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Here is the first download from my current house construction time lapse project. This was quickly edited to 15 seconds as a short clip to show on Instagram. The final result will be the complete construction from start to finish. I downloaded this after a few weeks of work to see if my concerns about the mount, previously written about in my Breaking Rule 1 post, were as bad as I anticipated.
The mount is not as bad as I thought it would be. There is some image shifting but given I had no other mounting option, I will continue with this project as an example of mounting a camera to a less than ideal structure. There is some odd vertical movement which should be impossible and I cannot logically explain. My best guess is the fiberglass composite street light pole and the ground expand slightly throughout the course of the day, adding to the pole height.
For this video the Brinno TLC 200 f/1.2 camera and housing are clamped to a street light with a Delkin Fat Gecko. I planned on fabricating a sturdier mount and using the Fat Gecko as a temporary solution. When I had pole vibration concerns, I thought this first download would be wasted footage. Now, I have decided to keep this camera in place and I will also leave the Fat Geko, which is working very well.
These two images give you a better idea of the mount from the camera's perspective. The Fat Geko works well on flat surfaces. My version, of the clamp, has two notches which grip the trim on the light housing perfectly. The black string is added as a safety measure to prevent the camera from falling to the ground should the clamp fail. The white on the camera is a note inside the housing. Although this camera was placed with permission from the utility company, the note provides contact information in case a utility worker does not know about the installation.
The shooting specs for this video are one capture every 10 minutes at 30 FPS. The video above does not modify these settings. All of the dead time was edited out in iMovie and it was tough to squeeze it into the 15 second Instagram format. The final movie will probably be around a minute long and I may choose to slow down the pace a little.
This house should be complete by August and I feel comfortable leaving this camera untouched for a month or so. I will have an update or two between now and the house's completion.