I was always fascinated by time-lapse photography, the movement of time. Specializing in long exposure photography, to show the passing of time on single piece of film was the beginning, now it has progressed to something more, hence time-lapse photography. Not having the resources in obtaining expensive equipment I decided on a less expensive D.I.Y. solution.
Using my Canon G10, small and compact, the camera itself does not have a build in intervalometer function but it does have a cable release plug. With the camera not having a intervalometer I have to use a external unit, the Canon unit was way too expensive to use. I found a D.I.Y electronic kit at my local electronic shop.
The unit is not the most precise solution but it works. After assembling the unit, which needs a bit of soldering , it was ready to be used, The unit uses 12-volt power supply. By installing a cigarette lighter plug unit into the side of the motorbike, I can now run the unit directly from my motorbike’s battery. The only drawback is that the motorbike needs to be at least 2 meters from the camera and unit. I can get an external 12 volt battery pack but at this moment I am trying to keep cost as low as possible unit I can justify it.
The timer unit is a very simple 555 interval timer unit with 2 adjustable delays. Pause and pulse, pause is for the duration of the time between exposures and pulse the duration of the shutter release. The only problem the unit needs to be set manually. Using a stopwatch and good guesswork, I can get close to the desired delay. Fine-tuning depends on my patients. The delay between exposures can be set from 2 sec to approximately 80 seconds. It is impossible to get the exact delay that one will get with the Canon unit. The second adjustment is the pulse, one can use this on a cameras with a bulb function to set a desired exposure. The G10 does not have a bulb function, I have set the pulse a second, enough time for the camera to take a light reading and then expose. The cost of the unit would be in the region of £ 15 depending on the little extras like a small box, battery pack switch a power cable plug.