Camera for time lapse pictures made easy.

I was checking out one of the other Instructables about making time lapse movies. He pretty well covered the movie part. He told about the free software that you could download to make the movies. I said to myself, I think that I will see if I can make my camera into a time lapse camera. I have wanted to do the time lapse thing. First I had to think about all the good junk that I have lying around. I remembered the video camera that I took apart. It had some nice parts in it. One thing that I needed from it at this time was one of the motors that ran the lens. I got out the motor and checked it with a 9 volt battery. It worked really nice. With the gear reduction that it had, I thought it would be just what I needed. After checking that out, I had to do a little thinking. I just got out all my tools and went at it. I am hoping that you will be able to see the test run that I made after I got it put together. It is the first picture.

Here is a link to the video that I have on YouTube; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6-Kz_LSUlA

Note: (You will need the Firefox browser to view the site. IE will not let you open the pictures right or make comments on what you see. Thanks for viewing the site.)

A word of two on safety; anytime you are working with any kinds of metal, you need safety glasses and other safety type equipment. Gloves are also helpful. I can not be responsible for any harm that might come to you if you try to build this instructable for yourself.

Step 1 Parts list and equipment used.

1. Drill and bits.
2. Grinder
3 Files
4. Saws
5. Safety glasses.
6. Gloves.
7. Metal cutters
8. Pliers
9. Needle nose pliers
10. Vice gripes
11. Hammer
12. Small screw driver set.
13. Regular screw driver

Material
1. Small motor
2. Battery 9 volt.
3. Small pieces of tin
4. A few screws.
5. Duct tape.
6. Pill bottle
7. Camera

Comments

[Mark Rehorst]

This is a great idea but doesn't allow much control of the timing of the focus and shutter. I am working on a design for a programmable intervalometer that uses a uC to time the focus and shutter closures. I was going to use relays but that would require modification to most cameras. Your method of mechanically tripping the shutter is a much better way to go. An RC servo could stop at the focus position for a few seconds, then continue to trip the shutter. Another way would be to use two solenoids at different positions on the lever arm- one far from the shutter button would pull the lever down far enough to set the focus and the other, located close to the button, would pull the lever far enough to actually trip the shutter. Or use a motor to drive a screw that operates the shutter button. A few revs activates the focus and a few more trips the shutter. Drive it in reverse to release the shutter.

[cateddy]

Thanks for the comment tyler_durden. I just put this together really fast. Wanted to get it in the contest. I plan on playing around with it a bit. Maybe changing the voltage either up or down. Going to try a variable resistor to see if that will do anything for it. You can see by the first set of pictures that the focus is working pretty good. I think one thing that would help to change the settings of the camera. I have it set so that it takes high resolution pictures. I think that this takes a bit more time and if I were to make a movie of the pictures, the movie would be really large in size. My camera has the automatic focus that you hold down half way before taking the picture. A person could make the lever like a cam so that it would hold the button down for a bit before taking the picture. That is just a thought. Well thank for you comment. I will look your comment over really good and see if I can figure out just what you have in mind for your project. Thanks again. Chuck

[Mark Rehorst]

How do you control the interval between pictures? What is the range of that control?

[cateddy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WSKJGZuJPY
Hello Tyler. I thought that I would give you an update on the time lapse camera that I was working on. Above it a link to a movie I made. I used the camera plus another project that I have been working on. It is a turntable. I set a clock in the background so that a person would be able to see it as a time lapse movie. I have another movie with some clouds on this site that looks pretty good too. Thanks in advance for any comment that you might have about this movie. Chuck

[cateddy]

Right now the only control that it has it the speed of the motor. It takes a picture about every second. I plan try some type of controls like maybe higher or lower voltage. A resistor may work as well. Did you have a chance to check out the movie that I put a the start of the Instructable. Right now I am trying to put the video on youtube so that it will be easier to get started. I will update the project as I improve it. Thanks for returning the comment. Chuck

[cateddy]

Hello tyler_durden. Here is a link to the video that I was talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6-Kz_LSUlA

[Mark Rehorst]

I was not able to get the video in this instructable to play but the youtube video worked. I don't know about your specific camera, but many digital cameras can't record pictures as fast as you're running. Many also require as many as a few seconds just to focus. I think a lot of time lapse situations (clouds, flowers blooming, etc.) would require longer intervals than you can achieve by playing with the voltage to your motor. As you drop the voltage the torque drops and when the voltage is too low the motor won't have enough oomph to push the shutter button.

[cateddy]

Hello tyler_durden. There is one think that I am thinking about. Maybe dropping out every other picture might bring it to the right speed. With the pictures that you take with a digital camera, it pretty cheap to lose a few. Just a thought. Chuck

[Ashemha]

Great Instructable. I have a "slow" timer motor out of an old outdoor mechanical timer. This should work great for a steady rotating mechanism. Did I miss the link to your images?

[cateddy]

Ashemha. Were you able to see the images. I could put them on another site and post a link to the if you want. Chuck

[cateddy]

Hello Ashemha. On the pictures, if you are not using the Firefox browser, you might not be able to see the pictures. I put a lot of pictures on this instructable just in case that someone else might want to do the same project that I did here. There are a lot of improvements that a person could do to it. On the motor thing, the only thing that a guy could do, is just give it a try. It is well worth it once you see it work the way that you wanted it to. Thanks for the comment. Chuck

[Trebawa]

If you have a Canon PowerShot, there's this great little thing called CHDK that adds a whole bunch of features, including intervalometers.

[cateddy]

Hello Trebaqwa. I have a Fuijfilm Finepix 2650 that I was using. I had another on that was broken that I use to mount the parts on while I was putting it together. I will be looking at all kind of links to see what all my options are for making movies and other time lapse projects. Thanks for you comment on the instructable. Chuck