Funny you should mention this, as I am currently working on a time lapse movie of the new commercial sundial I have been working on. I have been experimenting with the best staging of one of my prototypes in order to get good lighting for the whole "movie", coming up with the best way to provide fill light so there is detail in the shadows. My video camera has a limited contrast ratio and in past experiments either the bright part of the shot is washed out or the shadow part is too dark. Now I am positioning fill cards off camera to reflect a little bit of light into the shadows and provide better detail.
The camera I have is an old VHS Panasonic - the kind that you rest on your shoulder - model AFx8 I think. It has a preset that automatically takes a one sec shot every minute. I used to use it at FX to document architectural construction in progress...it is pretty interesting to see one of our modular petroleum stations go together in a day in time lapse photography. I just put it on a tripod and let it run all day.
So I have been recording my sundial with the equipment I have access to, with the intentions of digitizing it later through my video card and speeding it up to the desired rate with a digital video editing program. Right now I have a rate of about one minute of footage per hour of real time. I am sure that some of the newer digital video cameras can probably be programmed to do time lapse, but the new Sony digital video camera that we have at the studio does not have that capability. Look closely at any new cameras to be sure.
Jim Tallman
Artisan Industrials
