Again and again. I always forget. Many RSS readers don’t show embedded videos. So here they are, links to the two videos that was embedded in my article about time lapse photography:
Road – Stop motion experiment
Time Lapse experiment with Nokia 6630
Sorry. I’ll try to remember next time.
The people that are lucky enough to run around with iPhones in their pockets probably wonder what to do with their old phones. Here is a suggestion. Regular readers will know that I like photographic experiments. So first, the ones that just retired their Nokia N95. It has built in time lapse photography. Something called “sequence mode”. Simply choose what kind of sequence you want, click the trigger and let the camera snap an image at the selected interval.
I did an experiment and placed my N95 in the window of my car while out driving. It happily snapped an image every 10th second. Giving a stop motion movie of my short ride.
http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf
Very short and very useless.
The problem with proper time lapse photography is the fact that it takes time. I am not the happy owner of an iPhone, so I can’t just place my N95 in a window for a couple of weeks. So I decided to put my old and trusted Nokia 6630 into duty. You know, the phone that survived the 20 meter drop. It has no proper time lapse function built in. A little searching around the net and I found a solution. One involving a Java application and one involving a Python script. I decided to try the last one.
First you install Python on your phone. That involves installation of two applications. You find them here. You need the versions that are right for your phone. For my 6630 these are the files I installed:
1. PythonForS60_1_4_0RC1_2ndEdFP2.SIS
2. PythonScriptShell_1_4_0RC1_2ndEdFP2.SIS
You find some help installing Python on your phone here.
When these are installed your phone will start running “.py”-scripts
The script on Foozia’s blog mentioned earlier was made for Nokia N80, so I had to do some modifications to make it work on my old 6630. You can download my 6630-version here: 6630Timelapse.txt
Before you install it on your phone you need to remove the “.txt”-extension and replace it so the file name ends with “.py” and only “.py”. In other words, the file you send to your phone should be named “6630Timelapse.py”.
Before you run it you also need to make a folder on the memory card of your phone. Use the built in file manager and make the following structure: Memory Card (e:): python/timelapse/
Your images will be stored there.
Then you start Python and select “Run Script” from the menu. Give the project a name, decide a number of images and an interval. Note about the interval, choosing anything less than 5 seconds might cause problems. The phone needs some time to store the image on the memory card.
Time to test it. I simply put it outside our window facing the sky. Snapping an image every 15th second during the evening until the sky went dark. My experiments indicates that the phone can snap about 500 or 600 images on one charge. Of course depending on the time interval. If you connect a charger you could leave it until the memory card is full.
http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf
And here’s another one. A couple of hours outside the window at work.
And how I made the videos? Install QuickTime and choose “File->Open Image sequence” on the first image of the sequence that your phone just made. Or just google “software make time lapse video from image sequence” or something like that…
I’ll bring that phone when travelling. Leave it in my hotel room to document the cleaning process. Leave it on stage while speaking, to document how many people left during my presentation… Endless possibilities.
Of course I’m not the only one doing risky experiments with my phone. Mr. Ramon Arellano informs me of his experiments with an RC plane and a phone. Now if he could mount that phone to the bottle rocket…
And Matjaž has some nice stills taken from an RC plane as well. If that’s not enough you can also have a look at some nice footage here.
I am at the phone with my friend Asbjørn Følstad of SINTEF in Norway (The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research). He asks about my recent trip to Ljubljana. I answer and also directs him to my blog where I have published my presentation and some images from my trip. He looks up eirikso.com while we’re still on the phone. Suddenly he says somethink like:
– “But, what!? That’s me!”
My immediate answer is “what are you talking about?”.
– “I am talking about that boat that is about to be run over by the large ferry”
– “That’s me and my friend out sailing last sunday”
Now that’s a bit of a coincidence! Mr. Følstad is an experienced sailor and could tell me that the situation was not too dramatic. He knows the water and the course of that ferry very well. Still, there wasn’t a lot of wind and the Crown of Scandinavia was closer than usual.
But the fact that I shoot that image from several hundred meters away totally at random and then we learn that it is a friend of mine on board. Improbabilities…
Then this happens:
Some minutes ago I recieve this comment on my post from Ljubljana:
Ana Says:
June 15th, 2007 at 1:27 pm e
Oh, by the way, the guy on a bicycle with a blue T-shirt is my schoolmate from grammar school, his name is Matjaz.
What should I say? There are about 300 000 people living in Ljubljana. And one of my readers know the person in this image. I was busy shooting something else when this nice combination of colour and people and motion struck the corner of my eye. Strange stuff.
And by the way. I do a bit of street photography. A lot of the images are not published on public sites like Flickr because I don’t like to publish images of people that I have photographed without asking. When the images are as nice as this one I use my right to publish images photographed on public places. If you find yourself in any of the images in my Flickr stream or here on eirikso.com and want to be removed please drop me a line.
The answer to this question. Close but no cigar.
Guess I’ll have to post the next image pretty soon.
I just bought some new lenses for my Canon 400D to extend the reach and creative possibilities. So, I decided to go through a couple of possibilities when it comes to optics.
First out is my old Sony DSC-P150. It has a 3 x zoom and years ago I extended the possibilities by adding two small extra lenses from Cokin. Not very high quality optics, but better than expected and, in good conditions, quite acceptable.
You use them by adding a small metal ring on the camera. The lenses have powerful magnets at one end. That way you can snap them easily on and off.
Here are a couple of test shots taken in very bad conditions through my famous living room window.
Here you have the DSC-P150 with the 0.5 extra wide angle.
This is the DSC-P150 at standard full wide angle.
And the standard full tele…
…compared to the full tele + 2x extender.
In my next post I will show you another way to extend the reach: buy another camera. The Canon S2 IS. A compact with so called super zoom. Then, I’ll show you what the new lenses for my 400D can do…
If you click the image you’ll be taken to Flickr where you can examine the Exif info and view the image in full size. Macro photography in non controllable environments is difficult. This one turned out perfect. The only one of about 50 images of this spider.
I try to carry my camera as often as possible. Photography is one of those hobbies that you can bring along a lot of places. This is the result of some time waiting at the Zürich Airport. By the way, a very nice airport.
It’s spring. And it’s easter. So, I’ll be slow on posting and replying to comments for the next couple of days. Have a nice weekend.
eirikso 