time-lapse gigapan?

[amazing50]

Time lapse-pans are posible now with the Epic 100 by going to going to "Last Panorama" on the menue after your pan is finished and repeating the process multiple times. The results will be a time lapse series. This could be automated with a repeat every x minutes in the code, a firmware update.

Since time-lapse is normaly shown as a video clip, high resolution becomes redundant for most users. The wide angle view is most likely the desited effect. Capturing a sunrise/sunset of a town, harbour etc. at say 3x6 frames in wide angle continuosly for 2 hours could be made into an impressive time-lapse sequence. It can be done , now, manually, but would be rather tiresome.

Stoney Vintson, it would be appreciated if you could persuade your programers to put out an advanced version of your firmware that would eliminate some of the basic questions, like "is your flash turned off?" and use the resulting chip memory space for repeat timed pans. Those questions are important for novice users, but anoying for the more experienced. It's like being asked to repeat my e-mail address on a form, I've had the same one since 2 days after Yahoo went online.

[Stoney Vintson]

This is a rough draft example of two gigapan time lapse sequences that were taken with an Epic 100 imager and a Canon G10. I did not use a tripod. I used virtualdub and the deflicker plugin and output to 1280x720. I am aware of the glitches.

http://vimeo.com/5255592

[rschott]

That's wicked neat, Stoney! Not exactly what I think of as a time-lapse GigaPan, but definitely an interesting and innovative use of the GigaPan Robot for shooting time-lapse photography. I believe you've pioneered a very interesting avenue for further exploration. My compliments!

[cidodd]

Now if only one of us knew Kung Fu... We could do some great 'bullet time' photography without the need for all the cameras.

[amazing50]

Stoney, what program did you use to convert the original individual exposures into an AVI?

I tried Windows Movie Maker and ACDsee 2.5 and both would create an AVI but they displayed each pic for way too long. A 50 pic test was streached into several minutes. Virtualdub only seems to work with with AVI's.

Liked your time-lapse test shots but I would appreciate a more detailed explination on the setup, settings etc.

Would also like to know if there are any photo editing programs available, other than expensive Adobe PS, that will handle the large files generated by the stitcher when several hundred or more high res pix are stitched together?

Thanks Mike

[Stoney Vintson]

In order to easily shoot panoramic time lapses, changes to the firmware would be needed. In a post above I mentioned some of the different types of time lapses and different mediums used to present them.

Try and select something interesting to shoot such as somebody painting, ice cubes melting, the sun setting, a ship moving through the harbor. The higher resolution and the lapse in time is what differentiates a time lapse taken with a still camera from a video. You can shoot a time lapse with a video camera, but it will not have as high resolution images as a still camera.

Non panorama time lapse aquisition
1. Set option -> expert option -> pic order to column ( this is the default setting )
2. Use 'Gigapan Setup' to set the FOV ( field of view to 0.8 for pans and less than 0.6 if you want it to remain stationary )
3. Set option -> 'time per pic' to the lapse in time that you want such as 3.6 seconds
4. Adjust the camera exposure and focus
a. Use a faster shutter speed to freeze movement. I used ISO 800 which is noisy on a small sensor.
the video will be scaled down which will make the noise less apparent.
b. reminder, aproximately 1/3 of depth of field is in front and 2/3 is to rear of critical focus
5. Use 'New Panorama' to define
a. A single row to realize a pan from left to right.
b. A single column to realize a pan from top to bottom
c. A single row with a FOV less than 0.6 for a stationary sequence.
The left and right will allow you to set the number of photographs for a sequence, but the imager
will move slightly to the right and then back to the same position. The result is no camera movement.
6. Take the sequence of images.
7. Repeat step 4 through 6 for multiple sequences that will be joined together to make the time lapse longer and more interesting.

Install virtual dub and the deflicker plugin
1. Download virtualdub and install it
http://www.virtualdub.org/
2. Download the deflicker plugin for virtualdub and unpack it into the plugins folder of virtualdub
http://www.neuron2.net/deflick/flick.html

Create video timelapse using Virtualdub
1. Run virtualdub.exe and select the first jpeg in the sequence of images using
file -> Open video file
2. Add the deflicker and resize filters using
video -> Filters
a. click the add button and select the deflicker filter
b. click the add button and select the resize filter
- New size, Relative to value close to 1280. 29 or 30% for G10
- Framing options, Letterbox/crop to size 1280 x 720 ( optimal resolution for vimeo )
3. Select the compression type using
video -> compression
Xvid MPEG-4 codec ( works well )
http://www.xvidmovies.com/codec/
4. Optionally choose an audio file using
audio -> audio from another file ( you might use mp3, ensure that you have the right to use this audio )
5. Save as AVI using
file -> save as avi

Now you can make further edits to the time lapse using a NLE such as Sony Vegas, Apple's Final cut Pro, Adobe's Premiere CS3 etc. You can also do other things with Apple's Shake or Adobe's After Efects. Though you may use an minimal editor such as iMovie or a Windows product.

[amazing50]

Thanks Stoney, your instructions for Virtualdub worked fine and your prompt responses are always appreciated.

Would also like to know if there are any photo editing programs available, other than expensive Adobe PS, that will handle the large files generated by the stitcher when several hundred or more high res pix are stitched together?

[Franklin]

The Epic 100 Firmware already has a provision for repeating a gigapan. - To do time lapse, all that would be necessary would be a setting to make it start over automatically after a time interval which could be specified.

[Stoney Vintson]

That change would require modifying the firmware.

[Franklin]

Time lapse pictures in any resolution up to full camera resolution can be made easily with almost any Canon point in shoot camera and CDHK or Stereodata Maker. A Youtube search using the terms "time lapse CDHK" or "time lapse Stereodata Maker" will find a number of them. You can find a recent example here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9o1X_FEmLE

After producing an image sequence, they can be turned into a movie with the inexpensive program Quicktime Pro.