My Time Lapse Equipment

Recently I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the type of equipment I use for my time lapse videos.  So for this post I thought I’d take some time to go through the gear that I typically take with me on my adventures!

Of course without coincidence, the main ingredient that goes into making a time lapse is time itself.  And a whole lot of it too!  Being an amateur who does it for fun on the weekends, I can take up to 14 hours hours total to create a 1 minute finished video.  That includes travel, hiking, set up, taking the actual photos, image processing, video editing, and finally uploading the video to the internet for your viewing pleasure!  I do it because I love to.  It combines traveling to gorgeous places and hiking through nature (one of my favorite things to do).  And lets not forget about the times I spend an entire weekend to produce something that just doesn’t turn out. I can end up with something not worthy enough to share with anyone.  Some people who do this as professionals can spend months, and even years to produce a single 10 minute video.

With all that said, let’s discuss the hardware I use.  The center piece of my collection is a Nikon D810, usually paired with a 24-120mm Nikor lens.  This camera is the force behind nearly all of my work.  It was pricey, but it’s something that is capable of doing more than what I’m capable of doing.  This means I can grow into it.  I’ve already taken many thousands of images with it, and it shows no signs of letting up.  I also pair my camera with a polarizing or neutral density (ND) filter to allow me to take longer exposures. This creates blur and gives the effect of motion.  A time lapse with no motion might as well be a still photo!

Next on the list should be a tripod and intervalometer, but hang on one second!  We’ll get there in a moment.  Next, I need to talk about my motion control and camera trigger.  Here is where I opted to invest another chunk of change to raise the level of my time lapses.  I use hardware designed and built by a small company in New Zealand called “Syrp”.  Most of their products are designed specifacally for moving a camera in perfectly timed intervals and triggering the camera’s shutter.  A lot of people don’t realize that I take thousands of still images, and stitch them together using computer software to create a video.  My camera takes a photo, moves a millimeter or less, then takes another photo.  It will continue like this for hours.  Think about how my videos are playing at 30 frames per second.  My camera takes 5-12 seconds to create each “frame”.  You do the math.  I wasn’t kidding when I said this stuff takes time!

Next in line would be a tripod.  In this case, I use two so that I can support my Syrp slider on both ends.  Because I’m taking long exposures, my camera must sit perfectly still while taking a single photo from the sequence.  If you don’t have the fancy motion control hardware like me, this would be the the second most important piece behind the camera itself.  Which brings me to the next point.  An intervalometer would be third on the list, but as previously mentioned, I use the fancy stuff that triggers the camera shutter for me.

Finally I’m not going to get into all the other miscellaneous items I pack with me, but it is worth noting that I will on occasion use a GoPro Hero 7 Black for filming some of my sequences.  The time lapse feature of the camera works surprisingly well, and if I don’t feel like lugging an extra 20 lbs. of equipment with me into the wilderness, I use that.  The smaller items include spare batteries, lens cleaning equipment, memory cards, and various cables.  And of course there is the software I use which includes LR Time Lapse, and Adobe Lightroom.

In conclusion, these are the processes and items I’m using now.  I have a list of equipment I plan on using in the future, but it isn’t mentioned here.  My software and hardware will evolve over time.  I’m not set in my ways and always look to improve my skills.  I hope this gives a glimpse of what is behind the magical world of time lapse.  If you don’t care for my stuff, at least now you may have a greater appreciation for the time and dedication it takes for any photographer to create these wonderful works of art!