Digital SLR

I used an old D70 with good success recently. Took 3000+ pics over 3-4 hrs. Tethered to laptop, running nikon capture / picture view (one of those IIRC). Software was free download, though Capture itself isn't free, and it's outdated.

could prob do same with D40/D40x/D60/D80.

I know the D200 (and better) can do timelapse without needing a laptop, but I didn't have one to hand. Mine was all controlled via the laptop.

I use a second hand canon eosd10 and a cannon eos300d
Either can be used for timelapse from a computer controlling it via usb.

Hi Bill,
FWIW, see my comment dated 4/1/08 in this link:
http://forums.dvdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=43620

Thanks. I'm going to be on site, so need to be able to do it laptop-free. I'm toying between using my Sony V1, which has interval record but a min. interval of 30secs, and buying an SLR. I'm going to be doing some tests with my video camera on Friday so I'll have a better idea of whether it's suitable or not then. My concern with buying a D-SLR at this late stage is that I won't have the time to learn to utilise the manual settings in the correct way (exposure, white balance, shutter speed etc) to get the correct results (because I'm not really going to know how well the timelapse went until I'm in the edit room). In your opinions would it be worth the gamble knowing that 'm doing the time-lapse of a construction site, with cranes etc?

1) how long is the shoot?
if it's overnight / long, you might be going for auto exposure........

2) also, since it's digital, not really a problem working out manual exposure settings, since you can troubleshoot them in 5 mins while on the job.

3) how long will the final video be?

It's going to be a 48hr shoot. I've been told that using auto exposure gives a lot of variances in the appearance of the image when as the light changes. Obviously it would be great if I could just set the settings to auto but I have a feeling there's more too it than that, is this true?

What exactly do you mean by troubleshoot them while on the job Fuddam? (sorry if I'm being stupid, just need to know exactly what I'm dealing with because I'm unpracticed in this area). If using manual settings would I not have to keep adjusting them temporarily as the sunlight changes?

The final video will be about 3mins.
Cheers fuddam

question about length of shoot was concerning exposure. if it was short duration, manual would be fine, but as soon as you're going overnight, you will obviously have exposure issues, not to mention battery problems. Is it going to well lit overnight?
And white balance will change too.

rock -----> you <----hard place ;)

auto exp will give variation, but if the speed of the final output is fast enough, it's not so much of an issue. Manual is more predictable, sure.

by troubleshoot, I meant putting the camera into manual, and adjusting aperture/shutter to get something you like would be simple enough on any DSLR.

oh, and whatever you choose to use, remember to turn off auto focus, since it eats up battery like nothing else.

I haven't done time lapse (apart from ff in post), but I would have expected a stills camera to be better for stills. A video camera will be on for 48 hours with it's 'hours' meter will decrease sale value of camera and, depending upon interval, will mean the record pause/record standby modes may get much use / wear.
Stills camera will also provide supporting stills for other purposes at high resolution of 6+ megapixels. If the stills camera has a built in function for this, much easier, but still need to calculate no of stills (2*60*48 for 30sec interval over 48hrs) will fit on media (unless can change card without moving camera) and battery can last.

As Dave said, a few considerations. At least if capturing to laptop, no space issues.

Battery: last time I was shooting at interval of 5 secs, over 3-4 hrs, and had to change battery about 3/4 way through. Interval was too short, really, but gave me peace of mind ;)

final result was about 1.5 mins with much speeding up.

I'm going to test out using a car battery and adapter to power the camera as it should give many more hours of power. I'll go with buying an intervalometer I think, rather than using a laptop and just make sure that I'm ready with more memory cards when needs be. Has anyone had any problems with dslrs on long time lapse shoots in terms of function, ie, does it breakdown, or is there a high risk of it?

Thanks again for the help.

breakdown? not in my humble experience

;)