Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I want to do a stop frame animation of plant growth in my small greenhouse system.

I am thinking to make a nice sturdy camera mount, one that allows the camera to be put in exactly the same place every time, and bolt it in somewhere where it gets a good view of the growbeds. Then snap a pic every day at the same time and then later put all the shots together to make a short movie. Any good ideas anyone? Perhaps I should get a dedicated camera for the job and try to automate the process somehow? Has anyone attempted to do this?

I've used a PlantCam for some of my stuff. It takes fairly good pictures.
http://www.wingscapes.com/

I have tried it a few times, definitely better with a camera mounted permanently in one spot. One of the main things you have to watch out for is the light, light is a bugger when it's different during the process of shots.

I'm doing one at the moment using two cheap cameras mounted on tripods in the one place, have been taking pictures morning and night with the flash, see how it goes.

I do time lapse on my camera/tripod sometimes but what I recommended is to get a cheap USB webcam and setup your computer to take a snap shot every hour or so. There are utility programs that help with that. I personally think it's easier than keeping the camera in one spot specially as our camera is used every day.

That's why I have multiple cameras, at $70 for a 12 megapixel camera you can;t go wrong.. Webcams are ok if you don't mind poor picture quality.

Hey Brian o'l buddy o'l pal

are we getting some trout monday?

We are thinking the same thoughts again.
I sourced a very nice outdoor IP camera the other day i will work very well for this sort of thing, but it is proving rather difficult to find software to help me do the timed shots..

let me know if you solve it...

Me again..

Brian, I found the plantcam gadget in South Africa..

check it out at:
http://www.wantitall.co.za/Wingscapes-WSCA04-Timelapse-Outdoor-PlantCam__B002M2TLLI