Time Lapse Video Secrets: HD and Beyond with your Digital Camera

Creative Cow by Marco Solorio

Believe it or not, you have the ability to shoot film resolution 2K files, 1080 HD, 720 HD and standard definition video with any off-the-shelf digital SLR (DSLR) camera. Today’s full-frame sensor DSLR cameras can even go well beyond the 4K cinema resolutions, for under, and sometimes well under, $2000. Their ability to shoot HD video is revolutionary, but it is also worth remembering that these are still cameras, with features for photography that are no less amazing, including huge sensors with almost unbelievable sensitivity to light. With some experience, you can shoot time-lapse without it even looking like time-lapse. When it comes to this style of shooting, you can throw your video camera out the window. After reading this article, you'll see why DSLR technology can be superior in every way imaginable.

RESOLUTION
When it comes to time-lapse photography (AKA, "interval shooting"), there isn't a true HD video camera on the planet that'll out-perform the resolution, quality and control of your standard DSLR. The best HD video cameras only go up to 1080 HD (which by the way only equates to 2.1 mega-pixels) and the media is fairly compressed in most cases. With a DSLR, not only can you easily achieve 1080 HD resolution, you can even surpass 2K film resolution with little effort. With some high-end DSLRs on the market, you can even surpass 4K film resolution while paying only a minute fraction of what a Grass Valley Viper or Sony CineAlta rig would cost. Imagine that, greater-than-4k-resolution, 4:4:4 lossless color space, and 14-bit latitude. Sounds good to me. read more...