If
you have ever seen videos where you can literally
watch grass grow, flowers blossom, or a storm rolling
past, then you have experienced what is known as time
lapse photography. This type of photography involves
capturing an image of the subject every so often such
that when compiled into animation, the "action"
appears sped up.
As the
FTACS project was pretty
much designed around a central circuit which was perfect
for time lapse photography, I decided to give it a
shot. For this system, I am using a Pentax Optio Sv
camera (bought off eBay for a hassle free $60). It
seemed to be a great candidate given its manual exposure/aperture
capability.
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Pentax Optio
Sv
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The Optio Sv
looking rather naked
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It was not hard to bring
myself to gut this "el-cheapo" camera. Enamel
insulated copper wire was soldered onto the pads of
the on/off switch and AF/shutter button. A couple
of lengths of hook up cable were also soldered onto
the DC connector socket so that I would not have to
depend on the camera's own internal (aka. lousy) battery.
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The camera
was then hastily put back together. In the process
I managed to damage the shutter button so now it looks
offset and basically retarded. But hey, it works,
and there will be no need for manually pressing that
button ever again!
The circuitry
for the controller board can be found at the FTACS
page (refer to Fig. 17 and 18). Some small modifications
are needed, which will be detailed later. This controller
board is known as an intervalometer.
In fact
the circuitry is perhaps too "logic chip intensive".
The reason for this old fashioned design was due to
my inexperience in programming PIC chips.
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The modified
Optio Sv looking rather grim
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The case and
some of the goodies to mount on it
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To construct the case,
a standard plastic project box was used. A potentiometer,
its associated knob, a momentary SPST switch, a DC
socket (not shown) and finally the head of a disassembled
tripod (not shown) are mounted on the box.
The DC socket allows me
to connect a plugpack to the system, supplying unlimited
"battery" life to the camera.
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And here
is the finished case. I found the tripod head to be
a fantastic way to mount and adjust the camera - it
means that I don't have to angle and shift the entire
box to prepare the capture.
The dial
changes the time between shots (adjustable from 1
second to 1.5 hours with the component values suggested).
The red
button is a power on/power off switch that isn't strictly
necessary, but provides a way to switch on/off the
camera without physically touching it (which may shift
the image - not good!).
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The completed
case
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The internal
organs of the time lapse box
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The internal organs of
the box include the intervalometer (large board) and
a voltage regulator (small board). The intervalometer
has the same circuitry as the FTACS controller board
with the following modifications:
The
voltage regulator converts the incoming 12VDC into 4.5VDC
for the camera to use. |
Here the
time lapse system is fully set up and ready to go!
The box
is currently heating up quite considerably when operational
for more than an hour or so, due to the significant
current draw from the camera and subsequent load on
the voltage regulator. However, I have left it on
for over 24 hours with no problems whatsoever!
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The finished
time lapse camera system
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The flower wilting setup
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This is the setup which
was used to capture the flower wilting video (below).
A 40W fluorescent lamp provides constant, bright light
to the scene.
It is important not to
disturb the camera system and subject in any way.
Any external movements will cause the remaining images
to be offset - which won't make a smooth video.
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This candle
burning video was captured in 330 separate images,
each taken with an interval of around 8 seconds.
The video
can be viewed either directly (opposite), or downloaded
from Penguin's Lab here:
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This
wilting flower video was captured in 245 separate
images, each taken with an interval of around 3
minutes.
The video
can be viewed either directly (opposite), or downloaded
from Penguin's Lab here:
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This banana
cake rising video was captured in 110 separate images,
each taken with an interval of around 10 seconds.
The cracking of the cake crust is clearly visible...
YUM!
The video
can be viewed either directly (opposite), or downloaded
from Penguin's Lab here:
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The process
of ice melting is a very boring thing to watch, so
I decided to add a touch of Penguin's Lab. Mr. Penguin
actually seems to balance quite nicely - until he
is just barely holding on! This video was captured
in 700 separate images, each taken with an interval
of around 7 seconds.
The video
can be viewed either directly (opposite), or downloaded
from Penguin's Lab here:
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