Plantcam File Transfer

Introduction

Plantcam is a $70 time lapse photography camera useful for documenting prototype builds.

Notes

Here's how to get movies from your Plantcam

Transferring files:

Start somewhere with a lot of space to work in. I have a seperate drive just for raw footage since all those gigs would be crowding my laptop.

Drag all your raw footage off the card to a named and numbered folder. For example, i might call the folder: " trout gulch timelapse-brush mound01 "

Note: usually, the best bet is to drag the JPEGS into your folder in batches of 2,000 because the transfers will freeze otherwise.

Opening files:

Open Quicktime. Choose File > Open Image Sequence...

Choose just the first JPEG in your image sequence ( example " IMG_0001.JPG " ), then "open"

It may take a minute to load. If you have set the camera to take high res footage it will open larger than your screen. Choose View>Half Size to fit the movie to your screen. Playback may be laggy, but you can probably watch your footage now.

You can trim your footage with the triangular sliders next to your volume controls. Dragging them out lets you set in and out points.

Choose

Edit > Trim to Selection

Exporting files:

File > Export, you have a bunch of options here. Just do the default for now

or

File > Export for Web, if you want a really compressed file for your phone or you just wanted smaller files

I try to name the movie the same as the folder with the image sequences. That way if you want to edit the whole thing together into a larger project its easy to find.

Trouble Shooting:

Make sure all your files have transferred over, sometimes the transfer is incomplete and your footage will be chopped up as a result.

A single file with Zero Kb may be added automatically to your image sequence. This screws everything up but can be fixed by deleting the file from your image stack.

Other fun options can be had in:

Window > Movie Properties - then click on "Visual Settings" (adjusting rotation)

Window > AV Controls (adjusting playback speed)

Voila, You're a timelapse master!

I think that's most of what you'll need to know. Have fun! Daren