G Hardy wrote:
|| You can't with MiniDV - not easily, at least. They don't have
|| single-frame record & advance.
||
|| Your best bet is to find a cheap* Nikon** DSC and a cheap* PC, and
|| control the former using the latter (running Krinnikam) and a USB
|| cable. Depending on the selected image resolution, you can set the
|| timelapse as low as 1.5 seconds.
||
|| Then you bring your list of frames into your favourite mid-range
|| editor (Windows Movie Maker won't quite hack it, here) and equate
|| one image to one frame.
||
|| If you bring the frames in at their native size (as opposed to
|| automatically resizing them to fit the video frame) it allows you to
|| do some cool effects like panning and zooming around the stop motion
||
|| Take a look at:
|| http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gareth.hardy1/Clouds.wmv (1.7MB)
|| It's just a concept test, but it should give you the idea. It was
|| done using a £100 eBay laptop and a Nikon CoolPix 5700 - bought new,
|| but they currently appear to be going for about £100-135 on eBay.
|| So you can get a better result than DV for a quarter of your budget.
||

I hope you don't mind me asking some questions in a similar vein, but a
really interesting topic, with what looks like some useful advice.
I've got a cheap security camera (composite video output ) modulated on to a
spare channel through a distribution amplifier feeding several TVs.
At one time I had the idea of using a PVR detector to switch a VCR on/off in
EP mode for a set time period.

Unfortunately due to illness I never got around to it, but now that
computers with quite powerful processors are being dumped in landfills, and
even 500 gigabyte hard drives are ridiculously cheap, it would appear to be
a much better option than using a VCR.

Is there any simple software available whereby a camera with composite
video output combined with a TV card can be made to capture individual
frames onto a hard drive with a reasonable image resolution, and for user
predetermined time intervals?.

Also I've wondered about flash memory, as I see that a four gigabyte SD card
can be purchased for as little as £20, how many medium- resolution images
could be stored on one of those?

If any of these options were feasible it would give me something to play
around with, as nowadays I have a bit more spare time on my hand ) TIA
Ivan





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