Some useful time lapse (interval shooting) observations

[jiggyb21]

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These observations are coming most recently from shooting Canon, but also Sony and I believe Nikon and Panasonic fall in too.

I shoot a lot of time lapse photography, especially night sky, and when transitioning my time lapse work to my SL2-s and SL3 I originally thought I had found a bug.  As it turns out now, I believe it is just a difference in philosophy.  On the other cameras I have used recently, the chosen "interval" was defined as the time between exposure A's shutter closing and exposure B's shuttering opening.  Regardless of exposure time I could always set the interval to 2 sec and know that the next exposure would start 2 sec after the previous exposure ended.  This allows for things like day to night time lapse shot with aperture priority mode.  The camera would start at say 1/1000 as the sun was setting and automatically adjust all the way down to 30 sec as only stars illuminate the scene (all controlled to some degree by the parameters set in the menu) but every exposure would begin 2 sec after the previous exposure ended.  So essentially at the beginning of the time lapse, in my example, the camera would be taking a photo every 2.001 sec.  At the end it would be taking an exposure every 32 sec.  

After much testing it seems Leica has implemented what I would consider a traditional, to say it nicely, or archaic to be more blunt, approach to this type of shooting.  It is more in line with an old school $15 intervalometer whereby you must set the interval to equal your exposure time PLUS the wait period (what other manufacturers now call the interval).  With Leica, a 30 sec exposure with 2 sec in between requires you set the "interval" to 32 sec. 

I am fulling aware that the word interval by traditional and possibly dictionary definition would mean the time between exposure starts or shutter actuations but as you can see from my above example, this completely eliminates any possibility of using these cameras for time lapse for anything outside of MANUAL control.  I have always run a two camera setup with me running the A camera manually and the B cam capturing a dusk into night time lapse.  This is simply not possible with my current SL2-s and SL3 setup.  I guess it is just one of those things I never expected when switching to Leica.  They are the only one that have kept to this more traditional way of defining "interval" that I am aware of.  I often hike into the deep wilderness for my time lapses and having a second, more autonomous camera allows me to double my output.  Unfortunately I will likely have to revert the B camera back to a Panasonic for this reason.  At least I can use the same lenses.

At least I figured it out before my trip this weekend and I am really only starting this thread to make a potential buyer aware before they have to find out the way I did.  This is such a niche thing that I have no misgivings that it will ever change, I think it is baked into Leica's philosophy.  I would push back on anyone saying I am using these cameras outside their designed purpose by saying there is no reason they can't stick to tradition while at the same time recognizing there minor changes open up an entire genre of photography.  Again, I recognize how niche my use case is and accept that even if someone from Leica were to read this, it's likely the first time they have.

[Photoworks]

I am trying to understand what is the issue!
Are you saying that when you bring the exposures on a timeline your video looks faster at night when you do day to night?

I suppose if the exposure during the day is 1/60 and 2sec at night, isn't it just a 5% time difference in a 30-second timelapse?

[BernardC]

I'm sure I've seen this mentioned previously on this forum. Leica is using motion picture-style timelapse, where the running speed stays constant. That's how you would do it with an intervalometer (mechanical or electronic) on a cinema camera.

The other way means that the daytime portion of you shot runs slower (more frames) and the nighttime portion runs faster (fewer frames). You could probably write a script that reads the shutter speed from your DNGs and adds missing frames (by copying existing frames) in order to make the playback speed constant, but the the nighttime part of your shot will seem to stutter.

I guess it would be nice if Leica provided both options in the menu, but the one they chose is the industry standard for cinema. You've probably seen hundreds of timelapse shots done that way in movies and documentaries.

[Pelu2010]

I have to say that I am of the impression that Leica is not understanding Timelapse at all. It would be helpful if the programming unit would have a look at professional Timelapse trigger to see what is possible with a little bit of love ❤️ 

 

I have switched to 

LRTimelapse PRO Timer 3

I switched to Leica because of the lenses, but I am very disappointed of the Timelapse abilities of the cameras. 
 

I gave up. 
 

I am looking for another system. 
 

1. the battery management of the camera is not up to date. If you make transitions of day to night and night to day and the Timelapse is longer than 6 hours than the battery just dies and you need to touch the camera. 
 

I am experimenting with the Leica coupler, but the coupler does not provide a second battery. 
I was used to have a ac/dc plug or cable for the camera since 2001, and I thing that Leica is missing an opportunity in this case. And I lost so many shots with images not been taken or batteries drained or cameras moved. 
it’s already very stressful and time consuming to do Timelapse, I don’t need more stress from the camera I am using. 
I need support. 
 

last attempt: it would be nice if the Leica app had a Timelapse section where Timelapse enthusiasts could enjoy the magic of timelapsing and stoppmotion. 
 

I hope someone listens, because I am done with Timelapse incontinence. 
 

I just want to make good Timelapse.
 

cheers Peter  

 
 

[wjdrijfhout]

What do you mean with ‘coupler does not provide a second battery’? Presumably you can put any type of USB-PD power bank or charger to the coupler and essentially keep the SL3 running for days on end?