Tonight I did a test of the Tina time-lapse free app for Android – an application which will record time-lapse pictures. Here are my comments, which may come handy for you.

Tina time-lapse, getting it and how to use

It is no problem getting the application ofcause. You may goto the Market and then search for “Tina time-lapse”. The app is for free and is straight forward to use. You simply enter a name, how often images should be take (say every 7th second), a limit for the number pictures taken may be entered and the resolution of each picture.

Doing the recording

Tonight I decided to place my HTC Legend phone in the front window and let it record the around 15 minuts drive to Aarhus (a city approx. 12 km from where I live). I did some calculating and decided to go for 540 pictures. I pushed record and drove into the night. The problem is ofcause that the phone may tilt as it is not mounted – that I will have to come up with a solution for. Anyone know of a device like which makes it possibel to mount the phone on a standard camera tripod? Please write if you do so.

When I reached my goal in Aarhus and picked up the phone I am not sure, but I think that the app intelligently stopped recording! (smart if so). The reason that I think that it did it automatically is that it only recoreded 173 frames/pictures and not the 540 which I had specified.

Converting the pictures into a movie

Well that part was actually not difficult either. I simply followed the instructions given by the Tina time-lapse developer: Wessel Rossing on his page about this app: http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/21 – he has recorded a video in which he describes how you can get your images to your PC and convert them into a video using the free program “avidemux” (see screenshoot below).

I choose to add the audio from Madonna – “Ray of light” which in the original video actually also uses Time-Lapse recordings.

I changed the framerate to 8,5 fps, and I also added some video filters to fix the low light of the evening pictures. Here is how it looks like when you save the video:

The 2nd go at encoding to movie..

Well I had to try again… And this time it went fine! The encoding took almost no time, but strangly enough it ended up with a crash. The video however was okay!

The video is here:

 

 

Links

• “avidemux” – free cross platform software to make video from Time-lapse pictures
• “Tina time-lapse” – http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/21
• http://www.hdtimelapse.net/ – several cool time-lapse videoes