[L] just finished building this intervalometer and his verbose documentation of the project has a little bit of everything. The fabrication uses common prototyping materials, and simple skills that are easy to master even for the beginner.

The hardware is based around an ATmega8 microcontroller. After snooping around the Internet [L] wanted to see if the voltage divider based focus and shutter commands that are present in some camera remote shutter controls would work for his model. Investigation with a commercial shutter release showed him how it was done, so he incorporated that into his design. When it comes to firmware for the device we really like his explanation of the menu system. There’s a lot of settings and he did a great job of planning the user interface to make them all work on the finished product.

The schematic and board layout were done with Eagle. During the layout process he made choices for easy assembly using strip board, and even walks us through the steps when cutting the traces and adding jumper wires. It’s nicely finished in this clear plastic case and demonstrated in the video after the break.

[Peter] loved using his GoPro HD camera, but he found the time lapse functionality a bit lacking. It wasn’t that there were not enough settings to satiate his needs, but that the camera would run through its batteries in just a few short hours.

He found that the camera did not turn off or enter any sort of sleep mode between shots, wasting precious battery life. He could have simply added a bigger external battery pack to the camera, but for the sake of portability, he had a far better idea in mind.

The GoPro has a pretty well documented interface called the “Hero Bus”, so all it took was a little bit of online research before [Peter] had all the information he needed. The camera has a neat feature that immediately snaps a picture when it is powered on, so he decided that he would use a microcontroller to turn the camera on and off at specific intervals, rather than using its built-in time lapse function. He chose a Texas Instruments MSP430 for the job, since it is very well known for being a power miser.

Once he had his code up and running, he connected it to his camera and found that it worked perfectly right off the bat. Now, he can take anywhere between 1,500 and 2,000 shots before the batteries run out, instead of the measly 200 he was getting without the modifications – quite an improvement!

When [Bunny] moved into his apartment in Singapore he was surprised to find that a huge building project was just getting started on the other side of the block. Being the curious sort, he was always interested in what was going on, but just looking in on the project occasionally wasn’t enough. Instead, he set up a camera and made a time-lapse video.

This isn’t hard, you can find a slew of intervalometer projects which we’ve covered over the years. But being that [Bunnie] is one of the designers of the Chumby One, and frequently performs hacks on the hardware, it’s no surprise that he chose to use that hardware for the project.

Luckily, he’s sharing the steps he used to get Chumby capturing images. He mentions the hardest part is finding a compatible USB camera. If you have one that works with a 2008 Linux kernel you should be fine. The rest is done with shell scripts. Mplayer captures the images when the script is called from a cron job. Once all the frames are captured, he used mencoder to stitch the JPEGs into a movie. See the result after the break.

Hackaday reader [onefivefour] had an old VistaQuest VQ1005 keychain camera kicking around, and wanted to do something useful with it. A while back he hooked up a 555 timer and did a bit of time lapse photography, but he wanted more control over the process. Specifically, he desired the ability to tweak the delay between shots in a more granular fashion, as well as way to prevent the VistaQuest from going to sleep after sitting idle for 60 seconds.

His weapon of choice to get this task done was an MSP430, since the microcontroller can be found quite cheaply, and because it is relatively easy to use. He added a few header pins to the LaunchPad board wiring them up to the camera’s trigger as well as the on/off switch. When the wire connected to the trigger is pulled low, the camera snaps a picture. The wire connected to the on/off switch is always held low, ensuring that the camera is on and ready to go whenever it’s time to take a shot.

It’s a relatively simple project, but definitely useful. While there are many ways to build an intervalometer, the MSP430 is a great platform to use, especially for beginners.

Stick around to see a quick video [onefivefour] put together, showing off his time lapse rig’s capabilities.

[Tobe] has an intervalometer for his camera, but he wanted a device that could trigger the shutter using several different methods, not just time. He calls his creation the Megavallometer, which can utilize any one of three distinct criteria.

He recently purchased an Arduino and a couple of shields, so he figured this would be a perfect project in which to use them. He hooked up a microphone and a photodiode to the Arduino, allowing him to use both sound and light to trigger his camera, depending on which mode he selects. Of course, the Megavallometer still incorporates the functionality of a standard intervalometer as well.

Once connected to his camera he selects one of the three trigger programs, and the Arduino handles the rest. If either the light or sound triggers are selected, the respective sensors measure the ambient levels upon selection, allowing for accurate results in any setting.

While the Megavallometer is a bit larger than other intervalometers we have seen, it looks incredibly useful and can likely be strapped to a tripod or similar if need be.

If you have a minute, be sure to check out the video on his site for a sneak peak if his Megavallometer in action.

Most DSLR cameras have the ability to take pictures at set intervals, but sometimes the menu system can be clunky, and the options are often less than ideal. [Achim] is a big fan of time lapse photography and has been hard at work creating a hardware-based intervalometer to suit his needs. He has just finished the second revision of the controller which is just about small enough to fit inside the housing of a 2.5mm stereo plug. The timer is not 100% universal, but so far he has confirmed it works on Nikon, Canon, and Pentax cameras.

Based on a PIC10F222, the circuit’s operation is quite simple. Once the dongle is connected to your camera, you simply need to take two pictures anywhere from 0.4 seconds to 18 minutes apart. The intervalometer “watches” to see how long you waited between pictures, and proceeds to take shots at that interval until the battery dies or your memory card fills up.

As you can see in the video on his site, the timer works a treat. If you want to make one of your own, swing by his site to grab schematics and code – it’s all available for free.

*Whoops, it looks like we’ve actually covered this before. Our apologies.

Apparently Pentax DSLR cameras have a remote shutter option that used infrared signals. [Pies for you] gathered up several different hacks and built a method of triggering the camera using custom audio. He put together the dongle above, just a headphone extension cord and two IR LEDs, which plugs into the headphone jack of any audio device like an iPod or an Android phone. When you play back a file the audio signals drive the IR LEDs. This is completely worthless unless you craft your own audio file using the correct frequency, duty cycle, and bit encoding. [Pies for you] did just that and got things up and running. Looks like the system doesn’t do so well with MP3 compression, but take a look at the waveform analysis that he posted and then make sure you’re using a lossless format.

Calling this intervalomemter small would be a glaring understatement. It’s tiny enough to fit inside the plastic cover for a 2.5mm jack for use with a Canon DSLR camera. We should point out that the image we put together is a bit misleading. The picture of the jack is version 1 of this circuit and uses an 8-pin SOIC chip. The board in the oval is version 2, with a PIC 10f222 SOT23-6 package making it even smaller than the original version.

This is used for time-lapse photography. When plugged in the chip draws power from the camera. Get this: it learns the timing interval by listening for the first two images. Once you’ve snapped the first two pictures the PIC will continue to take images based on that initial delay. Amazing.

[Thanks AW via DIY Photography]

Up first, for those of you who don’t want to dismantle your camera, here are some mechanical ones that will work on any camera.

[Simplesimon] has done a fantastic job with this integrated system pictured above. He’s added an adjustable solenoid to click the shutter release. By including a second kit board to handle an RF remote, it has remote single shot capabilities too!

Here’s another mechanical one. Using a servo, some hot glue and other miscellany, [Tool Using Animal] (who we featured with the parasitic wind turbine) has created this fairly simple intervalometer. Again, this one could be used on pretty much any point and shoot camera. His mechanism for pressing the button is unique, he uses a servo to spin a cam with a nub on it. Quite a display of ingenuity.

For those who don’t want to get their hands dirty at all, [ProjectIsle] has created one out of K’NEX. This seems like it could be a great solution for throwing one together super quick and cheap.

Some people crave solder and have an irresistible desire to see their camera laid bare on their workbench. These guys offer solutions that require you get a little more in depth.

[Randofo] and [trebuchet03] both used a timer circuit soldered directly to the shutter button to achieve the desired effect. [Randofo] used an arduino, while [trebuchet03] found a timer circuit kit. [Randofo] even has a nice little plug(pictured above) which allows you to remove the timer circuit when not needed.

[Eaglepex] has gone a bit further with this external timer circuit for DSLRs. He made an adjustable one, based on a 555 timer circuit that plugs into the remote shutter release port. He’s even done an elegant job of enclosing it!

Once you have all your images, you’ll need to combine them into a movie or gif. Here is an article on how to compile all the images together using virtualdub or the gimp. You might also need to rename an entire batch on the fly, I like to use AF5 renamer for that.

As anyone who has lusted over the technical specifications for Canon’s new Digital Rebel XSi knows, the capabilities of the average point and shoot camera are severely limited. Using the CHDK firmware hack, the features of Canon point and shoot cameras can be significantly expanded, allowing for ultra-high speed photography, very long exposures, time lapse photography, and RAW capture. This How-To provides a guide to our experiences using the CHDK firmware, and shows just how easy it is to get more out of a point and shoot than ever thought possible.

Installing CHDK

The first step is to install the CHDK software. Our friends at Lifehacker recently ran an article covering exactly that, so we won’t bother repeating the instructions. Be sure to install the Allbest build, it has all of the nice features.

After installing, you’ll want to have the firmware autoload when you boot up your camera. To do so, open up the main CHDK menu by pressing your ALT button, then the MENU button. Scroll down to “Debug parameters”, then click on “Make card bootable…” After it is done, turn off your camera, remove the SD card, and toggle the write protect switch. When this switch is toggled, the camera will automatically boot into CHDK (you’ll still be writing to it).

Taking long exposures

Long exposure photography is appreciated for its soft, sometimes surreal images of (usually) night scenes. Many point and shoot cameras only allow exposures of 15 seconds, but with CHDK, you can take photos at up to 64 seconds.

Navigate to CHDK’s main menu and find Extra Photo Operations. In Extra Photo Operations, change the Override Shutter Speed value to the shutter speed you wish to shoot at, such as 64 seconds. Scroll down and change the Value Factor from OFF to 1.

Though the camera will not indicate the modified shutter speed, the changes will take place. Just take a picture as you normally would. Be sure to have your camera set to manual mode. Taking photos of moving things works best for long exposures: try subjects like the ocean, windy trees, and traffic. Additionally, using neutral density filters, you can even take long exposures in the day time!

Taking ultra-fast exposures

Just as you can override the shutter speed for long exposures, you can take ultra-fast exposures as well, at up to 1/100,000 of a second with some cameras. Flash will sync at up to 1/60,000 of a second, and you’ll need flash with such short exposures. We were unsure how useful or easy this would be to use, but the results surprised us: in just a few minutes we were able to capture nice looking water droplets, without a hint of motion blur.

Navigate to CHDK’s main menu and find Extra Photo Operations. In Extra Photo Operations, change the Override Shutter Speed value to the shutter speed you wish to shoot at, such as 1/16,000 of a second. Scroll down and change the Value Factor from OFF to 1. Be sure to have your camera set to manual mode.

Note that the minimum shutter speed is restricted by the aperture value you have selected in the camera’s manual settings. The wide end (lower numbers), can usually only shoot at down to 1/8000 of a second, while the narrower end (higher numbers) can shoot for the full range.

Prefocus before taking the picture, either by using manual focus mode, or by holding the shutter button halfway down. Though the camera will not indicate the modified shutter speed, it will use the short shutter speed. There are many different things that can be done with high speed photography: capture water droplets, capture explosions, or even capture a bullet leaving a gun. All of these are possible with CHDK.

Running scripts

The real power in CHDK comes from running user made scripts. The first script we will look at is an intervalometer, which allows you to take many photos over a period of time. We used it to easily create a time-lapse video.

Copy and paste this script into a new document, and save as ult_intrvl.bas to your computer. Then, plug in your camera’s SD card, and copy ult_intrvl.bas to /CHDK/SCRIPTS/.

To use the intervalometer, navigate to the main CHDK menu, find “Scripting parameters”, and click “Load script from file”. Find ult_intrvl.bas, and press set. Then, scroll down and adjust the script parameters: the delay until the first shot is taken, the number of shots you wish to take, the interval between each shot, and whether or not you want it to take an “endless” number of photos. Then, exit the menu, but leave your camera in ALT mode, and press the shutter button to start the script.

The video above was created by taking approximately 700 shots at 15 second intervals over 2 hours and 45 minutes. Just set your camera on a tripod or another steady surface, and start the intervalometer. Using QuickTime Pro, go to File>Open Image Sequence to convert the hundreds of separate images into a movie. For space and processing considerations, we recommend setting your camera to a low-resolution mode before starting the intervalometer.

Exposure bracketing

Exposure bracketing allows you to take many pictures at slightly different exposures nearly simultaneously. You can use this to correct errors in the camera’s autoexposure, or merge exposures for HDR photography. Many higher end Canon PowerShot’s have exposure bracketing built in, but for those that don’t, CHDK has the answer.

Like with the intervalometer script, simply copy and paste this script into a new text file. Name it bracketing.bas, and place it in the /CHDK/SCRIPTS/ folder of your SD card.

Then navigate to the main CHDK menu, find “Scripting parameters”, and click “Load script from file”. Find bracketing.bas, and press set. Then, scroll down and adjust the script parameters. The step size is the difference between each image taken, in 1/3 EV steps, the correction is the EV of the middle image taken. The only slightly tricky part here is that first parameter is the (number of images – 1)/2. This means that if you want three pictures, it must be 1, five is 2, seven is 3, and so on. To run the script, exit the menu, leave the camera in alt mode, and press the shutter button.

With these different exposures, you can create HDR tone-mapped images, that show very bright and very dark regions exposed properly. For example, taking the seven different images of the lighthouse above into an HDR program such as Photomatix, optimizing settings for realism, produces this result:

You can also use HDR to produce more dramatic photos, such as this train. It is all in how you process the images.

There is a lot that can be done with HDR, from extremely vibrant photos, to the scarily surreal, such as this one below from Till Krech.

..

For more information on HDR photography, Stuck In Customs has an excellent tutorial.

Taking RAW photos

RAW photos can be extremely useful to digital photographer. They enable you to extract more information from bright highlights in an image, and RAW gives the you complete control over white balance. For example, in the above photo the JPG had an incorrect white balance, which was easily corrected using the RAW image. While DSLRs offer 12 bits of data in RAWs, most point and shoot cameras can only provide 10, meaning that even with CHDK, you won’t be able to extract as much information from highlights as you could with a DSLR. Still, RAWs are very useful for having precise white balance control.

In the Raw Parameters menu, enable “Save RAW”, and adjust the other parameters as shown. Now, you can take photos as normal, and a RAW will be automatically saved with your JPG. The RAW file will take quite a bit a more space than the standard JPG, so your camera will not be able to correctly display remaining space on the SD card.

Processing RAW photos

To process your RAW photos, you’ll need to convert them to the Digital Negative format, DNG. The DNG4PS-2 software can do this for these cameras: A610, A620, A630, A640, A710 IS, S2 IS, S3 IS, A700, G7, A560, A570 IS, IXUS 700, IXUS 70, IXUS 800, A720 IS, S5 IS, IXUS 950, A650 IS, A460, SD800 IS, A530, A540. You can also process the files using UFRaw or dcraw, though that is much more difficult.

Open DNG4PS-2, then go to settings. Adjust the model settings based on how many megapixels your camera is. Next, press OK, and find the path to RAW files option. This is not the location of the file that you wish to convert, but the folder that contains the files. When you have selected the correct folder, press “Convert”.

The DNGs will be in a folder marked with today’s date, and from there, you can process them in Lightroom, Aperture, Photoshop, or whichever RAW processing software you prefer.

Adding a battery meter

Tired of have the low battery warning sneak up on you? CHDK can add a battery meter to your camera, though the configuration depends on what type of camera you have.

To enable it, go to OSD parameters in the main menu, then to Battery. Edit the parameters so that they are as they appear above, if you have a camera with 4 AA rechargeable batteries. Cameras with 2 AA rechargeable batteries should be about half of that. For other power sources, experiment to find the best value.

Writing your own scripts

CHDK uses a very simple BASIC-like language called UBASIC. It has all of the features that one would expect from any language, but there are many camera specific features.

Input/output

Each script begins with a special header, that provides information and control to the user.

@title Intervalometer

In this header, the title of the script is declared, as are two user adjustable parameters. The syntax is simple: @title declares a title, @param par declares the name and label of a parameter, and @default [par] declares the default value of a parameter. Scripts can only receive input through the header, at the beginning of their execution.

To output information to the user, the print command is used: print "Num shots: ", a will print the number of shots, as inputted in the script header. Note the use of the comma to seperate text from variables. The print command is limited to 25 characters of text. To clear what has been printed, use the cls command.

Standard program flow

let a = 2

next x

:display

rem print even numbers

if x % a = 0 then print x

return

This block of code demonstrates many of the logic features of the UBASIC language. To assign values to variables, use the let command. You can also see a for loop and a subroutine. Note the use of the rem command to insert comments, and the single line if statement. UBASIC supports most standard mathematical comparisons, including +, -, *, /, %, <, >, =, <=, >=, <> (not equal to), &, |, ^ (xor).

Camera control

The meat of UBASIC is in its many commands for controlling the camera:

shoot

Takes a photo

click/press/release "button"

Clicks (press and release), presses, or releases on the cameras buttons. The following are available: up, down, left, right, set, shoot_half (depresses the shutter halfway), shoot_full, zoom_in, zoom_out, menu, display, print, erase, iso, flash, mf (manual focus), macro, video, timer.

wait_click timeout

Waits for a button to be pressed, then continues. The timeout value is optional.

is_key x "button"

Immediately follows a wait_click command. If the last button pressed is "button", then the variable x is set with the value of 1. If wait_click timed out, then "no_key" is used as the button name.

set_tv val

Sets the shutter speed to val. Note that val is not “1/1000″ or something similar, but rather an integer value. Each increase in the integer value corresponds to a 1/3 EV increase. The absolute mapping between integer values and shutter speeds varies between cameras, but tables are available here. This, and all following commands must be used with the camera in manual mode.

set_tv_rel val

Sets the shutter speed relative to the current shutter speed. Example: set_tv_rel 0-1 increases the shutter speed by 1/3 EV.

get_tv target

Sets target equal to the current shutter speed.

set_av val, set_av_rel val, get_av target

With the same syntax as shutter speed commands, these adjust aperture settings.

set_zoom val, set_zoom_rel val, get_zoom target

Just like set_tv/set_tv_rel commands. In set_zoom_rel, val is +/- the relative change. Zoom values range from 0 to 8 or 14 for A-series cameras, and 0 to 128 for S-series cameras.

set_zoom_speed x

S-series only. Sets the zoom speed, at x% of maximum speed. x may vary between 5 and 100.

set_focus x, get_focus target

x/target is distance in millimeters.

set iso x, get iso target

x/target is one of the following values: 0 (Auto ISO), 1 (50/80), 2 (100), 3 (200), 4 (400), 5 (800), -1 (High ISO).

Where to go from here

Try checking out the CHDK wiki, for more features then are even printed here. Finally, take photos! The most important thing that you can do to improve your photography skills is to take lots of photos.