San Francisco Bay Bridge Time Lapse Frame Rate Test
I wanted to do a quick time lapse test trying out different frame rates at a slow shutter speed. I knew I wanted to capture an iconic San Francisco bridge at night but wasn’t quite sure how everything was going to pan out. I coaxed my friend Livia into driving me onto Treasure Island to scout out the perfect time lapse location on the island. All I knew prior was that I needed a clear shot of the traffic on the bridge; I just wasn’t sure how or where this was all going to come together. With a tripod, my Pixel timer remote and GH2 in tow, we circled the area. The trusty iPhone got us to my final destination but there was nowhere to park. I ended up running on the side of the two lane road that takes cars onto the freeway shoulder and almost sprained my ankle in the cowboy boots I so brilliantly decided to wear last night. Once I go to the top of the tunnel where I could see the traffic, I knew I found my spot! I set the tripod and timed 10 second intervals. The shutter speed was at 4 seconds and my f stop was at 7.1. It takes 4 seconds for the shutter to stay open, another 4 seconds to process the image and I left the remaining 2 seconds there as a buffer so the next exposure could be taken without any issues. I did a tutorial on how I create my time lapse videos with QuickTime Pro HERE.
I used a Pixel timer remote and you can find it here: 
Timer Remote Control Shutter for Panasonic and Leica cameras
What a coincidence, I did a timelapse last week at work with my iPhone 4 with the iTimelapse Pro app with a 15 second interval, I made 509 shots in total during 127 minutes of work and I chose for a 10 frame per second frame rate and it turned out just like I hoped for. This is what the result is after the hard work the iPhone did during 5 minutes. HERE
I made in the past also a couple of ones, but I think I made them with my 3G or 3GS, so I’m not sure about that, but they are also pretty cool.
First attempt (88 frames in total) HERE
Second attempt (153 frames in total) HERE
Those two I didn’t had a iPhone tripod, I used some Scotch Magic Tape (yes, the very same tape I clean my DSLR sensor with) because I didn’t want to screw up my phone and taped it to something sturdy so it couldn’t move for some while.
But maybe I should give it a shot with my DSLR for a higher resolution timelapse, but I don’t know what kind of program I can use to combine them into a video, the only video editing program I have is Adobe Premiere Elements 8.
By the way, I love your timelapse! I want to see San Francisco one day, it look like a beautiful and interesting city.
Great looking location! I did the same thing recently during a 3 day product shoot for a clothing company, combining +12,000 photos into a timelapse at 24fps. HERE
What was your ISO set at?
My ISO was at 160. My EXIF info can be found HERE
That’s a pretty low ISO for dark scenes, you have a pretty good camera, I think my Canon wouldn’t do any better.