1 year footage in 10 minutes.
October 8, 2011 12:22 PM   Subscribe

I want to create a time-lapse. The plan is to first film the scenery (outdoors) for one year. How can I make this happen? Flaky details inside.

I want to film a place for a whole year and then create a time lapse, showing the changes in scenery during the different seasons. - I think it will look really cool.

How can I make this happen?

1 - The camera needs to be outside. Is there anyway I can protect the lenses from snow or rain?

2 - Ideally this will be 720p - the file size won't be small. I thought about using a HD webcam to film the video, attached to one of these, then hook it up to a wired network - so I can save it on a NAS. Am I missing anything here?

3 - I want to keep costs down to $300 (not including the Zotac box).

4 - Do you know any simpler/easier way to do this? Maybe a cheap camera connected to power + one 128Gb SDXC memory card that I can upload to my computer manually?

5 - Is this feasible, or am I nuts?
posted by helloworlditsme to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (5 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Brinno garden watch cam will do exactly what you want to do
posted by rockindata at 12:42 PM on October 8, 2011 [1 favorite]


Or this one, which you can put any sd card in and also power with a solar panel
posted by rockindata at 12:46 PM on October 8, 2011


Are you going to run it 24 hours a day? 12 hours a day? Or once everyday at the same time for a certain amount of time? Because editing hours and hours of night is going to get really old.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:34 PM on October 8, 2011 [1 favorite]


This can be done, but you cannot hope to achieve particularly high video quality within your budget. You'll be wanting to find a cheap, weatherized camera to take a still frame an hour or something similar, like what the others have been suggesting.
posted by Strudel at 6:33 PM on October 8, 2011


Best answer: "The camera needs to be outside. Is there anyway I can protect the lenses from snow or rain?"

Construct a box (Top, Side, Both Views) for the camera to reside in. One side is glass at an angle top to bottom and that side is protected from the elements with a large overhang and wings. The glass being angled helps to prevent stuff from dirtying the glass and will cut down on reflections. You can get anti glare/anti reflective glass at picture framing places. Paint the inside of the box with flat black exterior paint. the bottom part of the box should only go from the back of the box to the glass. Adjust the angle of the wings to match the angle of view.

If the box isn't shaded you'll probably want vents of some sort. A screened louvre set up like weather stations would be good. You can buy pre-made louvres in the roofing and siding section of your local home improvement Borg as either soffit vents or gable vents in assorted shapes and sizes.

I'd mount the box on a steel pole set into the ground with concrete (like you'd do with a fence post).

Sheet metal is an obvious good choice to construct the box but wood will work too. If I went with wood I'd paint the outside with a Elastomeric roof coating.

Or you could modify a box already designed to be weather tight like a deck box or a job box with a window though that'll significantly cut into your budget. On the cheap you might be able to re-purpose a plastic tool box.

Make sure what ever you use has a drain so that condensation can't accumulate.
posted by Mitheral at 9:42 PM on October 8, 2011


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