“Evening Clouds” Cedar Park, 2019
Today I spent a bit of time refining the time-lapse process on the Fujifilm X100T. With each one I create, I notice some tweaks that would make it better. I think I’m close to finalizing on my settings! 😊
For this video, I noticed there is a lot of flickering which I’ve determined is caused by the X100T’s built-in ND filter. It’s similar to the flickering that is caused by the variance in exposure when the aperture rings step down. In that case, even though the aperture might be set to the same f/5.6 for all the photos, the blades will not go to the exact same position each exposure. This causes the flickering in the final video. The solution to this on the X100T is to shoot wide open at f/2, so that the aperture blades don’t move. If you have a camera where you can force the blades to not move for each exposure, that is perfect! Or perhaps switch to a manual-lens with an aperture ring.
Anyways, the X100T’s ND filter will move into place for every exposure, so there is a slight variance in the amount of light that it blocks, and that causes the flickering effect. If you do need to reduce the amount of light hitting the sensor, I’d use a regular old ND filter screwed onto the lens, or take advantage of the extreme high shutter-speeds that the electronic shutter enables.
Speaking of the electronic shutter I suggest making sure you are using it for another reason: eliminating any moving parts during the image sequence capture. This means less wear and tear on the camera. Even at f/2, the X100T will activate the aperture blades. 🤷♂️
So, if you hear any noise whatsoever (assuming you have camera beeps turned off), then check your aperture, focus-type, ND filter, and shutter-type. It should be dead silent!
There’s is a lot to remember when making these time-lapse sequences, so I made a checklist of settings. These are specific for shooting JPG on the Fujifilm X100T, but might be helpful for other cameras as well:
- Set ISO manually
- Set white-balance manually
- Set shutter speed manually
- Turn off built-in ND filter
- Set aperture to f/2
- Make sure of external power source
- Make sure the DR is not Auto
- Set the shutter type to Electronic
That’s it!
The Fujifilm X100T is a nice little camera to create the time-lapse sequences. The only things that would make it better would be the ability to manually stop down the lens, and to remove the 999 exposure limit on interval shooting.
I hope you had a nice day.
またね～
