I have never gotten to really know my cameras really well, but am trying to change that. I learned something today that may be of interest to the PDML (if I'm not the only one who didn't realize this).
I got a K-01 (long ago) and have planned to use it mainly as a time-lapse camera and also for astro work mounted on my Vixen Polarie (tracker). So most of us are well aware of the fact that our Pentax cameras have a built-in intervalometer. If they have a jack, they can also use external intervalometers (for example to exceed the image number limitations of the camera settings). The images are usually then compiled into time-lapse "movies" using Photoshop or Picasa or some such software. But what I only learned today is that there is a separate way to make time-lapse movies (in camera) using the MOVIE mode. On the K-01 and Q, this is done by selecting "interval shooting" in the movie menu. On my K-3 II, this is done by switching the switch to "Movie" and then hitting the Drive Mode button (where your options are: Remote Control, Remote Control Off, & Interval Movie Mode). Under "Interval Movie Mode" you select your: Recorded Pixels: 4K, HD, FullHD Interval: (intervals of: 2 sec., 5 sec., 10 sec., 20 sec., 30 sec., 1 min., 5 min., 10 min., 30 min., and 1 hour.) Recording Time: HR:MIN:SEC Start Interval: (Now, or Set Time) If Start Interval = Set Time then Start Time can be set HR:MIN Interval Movie Mode results in an .AVI file. I believe you can pull that AVI file into your video editing software to speed it up further, if a clip is too long for your tastes. Here is an example someone took with a K-3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGli2qH7ACM Example taken with a K-01: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj9kwWLVErw&feature=youtu.be As an aside, the K-01 is supposed to be GREAT at either type of time-lapse (movie or still composites) probably because it lacks a viewfinder (which would need to be covered) and mirror, so it delivers superb exposure control and even is said to handle night time to daylight transitions (and vice versa) with out the need to deflicker. It looks like most Pentax models since the K-01 and Q have this mode, though minor details may vary. For example, the minimum recording interval on a K-50 is 3 seconds (not 2). I'm looking forward to trying this out on both my K-3 II and the K-01. The downside to this movie mode (I believe) is that you don't have the individual frames any more, and you don't have an HDR option as you would if shooting intervals in still mode. So there are probably times when you would want to use one mode over the other. However, The great advantage to using the Interval Movie Mode (Movie > Interval Shooting) is that you don’t have to deal with the hundreds or thousands of individual high-res files in post-production to manually create the movie file. Hope someone else finds this interesting. Darren Addy Kearney, Nebraska -- “The Earth is Art, The Photographer is only a Witness ” ― Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Earth from Above -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
