tests and get used to your setup to make sure it works on that particular day. You would be pretty lucky if it worked out well on your first try.
If you still want to try it on your own and quality isn´t your main focus - I´d rather use a smartphone. Sounds weird, but that´s what you are familiar with, probably is something you can easily power for a day, ease of use is as good as it can get and talented filmmakers have created awesome movies and time-lapse on smartphones.

 

[Jamesaz]

If you know how long you want it to run, and I'm guessing it's for a website or somesuch, you can do math backwards from there to determine your interval. That can eliminate a lot of editing. Use manual focus at infinity and shutter priority and exposure should be consistent during daytime hours. Try to locate camera position on either the north or south side of the barn, but if you can't the camera should be able to take care of exposure anyway, it's just that the end product will look more consistent. A/C converters are also available for many cameras (I'm only familiar with canon) if battery life is a concern. Also, don't make it too long. That has to do with people's attention span, not subject matter. Good luck. this is an edit- I believe the playback time to animate timelapse is 30 frames/sec. so you'd need 600 frames for a 20 sec. video