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Camera for continuous shooting?
Trollheart
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There used to be a dedicated camera subforum here, but I can't find it so this seems to be the other one where somebody might possibly know the answer to this question...
I'm looking for a half-decent (12 MP or more) camera that will allow me to take continuous shots without having to hold down a shutter, ie I can stand in front of the camera and let it take several shots at once. I don't want to go into the details of why I need this, but at the moment I'm taking one shot, resetting the self-timer, taking another and so on. I believe something called "burst" mode might be what I'm looking for?
That being the case, does anyone know of a reasonable, affordable camera (say in the less than 200 euro range) that would allow me to do this? The res as I say has to be good, to give decent shots not only on the camera but on the PC when they're transferred, and the burst/continuous thing is a total deal-breaker. Other than that nothing else is terribly important, though of course decent video capablities etc would be good. Likely to just use auto-focus, not a camera head any more though I once was, in another life.
Any help, as ever, appreciated, and if this isn't the right place to ask can someone point me in the proper direction?
Thanks
TH
Edit: Alternatively, a camera with decent enough video recording res that grabs taken from it will be acceptable as photographs. I've found with my Sony camcorder this does not work: the videos are ok but the grabs are terrible.
I'm looking for a half-decent (12 MP or more) camera that will allow me to take continuous shots without having to hold down a shutter, ie I can stand in front of the camera and let it take several shots at once. I don't want to go into the details of why I need this, but at the moment I'm taking one shot, resetting the self-timer, taking another and so on. I believe something called "burst" mode might be what I'm looking for?
That being the case, does anyone know of a reasonable, affordable camera (say in the less than 200 euro range) that would allow me to do this? The res as I say has to be good, to give decent shots not only on the camera but on the PC when they're transferred, and the burst/continuous thing is a total deal-breaker. Other than that nothing else is terribly important, though of course decent video capablities etc would be good. Likely to just use auto-focus, not a camera head any more though I once was, in another life.
Any help, as ever, appreciated, and if this isn't the right place to ask can someone point me in the proper direction?
Thanks
TH
Edit: Alternatively, a camera with decent enough video recording res that grabs taken from it will be acceptable as photographs. I've found with my Sony camcorder this does not work: the videos are ok but the grabs are terrible.
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Some possible options are a self timer with configurable delay and a configurable number of shots.
Intervalometer, you can set the camera to take a shot every n seconds
This can be built in or external if you have a remote release socket.
Remote control, you hold a remote shutter button in your hand
"Wink detect" Wink at the camera and it takes a picture after 2 seconds
Ok :cool:
When you say continuous do you need it to just keep taking photos until you are done or would a set figure like 10 be enough?
Intravalometer sounds good; what cameras have that?
As for how many pictures, well constant would be great but even ten or so in a maybe thirty second period would be fine. I just waste a lot of time taking a shot, going back to the camera (bloody cameraphone as it happens!) setting the timer again and letting it go off and so on. Anything that shortens that would be great.
TH
You may be able to achieve what you want by hooking up the camera to a computer and using its own software to control the camera. Generally used for time-lapse photos, not sure if this can be used for multiple shots per second.
I guess it depends on the nature of the depravity that you wish to record
In second place and commended for the continuous shooting speed and focusing is the Fujifilm Finepix F770EXR, again over budget at £174 at Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fujifilm-FinePix-F770EXR-Digital-Camera/dp/B006Q8VA7W/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1368918767&sr=1-2&keywords=Fujifilm+FinePix+F770EXR
In third place (but first overall) is the Olympus SZ-31MR at £174 at Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-SZ-31MR-Digital-Compact-Camera/dp/B00763EUWI/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1368918489&sr=1-1&keywords=Olympus+SZ-31MR
In fourth place the Samsung WB850F, with very good video, also at £174 at Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-WB850F-Compact-Digital-Camera/dp/B007JSZX2G/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1368918976&sr=1-1&keywords=Samsung+WB850F
You can take out a trial sub to Which for £1 and then access the website with all the reviews.
Or having the PC control the camera: how would I do this? What software would I require and would I need a particular type of camera (Bridge?) to make that work?
Sorry guys but I'm hoping to buy soon and I almost made the mistake of thinking continuous would be the thing I needed. I now see it's not.
As I mentioned also, if none of this is possible does anyone know of a decent camcorder or camera that will take very good video which will allow decent, photograph-style stills to be taken from the resultant video?
Thanks guys
Getting a little overwhelmed here.
TH
If you have any HD video camera and the right software then decent stills can be grabbed from that, also.
Thanks
You'd want to export a single frame from within whatever software you're editing the video in, as opposed to just doing a 'screengrab', to get the best quality "photo"... Dunno if that's what you're trying...
Nah, the money even in amateur porn is good enough that I would've thought the OP could stump up for a £600-800 DSLR...
<cough> apparently...
As dsnik mentioned, there are time lapse apps for phones - the one I use (Lapse It Pro) is very impressive and may fit the bill.
In fact - bearing in mind the app's aim is to do time laps HD movies - as a test I just tried to set it do 10x full frame (8MP) at 3 sec intervals and it worked fine and that's on a two year old SE Xperia Arc S (Android) handset. The software optionally renders to MP4, but individual frames (in this case 1.1Mb each) are stored on the SD card for later retrieval.
It can be set to delay before shooting (to give you time to leave the scene/ set up the scene) and can work from a fully charged battery for at least 2 hours or more (sunset, 10sec intervals, 720p).
Having said all that, you're still going to be up against the fact that it's a cameraphone sensor, and while things are rapidly progressing in quality terms on that front, a dedicated device is always preferable.
Can you explain a bit about time lapse? Is it what I want, ie effectively letting the camera take several pictures without having to keep going back up to reset the timer? I have a HTC Wildfire that would probably run that; in fact, it's the one I've been using up to now anyway.
Thanks
TH
Porn God (apparently)
I actually have a couple of time lapse options at my disposal. The first is the phone and app combo, the other is a Pentax ruggedised point-and-shoot. The phone app is much more versatile for frame size (480p, 720p etc) and timing, however the camera is much more useful as it can actually be left outside for days, rain, hail or shine, snapping a frame every 5 mins or at hourly intervals. I tried that last year trying to capture the rapid growth of a pea plant in the garden... 3 days wasn't long enough apparently
So, say you set the phone app or camera to shoot a frame every 10 seconds for 3 hours, thats going to be 10800s/10 = 1080 frames. At 30fps, that will render 36s of time-lapse. The trick is to anticipate the inter-frame interval when shooting. Fast moving clouds? Every 5 seconds. A plant? 1 frame an hour/day. When you play back the footage, you'll see accelerated time depending on the source interval.
Speaking of time-lapse clouds, here's one I made earlier:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQQtOfVtvLA
That's with the phone mounted on a tripod and pointed at the sky.
Edit: Not bad for a phone...
You will need some means of mounting the phone on a tripod or Gorillapod. I use one of these: http://www.phoneboat.com/ but there are alternatives from amazon eg. this.
Edit: No it won't: says no devices detected.
Any other ideas or am I screwed?
Thx
TH
Other option - log into your google account on a PC, find the app in Google Play and try zapping it to your phone from there. You don't need the phone connected to the PC, just connected to the internet somehow - again, try wifi...