Vincent Ferrari
10-17-2007, 03:00 PM
It all started simply enough. I wanted to do some time lapse photography, but getting it done seemed, no matter how much I tried, to hit a dead end.<br /><br />First, my DV camcorder wouldn't stay running when it was fed directly into my MacBook (it kept wanting to auto-power off and the camcorder won't let you turn that off). The best I could hope for was leaving a tape in and getting one hour and working with that, but that's not what I was going for. I tried to use my Canon SD-800 IS and some software specifically designed for stop-motion, but the SD-800 doesn't support remote capture, meaning it wouldn't work hooked up to my MacBook either.<br /><br />Finally, I decided to have a go at using my Canon Digital Rebel XT. I tried to find a remote timer circuit I could build. But, after seeing some of the schematics, I decided my time was just a hair more valuable than that so I started looking into a pre-made solution. I found kits that were the same circuit I was going to build, but already built; they just all seemed a bit on the dodgy side. They ran anywhere from $75 to $150 and most of them looked like they were held together with duct tape and built in a Radio Shack project case. The actual solution was one that I wasn't quite ready to spend the money on, but it seemed like the best way to go.<br /><!><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/2256/ferrari_tc80n3_fig_1.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 1: The TC-80N3 with the backlight enabled.</i><br /><br />The Canon TC80-N3 is a digital timer remote control specifically geared toward delayed shots, time lapse photography, and so on. You can control the interval between shots, the number of total shots, and the delay before one shot is fired off.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/2256/ferrari_tc80n3_fig_2.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 2: The control dial for the TC-80N3. All adjustments (time increment increases / decreases, etc.) are made here.</i><br /><br />The only problem for most people is probably going to be that it doesn't actually work out of the box with the Digital Rebel series. After some Googling, I found a guy in Austria who handmakes an adapter cable for the Rebels, so I ordered it and so far it's worked quite well.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/2256/ferrari_tc80n3_fig_4.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 4: If you don't have one of these connectors on your Canon camera, you need the adapter mentioned above.</i><br /><br />Using the remote is quite easy. There's a scroll wheel on the right side and even a backlight so you can read the digital readout and change settings. There's also a bulb lock on the remote to force the shutter to stay open. I imagine that's also incompatible with the Rebel series, though, because I couldn't get it to work for anything. I do actually own a wired remote that works fine, so this wasn't a real downside to me, just something you should be aware of.<br /><br />I used the TC80-N3 to do two time lapse videos. In this example <a href="http://vimeo.com/195029">here</a>, it shot one picture every 30 seconds for roughly 7 hours.<br /><br />Assembling the movie itself was relatively easy. I dragged all the images into iMovie and set the duration of each image to .03 seconds which works out to 30 frames per second. The final result of these images flipping by at that speed will be similar to what you see above. Of course it probably would've looked better if I had remembered to turn the autofocus off.<br /><br />In the end, the TC80-N3 is a great addition to your gearbag if you're a Canon shooter. If you own a Digital Rebel (or outside the US, an EOS 300D, 350D, or 400D) you can find more information on the adapter cable that makes it all work together <a href="http://www.werbeagentur.org/oldwexi/TC80N3.html">here</a>. The TC80-N3 can be found anywhere photography equipment is sold. You can find it on <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/digitalmediathoughts-20/detail/B00009XVA3/105-2042127-0890824">Amazon.com for $135.69</a> [affiliate].<br /><br /><i>Vincent M. Ferrari is a blogger, podcaster, photographer wannabe, digital media junkie, and Apple fanboy from the Bronx, New York. His most famous accomplishment is canceling his AOL account which got him an inordinate amount of fame, something he still brags about to all his friends. When he's not taking down multi-billion dollar corporations, he's writing on his <a href="http://www.insignificantthoughts.com">own blog</a>, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vincentferrari">taking photos</a>, and working as a Producer for the <a href="http://www.ilifezone.com">iLifeZone</a> and <a href="http://www.applephoneshow.com">Apple Phone Show</a> podcast.</i>