Brinno Time Lapse - Rule 1... The Only Rule

2019 UPDATE: If you want an amazing new long term time lapse camera, please check out the Afidus ATL-200 at www.AfidusCam.com. We also have a web site dedicated to sales and support of time lapse cameras at www.TimeLapseCameras.com. Customer care is very important to us and we are here to ensure your time lapse project is a success.

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There are no rules to creating a time lapse, your movie can be whatever you envision. However, I am making a rule for any long term time lapse. You must have a sturdy mount! There that's it, the one rule. I do a considerable amount of construction time lapse movies and spend some time watching those of others. The most annoying thing, in my opinion is swaying and movement caused by an inadequate mount. Even worse could be an abrupt jarring which shifts the camera position.

A sturdy mount is easy to accomplish if you are doing a short time lapse. A windowsill works, until the dog's tail smacks the camera, a supervised tripod is fine for a sunset. A sturdy mount becomes more of a challenge when you have a project which will last weeks or months, especially if you need to change batteries and handle the camera.

I have custom fabricated mounts for long term projects. I use sturdy clamps, zip ties, bolts and don't mess around with something which might fail. I also look at the mounting surface stability, avoiding a tree which may sway in the wind, anything within easy reach and I always consider the worst case scenario.

I am the most comfortable when the camera is bolted or screwed to a fixed object, a large tree, a construction beam, etc. This is especially true if I will need to change batteries or want to download from the card occasionally to show progress videos.

The Brinno housings work very well with a fixed mount, the tripod mount is a part of the back door, the housing front and camera can be be swung open without changing the mount position.  This allows the camera to be removed and replaced without changing the lens position. I will caution, this can be a challenging maneuver especially if the camera is 100' feet in the air.

There are some very good clamp options in the photography market which work well for the Brinno cameras and housings. I would use these when engineering something is not an option or when I needed a quick mount for a one day to few week project. So far, I have tested and recommend the following...

Manfrotto Super Clamp - The stud (threaded brass piece) screws into the Brinno camera or housing. This clamp works very well on a round surface.

Delkin Fat Geko - I like the adjustable stem of this mount. It is quite secure on a flat surface and holds well.

In summary, do what you can to firmly mount your camera your viewers will thank you.

Brinno Time Lapse - Case Study - Water Reservoir Construction

2019 UPDATE: If you want an amazing new long term time lapse camera, please check out the Afidus ATL-200 at www.AfidusCam.com. We also have a web site dedicated to sales and support of time lapse cameras at www.TimeLapseCameras.com. Customer care is very important to us and we are here to ensure your time lapse project is a success.

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Demolition and construction of Rochester Public Utilities 4th St. Reservoir was my first long term time lapse project. The camera was to be mounted on a water tower with no access to electricity. Exposed to the variable Minnesota weather, with possible extreme winds for six months.

After extensive research, detailed in a previous post, I purchased a Brinno TLC200 f1.2 camera and weatherproof housing from Amazon. 

My first issue was a sturdy mount for the camera so I scouted the water tower. There was a iron railing just below the upper tank, two existing holes were drilled in the railing providing a good anchor point for a mount. Additionally there was a support pillar which extended beyond the railing which would obscure the lens if the camera were mounted directly to the railing. While scouting a few other things became apparent, there were bird droppings in the area and the tower was having some work done.

So I came to the conclusion I needed a fixed mount, which extended beyond the railing, something which would last for months and could survive just about anything. This is what I came up with.

The camera was removed at the time of these photos and will be replaced soon for the final reservoir painting and landscaping. This mount is a steel creation of my own, I bent some flat steel into a C-shape for the housing and cut out the back to access the controls. The housing is screwed to the bottom of the C using the tripod mount. The back of the C was cut out to access the controls and the housing tabs are secured with zip-ties on each side. The C is mounted to the main support with one bolt to allow vertical tilt adjustment. The main bar is welded to a steel plate with a number of randomly drilled holes. The plate holes allow for horizontal adjustment within the predrilled railing holes. I did not want to climb up and down a water tower a number of times to get the mount right, nor did I want to haul tools up to drill through steel. I went overboard on the adjustment holes but I only had to take two wrenches with to get the bracket installed.

This mount won't budge. The overhang on the C was a little piece of mind for the bird dropping issues and also offered protection from ropes if the exterior of the tower was being worked on. Overall this mount worked very well and I don't know if I would do anything differently.

The next question was how often to capture a picture. I wanted the video to play back at around 30 frames per second to avoid the stuttering time lapse look. When the project started Brinno did not offer a timer feature would would eliminate overnight recording so the camera was constantly taking pictures. I decided to go with one capture every 15 minutes and decided to do a 48 hour test. The test worked well, I restarted the camera, climbed down the tower and hoped for the best.

According to Brinno, the camera should last for 78 days with a capture every 15 minutes. 78 days was a long time to gamble with a camera so exposed to the elements. A lighting strike, the bird I have mentioned a few times, equipment failure, etc. were all a possibility. I started off checking the camera about every two weeks, I would do a battery change and download the video. Every two weeks eventually changed to once a month. I had no problems with the camera or birds but now I was faced with the task of editing the footage.

Above is the finished video, here is what the camera captured. As I mentioned the timer functionality could have eliminated the nights and allowed the video to be stitched together with decent results. However, the night scenes were fine for the progression videos I was posting and without nights the videos would have been quite short.

Now the task of editing began. I had about 10 minutes of footage for the six months. A program like iMovie could bring the clips together and allow for the removal of nights but I wanted more, music, the month of construction displayed and a nice intro screen. Eric Berg has much more video editing experience than I, using Final Cut Pro, a stock audio track and some creativity he produced the video at the top of this page. All of the nights, downtime and weekends were eliminated, along with portions where rain obscured the view. The 10 minutes were cut down to a little over three and we had a video our client was very pleased with.

Brinno - The Beginning

2019 UPDATE: If you want an amazing new long term time lapse camera, please check out the Afidus ATL-200 at www.AfidusCam.com. We also have a web site dedicated to sales and support of time lapse cameras at www.TimeLapseCameras.com. Customer care is very important to us and we are here to ensure your time lapse project is a success.

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My relationship with Brinno happened by chance, I guess you could say I was discovered. Back in early 2013 a client asked me to do a long term time lapse project of a water tower being constructed. The goal seemed simple, a two to three minute YouTube video of the project as a public interest piece. I did not need to provide a live web feed but an occasional progression clip would be a bonus in the eye of my client.

A time lapse movie, although not new to me, presented a unique challenge in this situation. The camera was to be mounted on one water tower while filming the construction of a new tower over the course of six months.

My first task was researching camera options. The know issues were this installation had no access to power, the mount would be entirely outdoors and in Minnesota the temperature swing can be extreme.

Six months was way beyond the duration of DSLR camera. It could be done but would require a housing, intravalometer and frequent attention for battery changes.

I looked into and tested a trail camera with a built in intravalometer. A trail camera is great if you want to capture a deer, bear or other critter lurking in the woods but it was not well suited for my tower project. 

My next thought was a GoPro or action camera with a time lapse feature. These cameras are great for what they do, but would require modification to extend the battery life and the time lapse functionality.

I looked into construction camera service providers. Some provide everything we needed, however, with ongoing costs. One of the larger providers was at $5,000 for equipment and $500 per month for the service, well beyond the budget of our simple project.

Eventually I ran across the Brinno web site, read the information and ordered a TLC200 f1.2 camera and weatherproof housing from Amazon. I could not believe all of my research came together in one simple to use and relatively inexpensive product. I did not read any reviews, I needed this camera.

The Brinno camera was installed and worked flawlessly for the six month duration. I will provide additional technical details in a later blog entry. At the completion of the construction we produced a compelling short video of the entire project and posted it on YouTube.

Within a week of the video's posting I was contacted by the Social Media Director for Phase3 Systems, the North America distributor for Brinno. Apparently, the tower video was one of the most extensive projects completed using a Brinno camera and Phase3 wanted additional details.

I provided some information and had a phone conversation with Chris Adams the President of Phase3. I had many thoughts and ideas regarding marketing and services which could be provided to end users. Over a short period of time, we built up a relationship and I was providing some real world technical experience to other end users.

Now, we are working on a Brinno Authorized Solutions Provider program and I am very excited to get started with this new venture. Essentially, I am the first of a number of planned providers who assist people in making the most out of their time lapse videos. The camera itself does a great job but there are considerations which are specific to each project. How will the camera get mounted, how often should a photo be captured, etc. After the video is complete some editing work may be desired which is a service we can provide.

I am very exited to continue my work with Brinno. I am experimenting with different time lapse projects, shooting situations and variables. Future blog posts will include real world examples, more Solutions Provider information, tips and suggestions.

For long duration time lapse, simplicity and cost there is no better time lapse solution than Brinno. From local installations in the Rochester, Minnesota area to assisting other end users, we are here to help.