today I'm going to show you how the intervalometer works on the a7 3 and the
a7 r3 finally Sony have given us a built-in intervalometer in their cameras
I had a chance to go and test it this week I took over 10,000 images and I've
learned a lot about how it works if you don't need to know what all the settings
are but you want to know how to shoot a time-lapse go to this timecode this will
take you to how I shoot a time-lapse with this built-in intervalometer first
of all you need to find it it's in tab one menu 4 of 14 interval shooting this
is where you turn it on and off if you have this on whenever you press the
shutter button you start shooting a time-lapse sequence when off your camera
takes photos as normal shooting start time this is how long a delay you want
at the start of your sequence I don't want any shaking to use to any of the
shots that I take so I set this to 2 seconds you can set it all the way up to
99 minutes and 99 seconds this is a really good function if you don't want
to start the time-lapse straightaway you have up to an hour and 40 minutes to
wait before it starts maybe you're out camping and the Milky Way isn't quite in
the right place and you want to do a sequence of the Milky Way moving through
the sky all you have to do is set this to the time that you want it to start
and then it will count down and start the time lapse at that point it does
show a countdown timer on the back of the camera it also disables the sleep
function so if your battery's running low you might not get the whole
time-lapse the best thing for this is to have an external power source or have
your battery on 100% the other option is to switch to EVF so it's saving it a
little bit of power by not having the monitor on shooting interval this is the
time between the start of one shot and the start of the next shot so if you
have a shutter speed of one second and an interval of two seconds the shutter
will stay open for one second pause for one second and
take the next shot so the overall time from the start of one shot to the start
of the next shot is two seconds this does get overridden if you're in manual
mode and your shutter speed is longer than the interval time also in the
semi-automatic mode if your shutter speed goes longer than the interval time
this will get overridden unless you switch on a function in the next menu
page which I'll talk about shortly number of shots this does exactly what
it says this is the number of shots it will shoot before it stops I keep this
at 1500 which normally gives me way more than I need and also if I want to stop
the time lapse I can do it at any time by pressing the shutter button a second
time this is good if you want to shoot a time-lapse and you're not going to be
with your camera whilst it's shooting the time-lapse you've set the number of
shots that you want in your final sequence and let it shoot the sequence
then it'll automatically stop and the sleep mode will kick in once the
time-lapse sequence is done this will potentially save you battery power and
then you can come back to your camera afterwards and set another sequence ae
tracking sensor this is a really interesting function and the one that
I've been most interested in you have three settings low medium and high I've
tried it on low and high and I haven't shot with medium the only reason why
I've shot in low or high on this setting is that I want to see what the setting
produces and what it does on the extremes I'll go into this setting in
more detail once I've gone through the rest of the menu settings at the bottom
you can see it gives you the overall time it will take to shoot the
time-lapse I'm so used to getting my calculator on my phone out that I've
missed this a few times it's great because it gives you an instant time of
how long you'll have to wait for the time-lapse to complete all of the shots
soylent shoot in interval this is where you can set the time lapse to shoot in
silent mode without having to find the silent shoot function elsewhere in the
menus and keep this on unless you have LEDs or florescent lights in your shot
this function is also good if you want to shoot incognito if you set your
camera up set focus and switch it to manual focus and then switch this
function on as well as switching to EVF then it doesn't look like you
cameras doing anything and it'll be completely silent a couple of times I
set the camera up like this and played on my phone when a security guard came
and asked me what I was doing I told him I was just waiting for a friend because
the camera didn't look like it was taking any shots or it wasn't making any
sound like it was taking photographs the security guard left so I got a
couple of sequences that I normally wouldn't have been able to get with a
DSLR shoots interval priority this took me a while to figure out but it's
basically where you can tell the camera to give priority to either the exposure
time or the interval time it only works in the semi-automatic and automatic
modes if you're shooting in aperture priority or program mode and let's say
you have an interval time of two seconds if it starts to get dark your shutter
speed will start to lengthen if you have this set to on your shutter speed will
get to two seconds and then it'll stay at this shutter speed the shutter speeds
won't get any longer if you have this setting turned off the shutter speed
will continue to get longer and longer this will increase your actual interval
time to whatever the shutter speed is I did it in this time lapse and as you can
see towards the end everything speeds up I think I've finished with a shutter
speed of about 30 seconds in this sequence so back to auto exposure
tracking sensitivity I went down to the Burj Khalifa and shot a quick sequence
of the fountain display when in the high auto exposure tracking sensitivity and
one in the low setting to be honest I didn't notice much of a difference with
these two time lapses
I think this function would come into play more if you are shooting on a
partially cloudy day when there was quite a bit of wind about if the Sun is
coming in and out your exposure on your shot will change quite a bit if you have
this setting on high you'll probably get a bit of flicker if
you have it set to low it may control this a bit better
one other thing I've tried with this setting is a day to nighttime time-lapse
you normally get steps in your sequence as the exposure changes this is normally
due to the aperture opening up your shutter speed lengthening or the ISO
increasing I have shot a few of these day to night time time lapses before and
I've had to use a program called LR time-lapse what this does is iron out
the steps as your exposure changes so what I did was try some day to night
time lapses I've tried a few on the low setting and I've tried a few on the high
setting I was quite surprised by how the camera handled this exposure change so
well there are a few little jumps in the exposure but nothing major which was
really surprising I was quite surprised the high setting didn't really change
the exposure that much I thought it would be jumping around quite a bit more
although in this sequence that I'm shooting there aren't any clouds or any
direct sunlight therefore the exposure just gradually
drops from shooting these sequences if you are shooting a day to nighttime
time-lapse I'd suggest keeping a e-track
sensitivity on low I also shot a day to nighttime sequence of the Burj Kalifa
this was really tricky as when the sunlight dropped the shot to the right
of the frame became really bright and overpowered the whole shot as well as
the lights in the fountain display but it is quite interesting to see that the
exposure didn't jump around too much and it's actually a useable sequence so
there's definitely a potential to shoot that day to nighttime time lapses with
this camera and with the built-in intervalometer I would put it through LR
time-lapse just to iron out those little jumps in exposure but it is a usable
sequence so if you want to shoot a time-lapse this is what I suggest start
by doing one in the middle of the day or when the light is even and the exposure
won't change too much set your camera up as you normally would take
a shot and make sure it's on a tripod all good time-lapses need a perfectly
still camera there's a rule called the 180 degree rule which you need to take
into consideration this will give you natural looking motion blur if you want
to learn more about 180 degree rule click on the I on the corner this will
take you to a video explaining this all you need to do is work out what your
interval is and then half that for your shutter speed so for example when I'm
shooting a time-lapse were the 1 second interval my shutter speed will be half a
second if I'm shooting with an interval of two seconds I'll set my shutter speed
to one second anything over one second and any kind of car movement or people
moving in the shot tends to start to disappear so I'll only go longer than
this when picking up car light streaks or doing Astro time lapses when you're
doing this in the middle of the day you'll need an ND filter once your
camera set up go to menu tab 1 page 4 of 14 set interval shooting to on shooting
start time to 2 seconds shooting interval to whatever you decide I'm on
two seconds here with time lapses if I'm shooting fast-moving clouds
people or cars moving through the shot I'll tend to keep the interval to one
second if I'm shooting slower moving clouds moving water or anything like
that I'll shoot it at 3 to 6 seconds if I want to shoot shadows moving or say
the Sun going through my frame I'll keep it to about 10 seconds this does all
come down to personal preference what you like and what you want to show in
the shot a time lapse generally shows movement that you actually can't see
with your eye movement that you want to speed up or where you want to show the
passing of time with a number of shots you can set this to about 300 which will
give you about 10 seconds of finished footage at 30 frames a second or 12
seconds of footage at 25 frames a second as I've said before I set this to 1500
so if something interesting is happening at the end of the sequence I can carry
it on until that thing has passed I then pressed the shutter button to stop the
sequence with the auto exposure tracking sensitivity if you're shooting in
aperture priority or program mode or any of the other
automatic modes I'd suggest setting this to low with the
silent shooting mode I'd switch this to on unless you have fluorescents or LEDs
in your frame with the shoots interval priority and keep this to off as well
now that you have the intervalometer switched on you'll notice on your
monitor or in your EVF you'll have these two extra bits of information the top
one is the interval that you've set and the bottom one is the number of shots
taken and the number of shots to go all you need to do to start your
time-lapse is press the shutter button if you set a delay like I have it'll say
stand by shooting will start shortly it also says you can exit shooting by
pressing the shutter this is just telling you to stop the sequence at any
time you can press the shutter button again throughout the sequence it puts up
the message interval shooting will shoot shortly now this is a tongue-twister but
i think this is a message that shows up if you have a really long interval maybe
to remind you that you're shooting a time-lapse it did pop up every now and
then and I was wondering whether the buffer was filling and that's why it was
putting the message up because it was increasingly interval but this wasn't
the case it hasn't affected any of my time lapses it just randomly pops up
this message every now and then throughout your time lapse sequence once
it started taking the sequence you need to leave your camera alone completely
don't touch it don't kick the tripod don't do anything to it otherwise your
time-lapse sequence will be ruined the thing with time-lapse sequences is to
keep the camera perfectly still so leave it alone until it's shot the sequence
normally when you shoot a time-lapse with an automated lens where the
aperture closes down and opens up automatically through the electronics of
the camera you do get a slight flicker in your time lapses and this is
basically because the aperture opens up so you can see through the viewfinder
and then when you take a shot it closes down it takes a shot opens back up
closes down takes another shot and opens back up now with all this movement you
get my new changes with the aperture hole so therefore you get a slight
flicker through a time lapse now with this built-in intervalometer it
closes the aperture down and keeps it there through the whole of the
time-lapse so there's no change in the aperture therefore you won't get this
aperture blade flickering in your time-lapse sequence and this is really
good also the focusing will do the same you'll half press your shutter button
get focus and then when you start the interval it'll keep the same focusing
point throughout the whole sequence with other cameras that I've used for
shooting time lapses I've noticed that it gets focus on every shot so this is
definitely a bonus I've also got a few other tips for you when you're shooting
time lapses I do turn off Ibis but I don't have to this is more of a habit
from when I used to shoot with Canon cameras as I've already mentioned always
shoot your time lapses from a tripod and don't touch the camera until the
sequence is completed if the exposure is going to stay around about the same put
it on manual mode and dial in your settings in that mode if you're not sure
how to dial in your settings in manual mode click on the I in the corner this
will take you to my shooting in manual mode video make sure you have enough
memory so the camera can complete the sequence you can set your aspect ratio
to sixteen by nine but I prefer to keep it on three by two so it can change the
framing just slightly while editing if you are shooting in three by two just
think about the sixteen by nine crop when you're working out your composition
now that you've completed your time-lapse sequence you'll have to
process it to turn it into a video I'll quickly cover the editing process now
but for a more in-depth time lapse editing video click on the I in the
corner this will take you to another of my videos unfortunately the Sony's don't
compile the time-lapse in camera so to make a time-lapse sequence you'll have
to edit all of these shots together so once I'm back home I'll import all of my
images into Lightroom then I'll make any changes I need to - the first image in
the sequence the main change I'll make is to the aspect ratio here I'll crop
and change the framing to sixteen by nine once I've made all the changes and
I'm happy with how that first image looks I'll synch all of the settings
across all of the sequence this is so all of the shots have exactly the same
settings if you have major exposure changes
throughout your sequence you might have to use the program LR time-lapse but
that's more advanced editing and beyond the scope of this video I didn't have to
use LR time-lapse for any of the sequences in this video so you probably
won't have to either if you're interested in LR time-lapse I've left a
link in the description it really is a great program for really ironing out any
exposure steps or changes in your time lapses I normally compile my sequences
in After Effects but if you have the basic photo package you can also do it
in Photoshop so you in Lightroom make sure all of the images are selected
click on file and exports this will bring up your export window I have
choose folder later this means I just choose the location at the end then I
have custom name and sequence I'm gonna call this Metro time-lapse and then I'll
make sure start number is on one you can export them as JPEGs I'm gonna set my
long edge to 1920 and this means it's gonna be HD resolution I'm going to turn
off output sharpening and then I'll click on export this is where I'll
choose the location I'm just gonna put it in a folder on my desktop again I'll
call this metro time-lapse and then I'll click on open or double click the folder
then all I need to do is wait for them to export once you've done that open
Photoshop find the location where you put them and click on the first image
then click on options and make sure image sequence is selected then click on
open here it'll give you your frame rate options the normal ones are 24 25 or
29.97 I normally shoot in 25 frames a second so this is the one I'm going to
select then I'll click on OK as you can see it's opened up the
sequence in this timeline window at the bottom if I click on play
it'll preview the time-lapse it won't be as smooth as the final sequence but
you'll have an idea of how the time-lapse is going to look next click
on this little arrow down in the bottom left hand corner and this will open up
the render video window in this window you can name your mp4 file
once again I'm gonna call this metro time-lapse I'm gonna select the location
I'll put it on my desktop again and click choose here you can choose the
format of video and the size of video I'm going to export as a high quality
h.264 my resolution is gonna stay at 1920 by 1080 everything else is okay and
I'll click on render then I just have to wait for it to export and this is the
rendered mp4 file as you can see it's a lot smoother than the preview in
Photoshop as I've already said if you want a more in-depth tutorial on editing
time-lapses click on the I on the corner or the link in the description
one thing that an external intervalometer still has over this
built-in intervalometer is the remote shutter release so if you shoot really
long exposures you'll still need to bring along your external intervalometer
or a remote shutter release and it is strange to see how cameras still have
this 30-second limit on exposure times I'd love to see a function built-in
where you can set your exposure time to exactly what you want it so if you're
taking a long exposure shot of two minutes it'd be great to be able to set
that to two minutes for the time being we'll still have to use remote shutter
release cables for longer exposures than 30 seconds the other downside to using
this built-in intervalometer is that it doesn't compile the time-lapse in camera
so you'll have to wait to when you're back home or when you've edited the
time-lapse together on your computer I know some other cameras like the gh4 and
the gh 5 will compile the time-lapse in camera if you want to this means that
when you're on location you can see a preview of the time-lapse before you get
home so if you've made any mistakes you can change it and shoot another
time-lapse before leaving the location and that's about it
I think this is a really great addition to this camera as well as using s and Q
to shoot quick grab-and-go time lapses we've got the option of shooting much
higher quality time lapses if you've had the opportunity to use this built-in
intervalometer let me know how you got on in the comments below it'll be great
to see how you've got on with it and the sequences that you've produced
as always if you like what you see give me a thumbs up if you didn't give me a
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