If you happen to have a GoPro, or some other suitably tiny camera that can do time lapse photography, a great way to add some dynamic impact is to incorporate motion.
Now I just laid out $1,100 for the Rhino Slider EVO motorized camera slider, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. But for a more economical solution – and one that will fit in your pocket – people have been hacking GoPro mounts onto Ikea egg timers for a while now.
It looks a little something like this…
I’ve got a Hero 3+ here with a huge Brunton battery attached which will let the camera go for like 6 hours of straight video recording, or basically an infinite timelapse.
I’ve also got an Ikea Ordning Timer, which you can get on Amazon Prime for $11.23, and we stuck a standard GoPro sticky mount on it.
Now, you just snap the GoPro onto the hacked egg timer, twist it and let er rip.
After you do, the assembled time lapse looks a little something like this….
I think the video is completely acceptable, but it is a bit choppy because of the analog nature of the movement of the egg timer. The real drawback to the egg timer is that it doesn’t have tripod mount on bottom, so you have to find a very flat surface to put the camera.
By the way, I used the totally free Time Lapse Assembler app for Mac, which is amazingly only a 1MB download. And did I mention FREE. Anyway, I used it to assemble 1,768 images for the egg timer test, and 2,284 images for the Camalapse.
The Camalapse is basically a more professional looking egg timer, but this time with a 1/4″ mount on top and a 1/4″ receiver on the bottom so you can directly mount a camera and a tripod.
Here’s what the Camalapse time lapse video looks like.
The Camalapse is going to run you $30, and there is a newer version than this one I have which supposedly holds up to 5 pounds. The motion on this unit is actually a lot smoother than the egg timer, but the effect is not much different at all. So really, you’re paying a little more for the convenience of the mounts. And in my opinion it’s well worth it.
In other news! You may remember us raving about the coolness of the YotaPhone 2 in the past, and now the phone is finally coming to the US market!
YotaPhone launched the device as an IndiGoGo campaign, and within the first day or so they are already at 300% of their goal and climbing.
The YotaPhone is a unique handset that offers the standard color touchscreen on one side, along with a monochrome E-Ink screen on the back that allows you to extend the battery life up to about 5 days by migrating functions to the screen that doesn’t require as much power!
You can pick one up for $550 including a protective bumper, and they’re estimating delivery in August. And although I’m sometimes skeptical about crowdsourced product delivery dates, I’d be comfortable with this one because I’ve already got one in my greedy little hands.
So they are just making and shipping them at this point. Not developing it.
And finally, a couple of Geek Beat updates! First of all, if you haven’t heard, we’re using a fun little service called Slack for a big old chatfest for the Geek Beat community. You can get your automated invitation to come join us thanks to Kien by visiting GeekBeat.TV/Slack. Most of the Geek Beat team is in the chat a lot, and I show up pretty often too to throw a wrench in things.
Also, since we’re bringing Sexy Back…
Also, since we’re bringing Geek Beat back, we sure could use your help with offsetting the costs of production. Some of you had been contributing to our Patreon campaign in the past, and we would love to have you back. And if you’re not aware, we have a little fundraising site that you can get to by visiting GeekBeat.TV/Patrons that will let you drop a few bucks a month in the hat for us. Because you know Carter the intern is shooting and editing this right now, and he has this habit of eating.
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