Time lapse videoing of cruise trips

Trundlebug

Trundlebug

Well-Known Member
Joined
4 Jan 2007
Messages
2,444
Location
River Trent
Visit site
I've just bought a little GoPro type video camera which I intend to use for filming time lapse videos of our summer trips this year.

I'm struggling with the large number of options available on it, and don't want to spend ages with trial and error before getting it right, so am hoping to tap into the expertise on this forum for some help.

It has time lapse intervals of 1s, 5s, 10s, 20s, 30s and 60s. My guess is maybe 20s?
FPS playback can be 30 or 60, I'm going for 30 to start with I think.
Resolution available in lots of options but I'm starting with 16MB.

For say a 2 hour trip, cruise speed of 7 kn, will the above parameters look OK when played on a TV?
What about an 8 hour trip? Same lapse time? Or should I go for 30s?

Just have to find somewhere to fit the thing now. So many mountings, clips and brackets in the kit, it's like a complete Lego set.
 
Another option is to film at normal speed and then speed it up in post production, thats what I do.

In choosing a resolution I stick to whatever resolution I am going to show it at, so TVs are 720p or 1024i (or 1024p) @25fps, 30fps, 50fps or 60fps.. The reason for this is again "post production" if you injest and output at the same resolution the editing is faster because its not transcoding.
 
The biggest issue with the GoPro is battery life. I bought a USB battery eliminator for my GoPro Hero 4 so I could indefinitely record videos and time-lapses without the battery going dead.

As a result I've been able to record overnight time-lapses like this...



 
Last edited:
Trundlebug said:
I've just bought a little GoPro type video camera which I intend to use for filming time lapse videos of our summer trips this year.

I'm struggling with the large number of options available on it, and don't want to spend ages with trial and error before getting it right, so am hoping to tap into the expertise on this forum for some help.

It has time lapse intervals of 1s, 5s, 10s, 20s, 30s and 60s. My guess is maybe 20s?
FPS playback can be 30 or 60, I'm going for 30 to start with I think.
Resolution available in lots of options but I'm starting with 16MB.

For say a 2 hour trip, cruise speed of 7 kn, will the above parameters look OK when played on a TV?
What about an 8 hour trip? Same lapse time? Or should I go for 30s?

Just have to find somewhere to fit the thing now. So many mountings, clips and brackets in the kit, it's like a complete Lego set.
Click to expand...

At 20s you'd compress a two hour trip into roughly 14 seconds (25 frames, or 25 individual images per second will help calculate what you will end up with in terms of resulting video length). For a two hour trip you could go 10s or even 5s which would give you more to play with. You can always speed up the final video if it feels too long.

As Andrew says battery life, which is rubbish on a gopro, will be something to take into consideration.
 
I have to be honest and say I'm not a huge fan of time lapse trips out in the boat videos.

For key elements, leaving a busy harbour for instance they work but you're only compressing a few minutes not several hours. The night time shot on the yacht was a good example, the only bit of interest was potentially when the sun came up. Time lapse can get monotonous if you're not careful.

An event such as a concert build up, building construction or closer to home a tide cycle is interesting but just compressing a 2 hour journey doesn't do it for me. I want to capture the essence of being on board.

Ultra wide angle cameras like the GoPro have their uses but I find in boating videos it tends to be short clips within a more traditionally shot movie.

Purely my humble opinion. I prepare myself to be torn apart by the most amazing time lapse boat trips :)


Henry :)
 
Thanks for the replies.

This is the camera I bought,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391423328250?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
I'm conscious that battery life may be a problem, although I'll turn off the wifi which reduces life down to 90 mins, and am hoping that with time lapse it'll help the battery a bit. Only one way to find out...

The info on resolution was really useful, thanks mlines, I might try 720 setting. With the camera having a wide angle lens I wasn't sure what quality it would have when shown on a modern tv, so thought I would go fairly high res, but if it'll be wasted then I may as well just go for 720.

Andrew, thanks for posting those vids, the second one is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.
What time lapse setting was that, and how long was the journey?
Also, where did you attach it to? My camera came with a box of all kinds of attachments but I can't think of anywhere suitable to attach it to yet.
 
I take my video at normal speed, then cut out/speed up just the bits that I want to. That way I can get normal speed for some parts of the trip, and time lapse for the boring parts.

This is my first attempt last year, taken at normal speed then edited with Microsoft Movie Maker (Very easy to use and free).

 
Last edited:
I've had a GoPro for a few years and I'm not a great fan of it.
For me, it doesn't even produce the colour range that you get from cheap pocket camera costing half the price.

If I were looking at a new video camera, I would be considering something like this:-
(a lot more expensive but I'm sure it would produce a lot better image)
Probably wouldn't do a better job on the time lapse but as a video camera, maybe it is the way to go.

 
Hurricane said:
I've had a GoPro for a few years and I'm not a great fan of it.
For me, it doesn't even produce the colour range that you get from cheap pocket camera costing half the price.

If I were looking at a new video camera, I would be considering something like this:-
(a lot more expensive but I'm sure it would produce a lot better image)
Probably wouldn't do a better job on the time lapse but as a video camera, maybe it is the way to go.

Click to expand...

We have he osmo and think that it's fantastic, not waterproof, yet.
Have to say for good time lapse, the iPhone 6s is perfect, combined with a watertight case and gorilla tripod it's a good solution for the front of the boat. If you have one it could save you £££.
Go pro are really up against it now, would be surprised if they don't crash and burn in the next 18 months....
 
Nigelpickin said:
We have he osmo and think that it's fantastic, not waterproof, yet.
Click to expand...

Interesting - can you say more about the Osmo?
It worries me that it might be difficult to "frame" the shots.
With my still photography, I find it much easier looking through a viewfinder than at a screen.
My SLR is a good example of this - it forces me to use the screen for video.
But it is useless at stabilisation.
What camera concept is the best these days for video?
 
Trundlebug said:
Andrew, thanks for posting those vids, the second one is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.
What time lapse setting was that, and how long was the journey?
Also, where did you attach it to? My camera came with a box of all kinds of attachments but I can't think of anywhere suitable to attach it to yet.
Click to expand...

Can't remember the exact internal (I think it was 1 every 10 seconds). The duration was around 12 hours. Best thing you can do is to experiment at home before trying on the boat - try an overnight time lapse in your garden and see the results. If it doesn't work out try again the next night with different settings.

In terms of mounts it really depends on your boat. I have the suction cup which works well on windows or flat GRP surfaces. I also have a chest mount which is great for driving perspective shots. A roll bar mount might work well on a railings etc.
 
Thanks for the info.

I tried it over the bank hol w/e on our trip down to Boston in several legs.
Started with interval set at 5s, (3 hr trip condensed to about 50 secs) it worked well but was a bit too condensed, so making playback extremely fast.
Battery life was about 3 hours with wi-fi turned off, (better than the 90 mins they quoted with it on), and not bad but not long enough to capture an entire day's cruise in one go, but hey-ho.
It fully recharged in about an hour.

I then tried it on 2s interval, (3 hr trip played back in about 2 mins) that was much better although playback seemed too fast in some places and too slow in others. Maybe that's the best compromise.
I'm thinking of trying it on the 1s interval for intricate & very interesting sections.

The quality was excellent from such a small camera. It captured the colours nicely and with good resolution, even at the intermediate setting of 1080. Looked fine when played on a laptop screen anyway, I have yet to see it on the bigger tv screen at home.

I mounted it at first to the top of the horns on the roof of the wheelhouse, using the handlebar mount.
That worked fine but I had to refix it lower down, direct to the roof using a 2-sided sticky pad mount when we went through the Glory Hole in Lincoln. We only have about an inch of clearance through there.

Overall I'm very pleased, and can recommend it to anyone thinking of getting one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top