Here’s an experiment Go Pro HD Timelapse I did during a long journey down the M4 coming back from a friends wedding. The Go Pro was set on the timed picture mode. It was set to take a photo every 2 seconds. Unfortunately the 8 gig memory card ran out a few miles before the end of the journey. I’ve found that the Go Pro is excellent in sunny conditions giving a really nice clear picture. The suction clamp was used to mount the camera on inside of the windscreen. I didn’t clean the window for the first minutes (which as a bit of mistake).
Go Pro HD Timelapse
I did a batch edit of the pictures to bring them down in file size (using Photoshop) and then using the “numbered stills” check box in premiere’s import dialogue box I imported the images as a sequence. If you haven’t done this before you click on the first image of the sequence and then check the “numbered stills” check box and then press “Open”. My Premiere project settings were HD 720p – 25 frames a second. Premiere places each image as 1 frame with the 25 frames a second timeline. So the result squashes 50 seconds into 1 second of rendered footage (therefore the 3 minutes 21 seconds is equal to about a 2 1/2 hour journey). Set to one of my dance tunes it looks pretty cool. If you like the tune check out more here: http://soundcloud.com/ben-simon/sets
Why do a Go Pro HD Timelapse?
A benefit of using the Go Pro HD to do timelaspes is it doesn’t cause any wear to the camera (unlike with a DSLR) as there is no shutter mechanism. The Canon 550D is guaranteed for 100,000 shutter movements which is easy to achieve pretty quickly when doing lots of timelaspses. This Go Pro HD Timelapse was done with around 5000 images. So you can see how this will soon wear your beloved DSLR out pretty quick. Also there is a built in intervalometer in the Go Pro and although the magic lantern firmware fix offers this feature on your 550D not everyone wants to take the risk to load it. Since doing this one I’ve decided to try a few others so watch this space for more updates.