Submitted by Dan on Tue, 11/09/2010 - 12:56
Posted in
Introduction
Timelapse Calculator was designed to help one decide the appropriate interval settings for timelapse applications. The unique thing about Timelapse Calculator compared to others you might find online is it's user specified dynamic interface.
This allows one to input the data that they already know, for example, the actual time you wish to allocate to shoot the timelapse sequence. Then the Timelapse Calculator does the rest of the thinking (or suggesting) for you. This allows for quick intuitive calculations so you can get the shots you want before the scenery changes and the moment passes.
iPhone Version (New)
Thanks Simon Loffer for his slick, and much more portable take on the Original Timelapse Calculator. Follow this link to download the iPhone app.
PyQt Version (Cross Platform)
Features
- Shooting Duration (Input or Calculation)
- Playback Duraion (Input or Calculation)
- Interval Time Between Shots (Input only)
- Shots to be taken (Input or Calculation)
- FPS, Frames Per Second for playback (Input only)
- Reset values, Sets all values to 0
- Cross Platform Interface and API
Installation
To use Timelapse Calculator, you can follow the official PyQt reference guide or you can do what I did and simply download The PyQt Windows Binary installer from here. At the time of this post, Timelapse Calculator has been tested with PyQt4.7.3 running under a Windows 32bit Install of Python 2.6.5
PyQt is a cross platform API so provided you have both python and PyQt installed on your Windows, Mac or Linux machine, you should be able to just grab the source code and run it natively on your system. I welcome anyone with a Mac or Linux OS to try it out and report your findings here on openmoco.org
Once you have Python and PyQt installed and working, Simply download the Timelapse Calculator Source make sure the two files live in the same directory and run the TLC_Calculator.py
Here is a Video of how it looks on Windows 7.
Timelapse Calculator: Download
Timelapse Calculator
Wow, love this app. Its amazing what you can get on an iPhone now.
Milo
App Feedback
Hey guys,
Thanks so much for all the feedback,
I am only able to do updates to the pyQt version of timelapse calculator.
But I will try to pass iphone app feedback on to Sighmon where applicable. But in the future, you may find it better to send iphone app requests directly to him via his site http://sighmon.com/
Cheers,
Dan.
Great... but for v2 some WIBNI...
It´s really good app.
I also vote for extending features (even when it would not be free app anymore) for controlling dollies like Stage Zero from DP.
Entering parameters like lenght of camera travel in (mm) for duration of the shooting, maximum time needed to create the shots sequence (for HDR for example it may take few seconds to create -2, -1, 0, +1, +2EV) or when shooting in the night it may take 30s to make each shot etc. Next parameter may be delay between shots needed for camera to be perfectly stil and rest parameters what thery are in right now.
So when I want to shoot exactly 2h and result should be 60s in 25fps video, I need to calculate those delays for example and the step movement between shots in mm...
By the way, iphone/ipad app does not calculate interval when I enter shooting time, playback time and FPS? I´m using separate CLamCam app for it or calculator. It would be nice to do it directly in the Timelapse Helper. Maybe I do something wrong, but without entering Interval, it does not allow me to enter shooting time. But I know shooting time and want to calculate correct inverval between shots.
Thanks
Great App
Just downloaded the iPhone app and I love it. I'd also love to see controls for a dolly. I have a Kessler Cineslider and have their Oracle controller to add motorized movements. I just set the slider to move from one side to the other for the duration of my frame rate.
Thanks again for the great app!
Playback - Frames
Hi Dan,
excellent tool, thanks a lot!
I was wondering what "Frames" in Playback Duration stands for... Is it "Frames per Second"?
Thx
Chris
Playback - Frames
Hi Chris,
It is as it sounds. Frames stands for frames! :) When you playback something on film or video, the moving image is always made up of frames. Think of it as a replacement for decimal or percent. It does not stand for "Frames per second".
Dan.
Timelapse Calculator
Anyway of getting a iphone app for this
Sweet as
Looking good Dan, was just thinking of a calculator for timelapses, and had a thought for v2.0, having the length of travel and the distance of one move as variables to help judge dolly shots so you don't run outta track, would be sure sweet to have a calculator that incorporated that too?
Sweet as
Sounds like a good idea masepack. Since I don't have the hardware to test this thoroughly, can you point me to the formula for this calculation? I'm guessing that you would need to input data that relates to the circumference of your dolly's wheels?
say that; D= distance of one
say that;
D= distance of one move (Xmm)calculated variable
and
L= length of travel (1800mm)entered variable
S= shots taken (500) entered variable
then
S=L/D
500=1800/X
X=3.6mm
X would be the variable you would program into your motor, this would be different for people due to different sizes of motors/gears/dolly wheels, but can be correlated from the distance of one "move".
I know it would help me on the fly as we have a pretty barebones self written program running a dc motor.
Could be a nice extra box that wouldn't need much extra coding.