[ajzimmerman]

Hi, my name is Andrew,

And normally I do not post in forums, as I can glean the answers I need

But, I would like to introduce myself and my situation:

I am driving from Alaska Anchorage all the way down to Utah, and back across over to California,

I've estimated around 70 hrs total for the trip: Anchorage, AK - Google Maps.

I planned on doing a timelapse of the whole thing, and I've brought about three external drives, and my laptop along with me,
as well as an intervalometer (because I hate to be limited to 999 shots),

A windshield mount for the camera (no movement, Hopefully),

And a 128GB card. I planned on shooting JPG (duh!), and I am unsure if I should do 10MP or lower,

I have calculated 10MP for a 128GB card would use it up in about 21008 shots for each load,

And my interval calculation was set at: 25fps, 70hr time, 30min clip length, equaling 5.60 secs per shot,

I'm unsure if this is a bit much to assume, or if I'm going overboard; the calculator told me it would be about 45,000 shots total, for the 70hr time;

I'm assuming though, that I will not use the full 70 hrs, but I'm unsure,

And that is part of what I wanted to ask: Do people even timelapse driving at night? I mean, it's probably not worth it?

I realize part of that is my call, but I'm curious as to what some of you might have to say about this;

One thing that does bother me though, is that I may not be able to use my camera at all during this major trip,

which kind of sucks, ... but, Oh well.

I planned on visiting Yellowstone on the way and everything, haha.

[ajzimmerman]

I am using these options:

Time Lapse Astrophotography:

Cameras Settings Summary

• Set Program Mode to Manual Exposure.
• Set Drive to Single Shot.
• Set ISO to 400, 800 or 1,600 based on ambient temperature.
• Turn Image Preview OFF.
• Turn Auto-focus OFF and set to Manual focus.
• Set the lens to focus INFINITY (∞ ).
• Set White Balance to Daylight
• Set File Format to JPEG.
• Set Image Resolution to the highest setting. (Always depend on your memory card size)
• Turn in-camera long-exposure noise reduction OFF.
• Turn OFF in-camera sharpening if you are shooting JPEGs at a high ISO.
• Set contrast and color saturation to normal if shooting JPEGs.
• Set color space to sRGB.
• Turn OFF flash.
• Set exposure to 30sec or less in Manual mode.
• Set the aperture to wide open (Recommended f/4 or f/5.6).
• Slot in a large size Memory card in camera.
• Use a Timer remote release to open the shutter.
• If possible shot as many hours and frame as you can.
• Mirror lockup is not necessary for long-exposure astrophotography with a decent mount.
• Do not move the tripod around or adjust the camera position once everything set and running.

[bigted]

Hi Andrew,

I have never tried anything like what you have proposed so my thoughts may be completely irrelevant. However, surely you will be bringing your camera with you when you park to sleep and view the sites - I wouldn't recommend leaving it in your car unattended. Even though people don't recognized Pentax as they should I doubt it would take long before someone clued in on what was in your car Then if you were to buy another card or cards then you could switch them while you are visiting sites so you could keep the trip cam stuff on the same card and then use another for sites. It's late here so I'm not sure if I am making sense of if I am remotely helpful. I know the plan is not to move your camera, but I am not sure how logical that will be. I suspect you will have to move it anyway.

Stevi

[ajzimmerman]

I actually will be driving non stop with a friend, so when we're stopped we'll be in the car, or he will be driving if I am sleeping.

One thing I am wondering is if it would be worth it to keep it taking shots at night or if I should just turn it off each night;

I think it would be cool to get the night shots, in case we come across any moose or bear in the road, etc...

I'll also be running a GPScam app on my iphone to capture my GPS at all times during the trip, and I'll be able to apply it to my photos post.

I also have a strange idea of appending the GPS to a map in the video but that may not be able to happen.

Regards

[rawr]

When you say a windshield mount, i presume then you are shooting from within the car?

If shooting externally, in my limited experience of doing something similar (1100km there, 1100km back, about 14hours continuously each way) a while ago with an externally mounted video camera shooting video, the biggest issue was bugs and crud getting onto the lens. I used to stop every hour to check the lens was clear but there were a few times where I didn't, only to discover that some bug had splatted itself all over the lens and thus ruining several hundred kilometres of footage... Waaahhh!

If shooting internally, I have done some long distance driving videos with suction mounts on the inside of the windscreen. Biggest issues have been (a) internal vibration triggering the JVC videocams anti-shock protection, and (b) lots of internal glare coming up from the top of the dashboard and reflected back into the camera.

The solution to (a) was to make sure the camera wasn't overly tightened into the dash mount, and to record to an SD card on the videocam, not the internal HDD as much as possible. The fix for (b) was to buy a big sheet of black cotton cloth and drape it over the top of the dashboard.

Probably the K-5 won't have any similar issue with vibration, since it is also recording to SD, but you may like to keep SR on.

And yes, I'd keep it going at night. Night can look interesting. Also running one big SD card risks putting all your eggs into one basket. You should at least make sure that you briefly stop and save your data every hour or two, and quickly review what you have captured to make sure that everything is being stored properly, and you are getting what you want to see.

All the best. Sounds like fun.

[CDW]

At 25 fps and one frame every 5.6 seconds, that means in terms of movement you're going to visually cover over two miles every second. Things will go by so quickly that a viewer is likely to quickly tire of the blurred motion....just saying... :-)

[ajzimmerman]

Ok, so what should I do?

[ajzimmerman]

When you say a windshield mount, i presume then you are shooting from within the car?

If shooting externally, in my limited experience of doing something similar (1100km there, 1100km back, about 14hours continuously each way) a while ago with an externally mounted video camera shooting video, the biggest issue was bugs and crud getting onto the lens. I used to stop every hour to check the lens was clear but there were a few times where I didn't, only to discover that some bug had splatted itself all over the lens and thus ruining several hundred kilometres of footage... Waaahhh!

If shooting internally, I have done some long distance driving videos with suction mounts on the inside of the windscreen. Biggest issues have been (a) internal vibration triggering the JVC videocams anti-shock protection, and (b) lots of internal glare coming up from the top of the dashboard and reflected back into the camera.

The solution to (a) was to make sure the camera wasn't overly tightened into the dash mount, and to record to an SD card on the videocam, not the internal HDD as much as possible. The fix for (b) was to buy a big sheet of black cotton cloth and drape it over the top of the dashboard.

Probably the K-5 won't have any similar issue with vibration, since it is also recording to SD, but you may like to keep SR on.

And yes, I'd keep it going at night. Night can look interesting. Also running one big SD card risks putting all your eggs into one basket. You should at least make sure that you briefly stop and save your data every hour or two, and quickly review what you have captured to make sure that everything is being stored properly, and you are getting what you want to see.

All the best. Sounds like fun.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll be shooting in the car.

It looks like I got a good mount, and the intervalmeter is not very big, so that's good.

Hopefully the vibration isn't too bad, but we'll see; it will be mounted to the inside of the windshield,

I'm hoping the 128gb card will suffice for a good amount of time,

I calculated it at 10MP with 3 stars and it was over 9999, but at 16MP with 4 stars it's at 8480.

If it's taking pics every 5.6 secs it will come out to be 13 hrs before I have to take out the card...

I am now thinking about what the other poster said about the end video, and whether I should lower the amount of time, but I'm unsure...

[RonHendriks1966]

I only made one timelapse this far. It is fun to do when you have a plan for it.

You Tube

You Tube

So this is entirely made inside the K-01 that has the timelapse function, but is limited to a number off images restriction (2100 images). The music is added afterwards offcourse.

This is a trip off maximum 2 and a half our, but we where faster. There is an image taken every 5 seconds and 5 off those images make one full second. So on the hightway every 700 meters are one second. Every image is in 3-fold in the movie, so the framerate playing is 15 fps, but only 5 different images in one second.

I don't think you need the 25fps for a nice movie afterwards. I gues that 15fps or even 10fps will give you a very nice view off the scenery.

[walter]

I think you should take the night shots, I'd like to see them. If there's nothing to see, you can edit it out after.

I'd also recommend trying out the 5.6 second interval before your trip to see how it comes out. I would turn off SR and the auto-leveling as it may cause the view to shift from frame to frame, though I'm not sure.

Not sure how you're planning to power your camera, but one option could be to power it off the car's 12V if you reduce the voltage and wire up a connector: DIY Power Supply for Pentax K5 DSLR .

I'm not sure how to handle exposure for such a long timelapse. Maybe center weighted metering during the day and manual exposure at night?

edit: actually if the car doesn't show up in the picture, the frame to frame alignment probably doesn't matter

[rawr]

OP, it also goes without saying that before you begin your big trip, you should do a test drive of your setup and equipment, involving maybe an hour or two driving along various road surfaces, to check that everything is working (camera, laptop, camera mount etc) and that there are no un-expected hardware or performance or optical glitches with your setup.

[afrowhite]

Do I need a external timelap timer on my K5 because most store in Ottawa Canda sell most of the time Canon and Nikon
is the a web site that i cant buy time lap timer or the is a time lap in the K5 timelap timer

[rawr]

Do I need a external timelap timer on my K5

No. The K-5 has a built-in 'Interval Shooting" capability. You don't need any other accessory. You can set various intervals between shots etc. The settings are under Record Mode 2 > "Interval Shooting" in the K-5 menu and P-152 of the K-5 manual describes how to set it up and what it does.

[ajzimmerman]

No. The K-5 has a built-in 'Interval Shooting" capability. You don't need any other accessory. You can set various intervals between shots etc. The settings are under Record Mode 2 > "Interval Shooting" in the K-5 menu and P-152 of the K-5 manual describes how to set it up and what it does.

Yes but I am limited to 9 hundred and 99 shots, which for a 40, 50 thousand round of shots is not going to be suit my purposes,

I bought an intervalometer by JJC Amazon.com: Rainbowimaging LCD Timer Remote Control for Canon EOS 60D, 1000D, 650D, 600D, 550D, 500D, 450D, 400D, 350D, 300D, Rebel XS, Rebel T4i, Rebel T3i, Rebel T2i, Rebel T1i, Rebel XSi, Digital Rebel XTi, Digital Rebel XT, Digital Rebel, Rebel X

I finally got it work, was kind of a pain.

[ajzimmerman]

I think you should take the night shots, I'd like to see them. If there's nothing to see, you can edit it out after.

I'd also recommend trying out the 5.6 second interval before your trip to see how it comes out. I would turn off SR and the auto-leveling as it may cause the view to shift from frame to frame, though I'm not sure.

Not sure how you're planning to power your camera, but one option could be to power it off the car's 12V if you reduce the voltage and wire up a connector: DIY Power Supply for Pentax K5 DSLR .

I'm not sure how to handle exposure for such a long timelapse. Maybe center weighted metering during the day and manual exposure at night?

edit: actually if the car doesn't show up in the picture, the frame to frame alignment probably doesn't matter

I'm afraid it will be in the picture, and I've read everywhere just to simply turn it off, so I suppose I will.

I watched the 5.6 interval video and I have to say I'm impressed, I realize that it would look a lot better if it were a lower interval, but if you're driving for thousands of miles, it's just not practical to do it that way,

If I can get my intervalometer working with my camera I'll be happy,

(Got it to work, was kind of a pain.)