Camera for Time Lapse - Daily Pic

[Hasted]

Hey everyone! This is almost in the right forum section, but maybe not. Figured I would go for it regardless.

Currently I have a Wyze camera that is looking at my new tank. I have been trying for months (literally) to get this dang time lapse thing to work. My issues with that is not the focus, though.

My question, is there a better camera to do this? I want something I can sit down in one spot and forget for a month+ and take a picture at a set time once per day. I have the space on my desk to accommodate this.

The Wyze camera "technically" does this. But, since I have had no luck getting it to work correctly, I have been just taking a picture manually every day. I have an alarm on my phone for 10pm. I just go in the Wyze app and snap the pic. Somewhat easy. I am sure I can tediously compile all the pictures on my phone, send them to my PC, and create a manual time lapse. I was hoping for something more reliable, easier, etc. and maybe better picture quality.

I am open to actual cameras, other security cameras (is that what the Wyze cam is considered?), etc. I have plugs, space, and memory cards if needed! I definitely would prefer something that does it automatically. IF needed, I guess I can continue to do so manually.

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

What are your thoughts on a raspberry pi, pc with webcam or nest camera?
First two should be easy to rig up something to take the pictures. Nest says they have an API, but I haven't looked into it much. If you want I can take a look and see if it can take pictures easily.

 

[Hasted]

What are your thoughts on a raspberry pi, pc with webcam or nest camera?
First two should be easy to rig up something to take the pictures. Nest says they have an API, but I haven't looked into it much. If you want I can take a look and see if it can take pictures easily.

My PC is right on the other side of my desk, but it isn't always on at the same time each day. Not sure that would work.

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

Would need to leave it on 24/7.
You might be able to find something in the bios to automatically turn it on at a set time, but that is probably too much of a pain.

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

Sounds like there is a time lapse feature. Have you tried it?
https://wyzelabs.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029780232-Time-Lapse

 

[Hasted]

Sounds like there is a time lapse feature. Have you tried it?
https://wyzelabs.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029780232-Time-Lapse

Yep. I am unable to get it to work correctly, though. Not sure why. Been fiddling with it for a few months. Tried to do the time-lapse thing with my other tank when I set it up. Failed. Would like to do it on this nano.

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

Sorry. Just read your post again. You already tried that.
I am using a raspberry pi that is running a script to capture images when I want them. My only complain is that the camera on it isn't great.
I am using the v1 camera (manual focus). I have been thinking something like a webcam would do a better job with the focus.

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

Do you have an old/spare cell phone or tablet? Maybe it could be setup to do a time lapse.

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

I may not have been able to help you, but you sold me on a Wyze camera. I was hoping to find a better camera for the new tank, it should be here on Friday.

It looks like the alternative rtsp firmware can be used to send a stream to anther computer to pull images from it. Issue is this requires a computer and likely breaks the phone app.

I also ran into this:

Upload a short video to the cloud every hour

Uploads a short video to the cloud every hour.

ifttt.com

No idea if it will work, but if you can figure out how to download those clips later you could probably get an image out of them.

I will try to report back on the weekend if I find anything useful.

 

[Hasted]

I may not have been able to help you, but you sold me on a Wyze camera. I was hoping to find a better camera for the new tank, it should be here on Friday.

It looks like the alternative rtsp firmware can be used to send a stream to anther computer to pull images from it. Issue is this requires a computer and likely breaks the phone app.

I also ran into this:

Upload a short video to the cloud every hour

Uploads a short video to the cloud every hour.

ifttt.com

No idea if it will work, but if you can figure out how to download those clips later you could probably get an image out of them.

I will try to report back on the weekend if I find anything useful.

I am about to snag a V3 that came out recently to see if I have more luck with it. Demote this V2 to my main tank sump. Do you know which version you got?

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

Got a pair of the v2 ones on sale.
I will be interested to see how the night vision on the v3 is. Especially the colour night vision. Hopefully I don't end up needing to upgrade.

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

Have you tried running the camera overnight on your other tank?
I am currently taking pictures about every 10 seconds of my tank (the best stuff always happens when I am not there). Wondering if the coral care about whatever wavelength of light these cameras emit.

 

[Hasted]

Do you have an old/spare cell phone or tablet? Maybe it could be setup to do a time lapse.

Have you tried running the camera overnight on your other tank?
I am currently taking pictures about every 10 seconds of my tank (the best stuff always happens when I am not there). Wondering if the coral care about whatever wavelength of light these cameras emit.

I have an older Galaxy phone somewhere, but can't find it. I will keep looking!

I haven't with the night vision part. I always just had it set up to try to do time lapse. Since I haven't been able to figure it out, I never put it close enough to the tank to matter. So, definitely can't answer that. Sorry.

 

[AZMSGT]

Use a real camera. The frame size will be better. Then just take 1 photo every day. You can join the JPG images together into a timelapse movie. Just remember 25 frames make a second so adjust your frame rate acordingly.

 

[Hasted]

Use a real camera. The frame size will be better. Then just take 1 photo every day. You can join the JPG images together into a timelapse movie. Just remember 25 frames make a second so adjust your frame rate acordingly.

Are there cameras that you can set up to take a picture daily? I was hoping not to manually snap a picture.

 

[AZMSGT]

Are there cameras that you can set up to take a picture daily? I was hoping not to manually snap a picture.

You would need a specialty camera. The main reason is the camera would have to remain on while the timer is active. This consumes battery power and regular cameras batteries arn't made to last that long or stay on.

Cameras like Afidus and Brinno brands will do the job. I have a Brinno that I use for full day event Timelapse. I admit-ably have never done multi day timelapse shoots with the Brinno.

Best timelapse cameras in 2024 for construction, events or speeding up nature

Condense days into seconds of engaging video, with the best timelapse cameras on the market today

www.digitalcameraworld.com

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

Cameras came early. I did a short time lapse (every 15min for 2.5 hours) and it worked... As long as you want a video with a really high frame rate as the result. It's unfortunate it can't just output a set of pictures.
It seemed to have issues if I tried stopping it before the specified end time.

I also found that the rules let me setup to record a short clip everyday at a set time. You may be able to use this to capture a clip of the tank everyday. Then you can use a tool like ffmpeg to extract an image from the clip. Downside is it isn't very automatic. You will need to go into the Wyze app occasionally, download the videos, and transfer them to a computer to extract the images.

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

Are there cameras that you can set up to take a picture daily? I was hoping not to manually snap a picture.

If you have a supported Canon camera this might be useful:
https://chdk.fandom.com/wiki/Ultimate_Intervalometer
No idea how well it actually works. My worry with this would be running out of power and wearing out the moving parts.

It looks like Sony has an API to control some of their cameras. Would just need a computer or phone on to run it...

These are probably not useful, but just throwing out ideas now.

 

[Hasted]

You would need a specialty camera. The main reason is the camera would have to remain on while the timer is active. This consumes battery power and regular cameras batteries arn't made to last that long or stay on.

Cameras like Afidus and Brinno brands will do the job. I have a Brinno that I use for full day event Timelapse. I admit-ably have never done multi day timelapse shoots with the Brinno.

Best timelapse cameras in 2024 for construction, events or speeding up nature

Condense days into seconds of engaging video, with the best timelapse cameras on the market today

www.digitalcameraworld.com

If you have a supported Canon camera this might be useful:
https://chdk.fandom.com/wiki/Ultimate_Intervalometer
No idea how well it actually works. My worry with this would be running out of power and wearing out the moving parts.

It looks like Sony has an API to control some of their cameras. Would just need a computer or phone on to run it...

These are probably not useful, but just throwing out ideas now.

I can just keep the camera plugged in? I am not planning to use a $600+ Cannon or anything, so wearing out a camera is fine. Assuming it last like 1+ years.

I have looked at some of those brands listed, actually. The $300+ ones seem silly for such a niche use and possibly not worth it for me. I amy look at that $100 one, though. Barely in range. Haha

I am going to keep fiddling with Wyze and check out that short video capture mode you spoke about.

 

[58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5]

I had a chance to try the rtsp method on the Wyze. I'm liking it so far.

First I installed the rtsp firmware and enabled rtsp in the advanced settings. Instructions and file here:
https://wyzelabs.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026245231-Wyze-Cam-RTSP

This gave me a url to open the video stream with a device on the same network (works well in VLC media player). The url looked kind of like:
rtsp://username: [email protected]/live
(Ignore the space in the line above. Keeps getting replaced with an emoji )

From there I wrote a Python script that periodically connects to the stream, grabs a frame, and saves it to disk as a jpeg image.

Downside is you need a computer to be on grabbing the images, but something like a $35 raspberry pi should be more than enough (and not use much power).

I have a bit more work to do on things like error handling and proper configuration before it is really ready.

Let me know if you are interested and I can post the script and/or answer any questions.