Interval Shooting

[n.hubb22]

Hey All -

Quick question, I am going to be doing a time-lapse for a charity event through work of us building a structure out of cans of food at the Mall of America, which will take 6-8 hours to build, and 1-2 to tear down. I'm shooting with a D7000 and I believe i can do interval shooting, just not sure on the specs. Forgive me for not having the patience to wait till after work to go home and read the manual, hoping someone here has an idea of what i'm asking...which is:

When I set my cam up on a tripod and set to interval shooting, what options do I have for times of intervals. I was hoping to be able to get an exposure every 30 seconds to a minute. Can I just setup, and let it go for a few hours, or do have I have to go back to the camera every so often and change something?

Afterwards i'm going to bring them into iMovie and create a time-lapse video of the build and tear-down.

Thanks!

 

[Designer]

Better check the camera's menu. Be sure to have an SD card with enough space on it, or change cards partway through. You might also need to insert a fresh battery at some point. Is this going to be available light only?

Sounds like fun.

 

[n.hubb22]

Better check the camera's menu. Be sure to have an SD card with enough space on it, or change cards partway through. You might also need to insert a fresh battery at some point. Is this going to be available light only?

Sounds like fun.

I've got two 16 gig cards in my cam, so I won't have any issue with space, i'll be shooting .jpg fine. There's no way i'm goin to dump 1000+ raw images onto my computer!

I've got an extra battery as well! And yeah i'll be using available light only. I'll be shooting in manual with auto iso and white balance turned off as well, to ensure all shots look the same when i go to make the movie.

 

[Steve5D]

...which will take 6-8 hours to build, and 1-2 to tear down.

Hehehehehe... I'm bettin' that thing could come down in a New York minute if you did it right!

 

[pixmedic]

Sounds like a cool project. I hope you post the results!

 

[FitzTML]

Here's my first (and only so far) time lapse:
Snow Time Lapse-Corrected - YouTube

one exposure every 15 seconds for about 8 and a half hours. I only needed one fresh battery a 16GB SD card, I set my camera for the highest quality jpeg at the smallest resolution that is still HD. This is for less processing and file transfer needs to reduce battery. Please note that for me the rear display was facing in so there was no shot review (and less battery usage). This was on an auto exposure setting, and I did adjust exposure compensation in the morning (around the 1:21 mark).

I used this remote:
Satechi TR-C Timer Remote Control for Canon EOS 60D, Digital Rebel XT, XTi, XSi, XS, T1i, T2i & Canon Powershot G10, G11 & Pentax K7 Digital SLR cameras

P.S. I know the video is not the best time lapse int he world and that I'm using Canon with remote for a Canon not a Nikon as O.P. Just showing what is possible with similar settings.