How to setup a long running timelapse?

Question

I would like to setup a timelapse capture of a building site. I would like to take approximately 5 photos every day for the next 3 months.

What is the most economical way of doing this? I have a Raspberry Pi, a Canon Ixus 100 and a GoPro. I can purchase additional equipment, but only have a budget of around $100.

Answer 1

Spend some of your budget on making the mounting for your kit as stable and safe as you can. For example, I use a tripod and tape it to the ground with strong tape, or stake it down with tent pegs if it's outside. If you use a power adapter, tape the cable down too.

Don't worry about stopping the timelapse at night - just discard the dark frames when you're post-processing.

For a three month timelapse you're going to need to clean dust from the lens a few times without moving the camera. Make sure the front of the camera is accessible (eg not right up against a window), and the mounting is secure enough to stay in place while you do it.

Check that the sun isn't going to shine directly into the lens as the sun position changes over the period. Direct sunlight focussed onto the CCD for a few hours will kill the camera.

Finally, you could probably increase your framerate - with a 1 hour period, each frame will have the sunlight coming from a different direction, so when you put it together at the end you'll have a strobe effect. If you can shorten it to 5 minutes you'll get smoother lighting transitions - you'll see the shadows swing around and the clouds traverse the sky as the day passes.

Answer 2

In addition to David's answer, you will probably want to eliminate flicker. Here is a guide:

http://www.learntimelapse.com/time-lapse-photography-how-to-guide/time-lapse-exposure-avoiding-flicker-and-dragging-shutter/

Answer 3

Two thoughts

You could instal CHDK Firmware on your canon which would give you some more advanced features. I believe there is some timelapse and motion detection abilities.

And while you won't get the quality you can get out of an SLR or a GoPro, and it may not fit into your budget but Brinno makes some cameras that are dedicated for timelapse. I was looking to timelapse a construction project and ran into some issues with building a custom rig like,no AC power, dust, weather, paint overspray. I was able to get a camera and a weather housing. the quality was good and the camera was very energy efficient captured for over a month on a pretty high rate of capture (higher than I needed).