We get tons of emails each day asking how to program our line of cameras to capture just one photo per day of a jobsite in hopes of showing a spectacular start-to-finish video. There is a lot more than goes in to time-lapse photography than some people imagine. Any video created is essentially made up of photos played back as at specific speed, the same goes for our videos captured with any Brinno camera.
The standard AVI Frame Rate of a time-lapse video is 30 Frames Per Second (FPS); therefore, with the standard play back rate assigned, one would need at least 30 photos to create one second worth of video time. If one photo were to be captured over the course of 365 days, that would generate 365 photos. If you divide 365 photos by 30 frames to acquire the video length in seconds, you would see those settings would leave you with a 12 second video for the entire year. Now the playback speed is a preference, which ultimately is up to the owner of the camera, but we tend to see the most intriguing footages captured at 30 FPS. Instances where the playback speed is lower that 30FPS are usually for drive-lapses, surveillance, and sometimes art projects.
Most people wish to have more than a 12 second video, so instead here are our recommendations for projects that take up to or more than 1 year.
Timer function - Using the timer helps you save battery power and save only the good stuff! Early morning shots and overnight footage is usually removed before a video is posted, so might as well save yourself the time in the long run. Recommended settings for a timer feature are roughly 8 hours a day. Try to aim for a start time where the lighting is not too different from the middle of the day or your video will look more choppy and not flow as well.
E.g - 9am-5pm
AVI Frame Rate - 30 FPS
As earlier stated, the standard play back rate for any time-lapse video is 30 FPS.
This video was captured with the BCC100 construction camera. It is an example of both the standard speed of playback (30FPS) and also with the timer on 8 hours/day. Note the consistency with the lighting throughout the video.
Image Quality should always be set to best. This setting affects the file size.
The capture interval will vary depending on the total length of the project.
For projects lasting 3/4 months - 5-10 minute interval
6 month projects - 10-12 minute intervals
8 month projects - 15 minute intervals
12 month projects - 30-45 minute intervals
Another factor to think about when choosing your capture interval is whether or not you will include the data that is gathered on the weekends. The timer feature conveniently saves each day's footage as it's own separate files. At the end of the first week there will be 7 individual .AVI files in number sequence. The timer cannot recognize days of the week so instead will replicate the same settings each day until manually altered.
To get exact numbers on file sizes and video length you can plug in your numbers on the time settings calculator found here : http://www.brinno.com/support/time_setting_calculator