Interested in Creating Stunning High-resolution Time Lapse Videos with Phase One?

Time-lapse photographers wanting to create visually stunning and compelling imagery have long sought out Phase One hardware and Capture One software because of their high quality and reliability. But these tools have lacked several of the specific features the most discerning time lapse photographers required. Digital Transitions created the DT Time Lapse Suite to solve this issue and allow the realization of professional 12k time lapse videos.

The suite consists of two applications: DT Time Lapse Capture for controlling the cameras’s capture sequence and DT Time Lapse Editor for automating the laborious post processing tasks of smoothing and ramping adjustments such as exposure and white balance.

THE ORIGIN STORY: THE PHASE ONE XF IQ3 100MP ROCKS AT TIME LAPSE CAPTURE

When Phase One released the Phase One IQ3 100mp we received a sharp uptick in interest from time lapse shooters. The 12k native resolution of the IQ3 100mp provides ample resolution for punch ins, digital pans, or multiple scenes cropped from one frame, even when the output format is 4k or 8k. Every pixel from an IQ3 100mp contains 16-bit data for each color, providing unprecedented flexibility in color grading and other post processing. The ISO range of 50 to 12,800 provides extreme flexibility, the clean long exposures allow easy transitions from day to night, and the huge dynamic range provides great latitude for changing exposures and for pulling accurate detail, color, and smooth tonality out of bright city lights during night scenes.

Unlike general-purpose small-format cameras the Phase One XF IQ3 using electronic shutter mode yields zero camera-based flicker; the aperture remains stopped down (i.e. does not move) between frames and the “shutter speed” is mathematically identical in length every frame since the electronic shutter is controlled by the on-board timer circuits (the transit speed of a mechanical shutter vary ever so slightly every time they fire – not a problem for normal photography but a real flicker nuisance in high-end time-lapse capture).

The IQ3 100mp can also be used on the back of a tech camera like the Cambo RS or Arca R lines. This greatly interested time lapse shooters since it allowed the use of exotic lenses like the Rodenstock 23HR or ultra-wide-lenses such as the Canon 12-24mm or Canon 17TS to be used with a 100mp full frame 645 medium format sensor (confused about focal lengths? see our focal length visualizer). Many such bodies provide built-in rise/fall, shift, tilt, and swing, turning every lens into a “tilt-shift” lens (as long as it has a large enough image circle).

But all of these time lapse shooters that wanted to use the IQ3 100mp reported three major limitations:

• Capture One wasn’t designed to capture time lapse footage
• Capture One wasn’t designed to edit time lapse footage
• There was no “Time Lapse” mode available when using the IQ3 100mp on a tech camera

DT solved these problem for our customers by providing DT Time Lapse Capture, a dedicated capture agent designed exclusively for time lapse capture, and DT Time Lapse Editor, a plugin for Capture One that provides the tools that time lapse shooters need like ramping, smoothing, and keyframe identification.

And now, with the announcement of Phase One’s IQ4 150 MP, not only is the resolution significantly higher, but features like tethering and providing power up to 100’ away through ethernet, better dynamic range, a faster electronic shutter, and a new BSI sensor increase the time lapse capabilities even further.

KEY FEATURES OF THE SUITE

SEE IT IN ACTION

There are several reasons why time lapse shooters use resolution up to 12k and higher (IMAX, the ability to digitally pan, multiple 1080p shots can be extracted from one set of footage etc) but we’d rather show… we especially love Chris Pritchard’s 12k footage shot in LA with an IQ3 100mp on an XF (see his blog).