# Photographers: Time lapse Q (need answer fast!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photographers-time-lapse-q-need-answer-fast/643021 "2012-12-05T01:31:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photographers-time-lapse-q-need-answer-fast/643021/1 "2012-12-05T01:31:56Z")
Hi! We’re planning on decorating our Christmas tree tonight and I had the idea to do a time-lapse video of it using my old Minolta Dimage A1, which has a built-in intervalometer. How quickly often should I have it snap a picture? Every second? Every 10 seconds? 30 seconds? I probably should have put this in IMHO, I suppose. Anyway, I’m hoping to do this tonight. Thanks! RS ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photographers-time-lapse-q-need-answer-fast/643021/2 "2012-12-05T01:35:21Z")
How long a) do you want the video to be (and how many frames/second), and b) how long is your Christmas light cycle? ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photographers-time-lapse-q-need-answer-fast/643021/3 "2012-12-05T01:46:23Z")
Your video will be 24 frames per second, you can do the math from there…for example if you plan on taking 60 minutes to decorate the tree and take a picture every 30 seconds you’ll end up with 5 seconds of video (120 pictures/24) - probably shorter than you want so you could adjust accordingly (every 10 seconds will give you a 15 second final product for example). ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photographers-time-lapse-q-need-answer-fast/643021/4 "2012-12-05T01:51:58Z")
**beowulff** : Thanks, but I’m actually taking a time-lapse of the tree being decorated. **zombywoof** : Good point. I figure an hour of decorating, so every, say, 10 seconds would give me, uh, carry the one, 12 seconds (at 30 frames/second). I’m not sure if my camera battery will last longer than 360 shots anyway, so I guess I’ll go with that. Thanks, guys! I really should have just done the calculations. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photographers-time-lapse-q-need-answer-fast/643021/5 "2012-12-05T01:58:36Z")
Right, 12s @ 30fps (or 15s @24fps, I guess I shouldn’t have said it “will be” 24fps since the framerate you choose to combine them at is up to you.) ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photographers-time-lapse-q-need-answer-fast/643021/6 "2012-12-05T02:43:25Z")
> [@zombywoof](#): > > Right, 12s @ 30fps (or 15s @24fps, I guess I shouldn’t have said it “will be” 24fps since the framerate you choose to combine them at is up to you.) Actually, it’s up to the camera. The A1 doesn’t have options like that. Anyway, the tree is about half-decorated. Thanks again, all – the board always comes through. RS ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photographers-time-lapse-q-need-answer-fast/643021/7 "2012-12-05T08:04:55Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Actually, it’s up to the camera. The A1 doesn’t have options like that. Anyway, the tree is about half-decorated. Thanks again, all – the board always comes through. > > RS Does the camera assemble the interval frames into a video file itself? I’d have thought it would just take a series of still pictures, which would then need to be converted to a video on a computer (at which point, the desired framerate could be chosen). ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photographers-time-lapse-q-need-answer-fast/643021/8 "2012-12-05T12:26:43Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Does the camera assemble the interval frames into a video file itself? > > I’d have thought it would just take a series of still pictures, which would then need to be converted to a video on a computer (at which point, the desired framerate could be chosen). Turns out, it can work either way. I thought it could only create a video, but it has two settings. I thought I was creating a video, but I ended up creating 120 pictures (the smallest interval this camera allows is 30 secs). I used Picasa to assemble them, and that does allow you to set the frame rate. I created a 10 second video. For an older digital camera, the A1 really had some cool pro-like features.