Decrease timelapse minimum interval

[Note: the text below is my request edited & re-worded for clarity, following the topic being moved to the Wishlist category]:

I want to use my Cam V4 to make timelapses involving the movement of people and/or animals, but I’ve found that the lowest interval available on the app (1 frame every 3 seconds) is much too big for this purpose.
By my calculation, it’s about 75-90x faster than realtime.
(0.333 frames per second vs an assumed realtime frame rate of 25-30fps.)

So my wish is:

Can we have a way to record “slower” timelapses? This could be in the form of;

A) Shorter timelapse minimum interval, for example allowing 1 sec or 2 secs between frames

B) Adjustable frame rate of the normal “Record” function, for example is it possible to record video at 10, 5 or even 1 FPS?

Ideally both functions together, which would unlock the ability to have any video frame rate from 30ish FPS all the way down to the really low ones (1 day+ between frames) you can already do with the timelapse function.

Obviously we could just record really long realtime videos and then speed them up in editing software, but that really eats up the SD card space, and I think I would run out. I’d much rather capture less in the first place, if it is possible.

[Original post]:

Hello!
I just got my Cam V4. Seems like a great product, and is working nicely so far.
However, my main reason for buying it was to create timelapses, and I was surprised to see that the interval between frames can only go as low as 3 seconds.
Is there a technical reason for this?
If not, what are the chances of a firmware update to add 1 sec, 2 sec and maybe also 0.5 sec intervals?
3 secs is really too long for anything where people are moving across the frame - at most they might appear in a single snapshot, so any sense of motion is lost.
Would really appreciate a little more control!

[Mod Note]: Your topic was moved to the Wishlist category for better visibility. Please remember to click the VOTE button to show your support for your own idea.

Welcome to the Forum, @LeDonMacaron! :wave:

What you’re asking about seems like a potential Wishlist item, but in my brief search of the current Wishlist I didn’t see anything that requests what you’re specifically addressing. You may want to navigate to that category and read the How to Use the Wishlist topic to learn how that works and then potentially submit your own idea/request after you’ve spent a little more time here and earned Trust Level 1 (it doesn’t take much to earn that).

Also, I noticed that your post mentions Cam v4, but you tagged your topic with cam-v3. If you’re unable to re-tag your topic, then we can ask a Moderator to do that.

I’m interested in your idea, because I’ve just recently been playing with time lapses on a Cam v4 and Cam OG, but in my case I’ve been choosing an interval that’s much shorter than it needs to be. (I’m still learning.) I’m not trying to capture people moving, though: I was trying to document snowfall accumulation. :snowflake:

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I really like that the OG has a time-lapse calculator. I wish the other cams would get that feature.

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Yeah, that’s really a nice feature. I agree. :+1:

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Pardon my ignorance, the camera and the app need to be on a same network for Timelapse to work, or I am imagining things?

Hi!
Thanks for the detailed response. I wasn’t aware of the Wishlist option but I will definitely add it as one, once I’ve reached the necessary trust level.

I had indeed added Cam V3 as a tag; weirdly when I was making the post on my phone, no option for Cam V4 came up. I thought maybe putting V3 was better than nothing…? Anyway I have fixed it now - on my laptop, the V4 option appeared.
To be honest I’m more interested in capturing the motion of animals than people but as a test I just pointed it at my girlfriend moving around the kitchen.
3 secs was definitely too big an interval for that.

What aspect of the timelapse does it help you to calculate?

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@habib, I think that’s the case for downloading the time lapse, but my understanding of the feature is that once you set it up the camera just records video to subdirectories within the time_lapse subdirectory off the root directory of the microSD card, so it essentially functions independent of the phone while it’s recording. When you want to retrieve the time lapse, your phone has to remain open to the screen where the compiled video file is downloading to your mobile device until that completes (there’s a Wishlist item asking for background downloading). I don’t know for certain if it’s necessary for the phone and camera to be on the same Wi-Fi network and haven’t tested this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.

I’d also note that if you set a time lapse to record and navigate back to the Timelapse screen for that camera, the app will tell you that it’s recording a time lapse and show you the expected end date. Then if you have a power outage during the time lapse and recording stops but doesn’t resume once power is restored, if you go back to the Timelapse screen the app will still tell you that the time lapse is recording and show an expected end time, but then there will be no recording to retrieve at the end; however, you know that some video was recorded, because you checked the microSD card later and found the record.h264 file and it played back in VLC up until the point power was lost. :stuck_out_tongue:

In my opinion…

  • The camera should resume recording of the time lapse once power is restored. It has data files that tell it the parameters of the time lapse (start, end, interval), so it should check those and pick up where it left off.
  • The app shouldn’t tell the user that a time lapse is ongoing if the camera isn’t actually recording.
  • If a power outage happens and some video is recorded, the user should be able to retrieve this (see it in the Album) and delete it from the card without actually pulling the card from the camera.

This has been my very recent experience, anyway, but I haven’t yet gotten around to filing a bug report.

@LeDonMacaron, thanks for updating the tag! They can be tricky here in the Forum, and it’s easy to grab the wrong one.

I’m not sure why you’re looking to use a time lapse rather than regular microSD recording (either Continuous or Events Only) if you want something that’s closer to full-motion capture, but I s’pose you have your reasons. :man_shrugging:

See this topic:

@ssummerlin posted with screenshots that describe what he mentioned above.

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@Crease beat me to it.

Thanks @Crease

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I do want time-lapse footage that is sped up relative to realtime footage. I just don’t want it anywhere near as sped up as 1 frame every 3 seconds.
Do you know if there’s any option to adjust the frame rate captured by the normal video function? I didn’t see a setting but may have missed it.
Assuming the default is about 30fps, that would mean even the slowest time-lapse will play back at 90x speed… I think?
Would love to be able to do 2x, 5x, 10x etc.

Obviously I could just record normal video and speed it up in editing software. But I’d much prefer to save on SD card space by capturing less in the first place.

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Seems doable with some math.

I heard it may be 25 to 30 FPS.

Say it is 30FPS. So 15FPS would be twice as fast?

Maybe not that easy?

I’m not aware of anything like that native to the camera or app, but it reminds me of another topic:

The script uses FFmpeg, and modifying something like that (or just playing with FFmpeg’s options) might let you do what you want, but I haven’t played with it enough to know for sure. :man_shrugging:

For what you want to do, grabbing the 1-minute files from the microSD card, concatenating them into something longer/continuous, and then playing with the video in some kind of editing software is probably going to be your best bet at this point.

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Thanks for the detailed explanation. I haven’t had a real need to do a Timelapse but I wanted to know the limitation as I remembered that something wasn’t working if not on the same network, and you just refreshed my memory. it is downloading.

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Thanks, @Seapup! :bowing_man:

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Do you need a need?

Do it for fun. Live on the edge. :grin:

I might, just haven’t had the need for that kind of fun :laughing:

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Thanks @Seapup for moving it into the Wishlist category.
Do you think it would be worthwhile for me to add an edit to the top of my original post, to clarify the specific request?

Something like:

"I want to use my Cam V4 to make timelapses involving the movement of people and/or animals, but I’ve found that the lowest interval available on the app (1 frame every 3 seconds) is much too big for this purpose.
By my calculation, it’s about 75-90x faster than realtime.
(0.333 frames per second vs an assumed realtime frame rate of 25-30fps.)

So my wish is:

Can we have a way to record “slower” timelapses? This could be in the form of;

A) Shorter timelapse minimum interval, for example allowing 1 sec or 2 secs between frames

B) Adjustable frame rate of the normal “Record” function, for example is it possible to record video at 10, 5 or even 1 FPS?

Ideally both functions together, which would unlock the ability to have any video frame rate from 30ish FPS all the way down to the really low ones (1 day+ between frames) you can already do with the timelapse function.

Obviously we could just record really long realtime videos and then speed them up in editing software, but that really eats up the SD card space, and I think I would run out. I’d much rather capture less in the first place, if it is possible."

3 Likes

Sure! You can evolve your request to whatever you choose. Just make sure it doesn’t evolve into duplicate of an existing wishlist request. Also, when Wyze reviews this topic, the 1st post will be locked out to prevent scope creep. Users can still add/change requirements via replies though.

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So you’re saying the specific requirements of my request must be in the original post? If so, and if I’m allowed (as I think you’re saying), I’ll edit it to be what I just wrote in my post a couple of mins ago.

I’ll also check the existing wishlist items for a duplicate