For those who remember my work back in the days with implementing an intervalometer for Nikon cameras (yes, in spite of it being rather simple to implement in the camera firmware itself, these larger brands prefer to classify such a feature as premium and make it available only in more expensive DSLRs), I have detailed in the following post, the solution that I have put together:
It is interesting to discover in everyday objects, the specific fluorescence of each one. The particular wavelength (i.e. color) of visible light which is irradiated depends on the characteristics of the substance illuminated by the ultraviolet light. As such a very interesting combination of colors can occur, depending on the varieties of materials the object has. The following dolls is an example:
Exploring light wavelengths beyond what our eyes can see constitutes an interesting domain, because in a scientific perspective it can reveal characteristics of the imaged objects, that our eyes and/or visible light based cameras cannot see.
On the expectation of obtaining different and better astronomical images I have taken the oportunity to build custom gear for that purpose. The camera itself is an analog Sony CCD HAD 700 TVL based on the Effio chipset. I had it in my quadcopter, and decided to transplant it to this application. It has excelent low light sensitivity (indeed it outperforms the human eye in that respect!), being an interesting candidate for astrophotography.
My task was to adapt an aluminium enclosure to contain the camera sensor and the control keypad:
Moving on with the tests on my latest lens the Samyang 500 mm f/6.3, here is a very objective comparison to give an idea of the level of magnification and optical performance this cheap lens is capable of.
Satisfaction with the 500mm reflex lens increases as I explore its potential in different situations. This time I took a number of shots holding it by hand during an afternoon next to the Lisbon international airport main runway. It was quite a challenge because of the moving targets, the lens being a pain to focus, and the fact that the camera was being held by hand. But the results seem to tell the rest...
To finish this topic full circle, here is a bit of cruise ship spotting, from the comfort of my balcony. These photos and videos were taken with a tripod and the 2x teleconverter added, resulting in a focal length of 1000 mm:
Coincidentally, after having purchased an exotic lens for my camera and some days of wait for the F-Mount adapter, yesterday during the World Photography Day, I finally managed to test the lens. Aware of the shortcomings of this lens, still I was very pleased with the results, which I must say, open doors to different types of photographic work.
In this age of mass consumption and programmed obsolescence, it is not surprising that a few years after you shell out money for a printer, the availability of its consumables starts to decrease, followed by an increase of the associated price.
After a long wait and a hassle with a chinese seller, finally I could but together the gimbal, flash the board with Brugi (Martinez) and do some tuning and testing.
While a first flight have not yet been done, manual handling with rough attitude change movements shows that the gimbal seems to respond pretty well and no vibration could be perceived in the video at 1080p.
With the arrival of the Mobius action camera, which is a Full HD (1920x1080 @ 30 Hz) little animal (very nice video quality for the price), my aerial filming addition to my #1 quadcopter is almost complete. The only missing element is the gimbal controller board, which I have ordered through ebay, but my mistake (or not) the seller have sent the MPU6050 instead (which I had at the same time ordered from a different seller). Result: I have two MPU6050 gimbal sensors and no gimbal controller. As such a dispute is being solved, and the seller decided to (supposedly) ship me the controller board. Otherwise I will escalate to ebay, get refunded, and the seller downgraded (or banned, who knows..).
And to add to the party, another bit of playing around with time lapse. This time zoomed in on the Tagus river, and obtained this interesting sequence. To achieve it, the intervalometer was set to take a picture every 10 seconds. Again, automatic settings such as ISO sensitivity and aperture were chosen. Only the focusing was kept manual.
With the results having been posted in a previous post, it is now time to flesh through the details that led to the creation of this simple yet useful device.
I started with the optimism that my Fujifilm S9600 camera would have some form of remote control possibillity other than the mechanical shutter release that is supported in the shutter button itself.
While the first videos seemed pretty cool in spite its mediocre quality (maybe because of the time domain wonder of perceiving things that we normally wouldn't given the different time scale we live in), now I had to move one step further.
The idea was to use a better camera, one offering photographic quality in every single frame.
Time lapse video sequences can render exciting results, for the visual impact these provide. While simply being a sequence of frames more separated in time than in a conventional video, once played back at the rate the human vision considers smooth (30 frames per second) these provide a view of the world that a human cannot easily perceive directly, given the comparatively fast rate at which he summarizes and retains information. For instance a cloud in its pass has very complex yet slow changes in shape and trajectory. These are very hard for average humans to perceive, memorize and mentally reconstruct as an animated sequence of events. In general, slow changing processes are inherently hard for humans to characterize in its dynamic nature.
As such it is not surprising that a video containing nothing more than a reproduction of the real world can be appreciated by humans as being somewhat surreal, when simply the only difference is the rate at which information is sampled and later reproduced.
The first video contains about 20 hours of footage shrunk to 32 seconds. It reveals one angle of the Almada city at the south of Lisbon, where part of the 25 de Abril bridge and the Cristo Rei can be seen. It is a typical winter day in Portugal, where the fog floods the morning and a passing of dense clouds fulfills the entire afternoon. This typical day is however solitary in a atypical winter month padded with bright sunny days and mild temperatures.
The second video taken during the 27th January 2012, reveals a clear night transition to a bright winter day in the city of Almada, just south of Lisbon the capital city of Portugal. At the bottom right, the horizon is cut by a huge rectangular crane belonging to a long time decomissioned shipyard.Its name was Lisnave and would once be an important maritime reference for large ships and oil rigs which would stop by for major repairing and overhauling.
