An Infrequent Intervalometer: A Journey from Film to Digital - Purpose & Use

For the Nepal trip purpose & use of equipment was to capture image like this -

2 stitched images each covering over 180 degrees from the top of Kalapathar at around 5,643 metres altitude, the highest I've ascended. I took a series of images sequences 4 shots to cover 360degrees, stepping down about 50 meters between shots. This is a 360 degree sample from the top -

The stitching of this is not so good & the flare spoils the center to the right of Everest, but there's one chance with film before the days of on the spot review, delete & reshoot. I guess I should have taken a polaroid back as well.You get what you get returned from processing & I lost a set of four rolls to the processing gods. Getting a sorry from the lab didn't go down well at all, I wish I had processed them myself but I'd moved on from that a few years earlier.

For the US trip the purpose & use of the digital equipment is a radical departure from film. This time around I'm using camera software I develop myself for Android devices. My history with developing camera software goes back the first digital camera's such as Kodak DC50, through camera phones HTC (windows) Sony, Nokia N95, and now a variety of Android phone & tablet devices. The Sony & Nokia N95 (with inbuilt GPS) re-sparked my intervalometer interests, not only could I trigger continuous shots by time interval but now also trigger with distance moved as measured by GPS. Android devices offer a plethora of additional sensors, 3D compass, accelerometer, gravity, lux, gyro, barometer etc etc so I put this altogether and released Imageotag  as a free app in Google's Market.

It wasn't long before Leszek Pawlowicz was kind enough to post a review and shortly thereafter Red Hen Systems in Colorado saw some potential synergy with their Geospatial Ground Imagery & Corridor Patrol work so here I am in the USA with the digital equipment set.

Tomorrow some details of where my new developments are headed with integration of external cameras & various bluetooth devices.

An Infrequent Intervalometer: A Journey from Film to Digital - The Equipment

The fundamental criteria for both trips was that the equipment had to fit the size constraints of aeroplane carry on luggage & be personally carried by me the whole time. 


Equipment for the 1998 trip to Nepal comprised:
Linhof 617SIII with Schneider 72m lens + center grey & polarizing filters
Miller 20 fluid head carbon fiber tripod
About 36 x 120 rolls of Kodak Ektachrome 64 ASA slide film
Minolta light meter
Hand Held GPS, 2 miniature Silva compasses
Various accessories - Electronic Flash, red laser pointer, binoculars, water proof bags, spirit level, maps & notebook


Equipment for the 2011 trip to the USA comprise:
Nikon D200 with Red Hen Systems Blue2Can bluetooth GPS geotagger 
Tamron 18 to 250mm zoom lens
LTI Truepulse 360B bluetooth Laser rangefinder with digital compass
Apple 13" Mac Book Air laptop computer
Motorola Xoom Tablet
Samsung Galaxy S2 cell phone
Google Nexus S cell phone
Google Nexus One cell phone
LG G2X cell phone
3 x Bluetooth GPS devices
Imageotag Android Camera Software & other (in development) intervalometry software.
Accessories included numerous digital memory cards, usb cables, power and charging cables, batteries & notebook.


The fundamental differences between trips was the shift from single analog large format photographic film camera & single GPS device to multiple digital cameras varying from 10 down to 5 mega pixels, 8 GPS devices, 6 3D digital compasses & 6 portable computer devices (!)  plus a laser that measured instead of just pointing.


I'd estimate the weight of each set of equipment to be essentially the same, both were heavy at over 40 pounds. For the Nepal trip I had to find a long rucksack style bag to fit the tripod & then to argue to get this accepted as carry on flight luggage more than once. For the USA trip I was carried an ordinary day pack style bag.


Tomorrow an explanation of the purpose & use of the equipment. 
        

An Infrequent Intervalometer: A Journey from Film to Digital

An intervalometer is a device which counts intervals of time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intervalometer


In 1998 I travelled to Nepal and treked to Mt Everest with my brother Mark, we went there to see our youngest brother Alan and wish him good luck in his quest to climb that highest of peaks.


My quest was to take a bunch of photographic equipment, camera, film, tripod & hand held GPS to capture sequences of images down the side of a mountain and later stitch those images together into 360 degree panoramas.


This was the equipment for my 1998 trip -

    
Now in 2011 I am travelling to the USA on another intervalometers journey, here is the equipment I am carrying -

Tomorrow I'll explain the details and differences between each set of equipment.