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Pclix XT User Manual 3.2
Time-lapse Tips, Tricks and Resources
By adding the Pclix XT into your photography toolbox you now have the ability to shoot time-lapse
images anywhere, anytime. To get you started we have detailed some of the information which has
been learned along the way plus added tips and tricks from other Pclix users.
If you would like to
share any time-lapse sequences you have shot using our products by all means let us know. We
always have a handful posted on our website for the world to see and look forward to building our
Users Gallery much larger than it presently is.
There are already online many hundreds of amazing time-lapse works shot by Pclix users all over the
world. There website which host the majority are of course Youtube, Google Video and Vimeo. You can
go to any of these websites and search their vast library by entering the search word "pclix", you'll get
loads of great stuff.
On our website at
www.pclix.com
we have a few pages dedicated to time-lapse shooting tips and
thoughts. You can find these pages under the Camera Compatibility Menu on the Upper Left side of
most our our website pages.The first page deals with digital still cameras, the second with digital video
cameras and finally the third with Canon 5DMKII and 7D Video shooting which is in a class by itself
due to the popularity of these cameras being used to shoot professional video all over the world.
Time-Lapse Shooting Equation:
One question that comes up quite often is "What is the best interval to use in a certain shooting
situation?" Good question indeed. The answer to that question is like asking "How long is a piece of
string?" However, there are a few quick ways to get you in the ballpark plus a few variables that can
be added in order to get a bit more creative.
Here is a basic (some would say not so basic) equation to help determine the best interval between
shots. This is only a starting point, obviously many combinations of shooting lengths, interval settings,
frame rates and other factors can come into play. However as you get more comfortable with the
process this will become easier to understand and you well then be able to focus more on the creative
aspect of time-lapse photography.
Equation – Obtain Shooting Interval
Let's say for example you are going to photograph a sunset and you imagine your shooting time will
be about two hours. You first need to convert that two hours into minutes which gives you 120
minutes. But what we really need is the total number of seconds in that original 2 hours, so take the
120 minutes and multiply that by 60 seconds. You end up with 7200 total seconds.
(2 hours multiplied by 60 minutes multiplied by 60 seconds) = 7200 total seconds
Now lets say you would like the length of your finished sequence to be 10 seconds, you must first
multiply 10 seconds by either 24, 25 or 30 frames (or images) per second. Typically standard video
has 30 frames per second in North America and 25 frames per seconds in Europe. Whereas film and
High Definition Video generally have 24 frames per second. Lets assume we would like 30 frames per
seconds because our time-lapse sequence will eventually be shown on television in North America. So
we use the equation below...
10 seconds multiplied by 30 frames per second = 300 frames for our finished sequence
So all that is left to do is divide the first part by the second part, this will give you the proper interval
setting for the sunset example above using the Pclix XT.
7200 seconds of shooting divided by 300 final sequence frames = an interval of 24 seconds
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1017 Visual Effects Inc. - copyright © 2011
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