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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Time-lapse sunrise to sunset help?

Ryan Samul

Ryan Samul

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I've been looking around the net and the forum, and I can't really find any up to date info on the Dragons intervelometer or if it has any type of "bulb" setting to use the "bulb ramping" method people talk about. or if anyone has used the HDRX to facilitate the massive exposure shift involved and how well it works.

I really haven't used the slower FPS settings either so if anyone has any info or experience on this, i would greatly appreciate it.

also if this should be in a different forum, let me know and ill re-post.
 
Don't forget your red for timelapse!! I shoot timelapse on my epic all the time. For a shot that long it would probably be more of a pain because of the battery draw. Can't shoot Astro-timelapse with it but just about everything else I find it superior to a dslr.
 
Chad Lancaster said:
Don't forget your red for timelapse!! I shoot timelapse on my epic all the time. For a shot that long it would probably be more of a pain because of the battery draw. Can't shoot Astro-timelapse with it but just about everything else I find it superior to a dslr.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Red only allow 1fps? How do you pull off a 12 hour Timelapse with that?
 
And how do you allow for exposure changes?

I use use the Dragon on quick little street TLs but never thought of using it for something serious.. However I'm still using little Bramper with a 5d2... I'm kinda old school
 
Um. HDRX timelapse. Trust Chad, the man is a RED TL guru. You can set any interval you like with RED, does not have to be 1 FPS. Can be 1 frame every 5, 10, 20 or whatever you like.

I even have often hooked it up to my Mark Roberts head with Flair. The cool thing about that software is it lets you change you interval while you are in the middle of a shot, among the many other things it will allow you to do.

David
 
There is a couple ways you can do it. First off the power issue... Use the AC power plug or have a hot swap solution with the battery belt clip so that you don't shake the camera. For exposure change assuming each frame is going to be multiple seconds or minutes apart you could manually change it as you go and then fix the bumps in exposure using LR timelapse. If you had manual controlled iris lenses you could motion control an iris pull. Lastly maybe ask mikael at fool control if he could program a way to automate the exposure change settings. My Kessler cinedrive can trigger a shot but doesn't have the ability (currently) to control specific settings.
 
DSLR and 14+ hour timelapse shoots might take 1/3 of the possible shutter counts of your camera-life, if 1fps is your target.

===

Consider perhaps frame averaging with RED.

===

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuqCeVbAD2U
In this example I have two time-lapse (first two takes in the short) with my RED Epic back in 2013. I did this short to get comfortable with my "upgrade". It's just 1FPS, nothing else was enabled.
The traveling clouds and the rising moon on the end, etc., were shot in the same way.

Since I used RED Volts, I had a gap here and there, but I hope it is not noticeable.

My best wishes for your project.


Edit: another short 1FPS example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNh77cy1b6U
 
Last edited:
And here is and example of day to night exposure shift (shot on a Scarlet MX )
 
HDRX for exposure, time-lapse setting for interval and under frame processing there are 2 choices Frame Summing and Frame Averaging. Im not sure if you can use HDRX at the same time as Frame Averaging/Summing. I usually only use Frame Averaging. This choice depending on your number of frames your averaging/summing will or can give you a 16 sec exposure... and oh yes you will need to go shore power. or a big batt on a cable so you don't shake the camera...
 
Interesting. Thanks guys. Maybe im
running old firmware or haven't dug deep enough but last time I checked I could only select 1fps...

Also a question for post.. How do you treat individual frames with Red such as cloning out a bird? I've always used Lightroom and after effects to finish my TLs... What's a good red workflow?
 
@Owen After Effects has a clone stamp tool. Open the timelapse in AE and double click it. To work on single frames open the brush settings panel and change it from "continuous/all frames" to "single frames". It works like any other clone stamper at that point.
 
You don't change the fps setting unless you want less compression. Go to the frame processing settings
Menu > Settings > Recording > change recording mode to internal timelapse trigger.



Owen Rennie said:
Interesting. Thanks guys. Maybe im
running old firmware or haven't dug deep enough but last time I checked I could only select 1fps...

Also a question for post.. How do you treat individual frames with Red such as cloning out a bird? I've always used Lightroom and after effects to finish my TLs... What's a good red workflow?
Click to expand...
 
I love, love, love my RED Dragon, but the simple truth is that timelapses with RED is a major PITA. I do all timelapses with Nikon DSLRs. Why?

WEIGHT
Obviously no fair comparison here; RED is made for cinema while DSLR's are made for stills.
However, the weight difference makes a big impact on your shoulders when transporting it to a location. And while camera body weight is important, the weight of accessories to support a RED camera on location makes a bigger difference (cinema tripod, slider, etc). For example, I have a Kessler motorized 3-axis slider that I use for moving timelapses. It cannot, however, support the weight of a stripped down RED. I also have another motorized 3-axis slider that can support a RED and can do timelapses, but it's a 50+ lbs setup difference! No thanks!

POWER
This is a big one for me.
The vast majority of timelapse locations don't have an AC plug available on the spot. Why on earth would you want to haul a ton of batteries for a long timelapse just for the sake of using a RED? For a 12 hr continuous shoot like you're describing, I would bring at least 8 x 160wH batteries, and that would vary depending on weather conditions. In contrast, my tiny Nikon DSLR battery (EN-EL15) can last over 5+ hrs, depending on weather conditions and camera settings (i.e. I disable screen preview, auto-focusing, and other things to get the most of it; what settings can you disable on a RED so that the battery can last longer? Power management has been a big disappointment for me in RED imho).

BOOT UP TIME
Most current professional DSLRs from Nikon or Canon have a boot up time of less than 1 second. Thus, I can swap batteries fast without affecting the overall timelapse sequence (of course this depends on the sequence settings).

QUALITY
If the quality of a RED timelapse was far superior than that of a DSLR, then I would definitely understand the shortcomings and inconveniences of doing RED timelapses. But the fact is DSLR timelapses, when done properly, have amazing quality (4K or better).

STILLS FLEXIBILITY
I can control my overall still quality better with a DSLR by pushing the shutter, shooting bulb, etc. The holy grail of timelapse is the transitions between night and day.

Anyway, that's only my 2 cents. I'm sure if I needed to do a timelapse with my RED I would, and I'm sure it would be OK. But...why?
 
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