Just saw this great time laps video, via Chase
via Savan, via Gizmodo , which gives me an idea as to what one would actually use an intervalometer for. So I’m one step closer to writing that intervalometer script I’ve been meaning to do. I mean really it is just remote shutter release on a timer, though one could spice it up with tethered downloading and maybe deletion from camera to prevent a small memory card from limiting the idea. battery power is still going to be a limit though — A/C adaptors are available I know but never seen anybody who had one.
But then I just read this blog post where he mentions “four Getty photographers would all be shooting tethered into 2 editor’s computers ” – I don’t really know what he meant by that but I read it as more than one camera connected to the same computer.
Not a problem! I presume I can do that — two WIA device instances — but then what do I do with two cameras shooting at (nearly) the same time? Well just let all those wicked flavours (as Jamie Oliver likes to say) do their thing — and mix all the ideas together and out pops..
Stereoscopic Time laps Movies!
If I rig up two cameras with suitable distance appart — a bit more than true eye distance is necessary due to the size of the cameras and probably desirable to exagerate the 3D effect — then shoot them simultaneously while looking at a scene at regular intervals. And tada! My own 3D movies.
But.. But… how to display them? Can I show stereo onscreen? Blue/red glasses? ug no! How about that trick where you basically go the reverse of cross-eyed while staring at something. It sometimes works but does give you eye strain after a while. Perhaps I need to find some lenses and make a real viewer.
This one gets filed under Ideas (e.g. not actually done yet), but maybe one day!
For shooting straight into another computer – anywhere in the world – I suggest this trick., It requires an Internet connection, but if you don’t have one right away while you’re shooting, the sync can still happen automagically when you next connect to the Internet:
1. Install FolderShare from Microsoft (http://www.foldershare.com) – a free online file syncing service. Multiple PCs can be set to share the same folder(s) on a PC, and the folders are synced whenever each is running the FolderShare app and are connected to the Internet.
2. Use your tethered shooting script to send photos directly to the laptop, say in a folder called ‘ Tethered’.
3. Make sure you direct FolderShare to share that same folder. As photo files appear in that directory, the FolderShare app will send them to the other computers.
I use this tool through the firewall at work (obviously I have to use the proxy server here) to share files with other workers as needed. I don’t have to drag files to a different application, I don’t have to remember to sync – it’s all done as soon as I put a file in a given directory on my PC. Files are only available to those with your username/password, or you can specifiy a folder to be shared with friends with a different username/password.
Obviously, for photo files, especially RAW or TIFF – this works best with a FAST, FAT pipe to the Internet.
– Tom
Thanks Tom, very interesting. I can see how bandwidth would be the great limiter though. Have some thoughts how this could be mitigated; need to think about it.