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Michael Lloyd
09-25-2011, 10:46 PM
I finally got my Dynamic Perception dolly and MX2 controller put together and set up for use where there is no power so I met a friend of mine and shot a little time lapse. This video represents about 3.5 hours of "real time". The cemetery, though in a rural town, had way too much traffic for my liking. The flashes and background lights really hurt the overall quality. I did a real quick edit in LR3 then used LRTimelapse and LR3 to create a 24fps video of 372 stills.


http://vimeo.com/29586409

Roger Clark
09-26-2011, 08:56 AM
Hi Michael,

The is really cool! Please tell us more about the Dynamic Perception dolly.

The 3D effect of moving the camera position while the stars rotate above is really impressive. I agree about the flashes, otherwise well done.

Finding a more country scene without the orange sky glow from sodium vapor lights will be a challenge. Perhaps
with a crescent moon for illumination would provide more neutral light for the foreground.

Roger

Michael Lloyd
09-26-2011, 10:02 PM
Thanks Roger,

That was my first time out with the dolly system. I have much darker skies and better scenery in mind for the "real" shoot. I also have some ideas for daylight stuff.

The DP dolly system (http://dynamicperception.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=16&products_id=26) is a cost effective way to get into shooting motion time lapse. The controller will also control some telescope mounts for full 3 axis motion control. For now I'll go with just the dolly and MX2 controller.

The flagship dolly system is made by Kessler Crane (http://www.kesslercrane.com/dolly-sliders-s/49.htm) but it's about 4 times the cost of the DP system (if not more). There are benefits to using the Kessler dolly and controller but it's not "required" to shoot decent time lapse.

My setup for the the dolly was as follows:

Camera
30s@f3.5

Dolly/MX2
Shoot / Move / Shoot mode
.25 ips
30 second delay between moves
3.3s dampening after the move. This was to let the camera settle down before tripping the shutter.

I have RRS plates at each end of the dolly. I used an RRS tripod set really low on one end and a Gitzo tripod and B55 ballhead on the other end set at 2- 2.5' in height. I used a 24mm T-S lens pointed generally south to capture the Milky Way rising and passing thru the frame. Total time was a little over 3 hours. If I remember right there were 372 frames in the video. The whole thing is powered by a battery pack that I picked up from Amazon.com. 3.5 hours of shooting (more or less) didn't phase the battery. The camera battery was down about 50% so that's the limiting factor there.

I'm looking forward to shooting more of these.