arduino, robots, cameras, and life

I juts got a macro tube in the mail. It’s basically a dumb (ie you need to be on full manual mode-no metering or AF) piece of aluminum that moves the lens further away from the camera body. Doing so it decreases the minimum focal point.
Basically it means you can get really tight up on stuff and shoot close ups. Here are a few test shots

The macro tube has 3 different sized rings that thread into one another. That way you can roughly control the distance between the lens and the camera. The three shots are taken with the three rings on. Here’s a photo (ripped from deal extreme)

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Here’s a few things I have learned while sitting in fields waiting for my camera to finish working for me.
8 tips for shooting SLR time lapses

1) Put your camera on full manual – otherwise the still will flicker from one to the next.

2) Try to pick objects that are still, or are far away enough that they won’t be overly distracting (trees are great in the background, but tend to look bad in the foreground because they move so much.)

3) Set your camera to a fixed iso – mine was on auto iso (even in manual mode) and it took me a while to really figure that out.

4) Sometimes you will have to make concessions for the brightness / amount of motion blur issue. Either get more light, a faster lens, or a more realistic view of what is possible.

5) Set your camera to be as energy efficient as possible. Turn the auto preview off, and turn the auto focus off (after focusing) It is uncanny how much power holding the mirror up takes. If you are planning on shooting all night you’re going to need to be running efficient.

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