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Capturing Images or Triggering GoPro

Hey Guys, 

 

We are trying to capture images from a GoPro or similar device to make a timelapse of wear to a part throughout a test that is being run by a Labview program. We want the camera to capture and save an image with a certain name once every 4-5 minutes. We can use a GoPro, DSLR, or any camera, but resolution is key. Does anyone have experiance with this?

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You'll have much better luck posting to the Machine Vision board - http://forums.ni.com/t5/Machine-Vision/bd-p/200 instead of Instrument Control.

You can click on Options and request that the Moderator move your question.
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Photographer/Snowmobiler/Motorcycler/LabVIEW nerd here.  Going to break this up into a few posts, first: action cameras.

 

I have a Contour Roam, similar to the GoPro.  I'm not real familiar with the GoPro's features, but I do know they have an intervalometer mode for doing timelapses.

Have to consult the manual for the exact settings, but you'll set it to take a photo every n-seconds (usually a couple of preset intervals- 1sec, 3sec, 5sec, 10sec, 30sec, 60sec, etc) then stack all those still images together into a movie afterwards.

 

As far as I/O and manual-triggering goes ... Again, not real familiar with the GoPros, but the higher-end ones have bluetooth connectivity to smartphones/remotes that you can probably leverage to do manual triggering if you need that capability.  Do you need the capability to trigger it remotely, or is one photo every minute acceptable?  Battery capacity may be an issue if you're running the camera for extended periods of time.  May have to rig up a USB cable to power it externally.

 

Action cameras are great for what they are.  Tough and durable, easy to use, lightweight/portable, with loads of mounting options.  They aren't *great* cameras though - although most of the time they're "good enough".  It's a good cameraphone quality image.

There is no way I could have gotten this photo with any other camera.  (Yes, that's me; yes, that hurt. Smiley Wink)  Pulled that frame out of the 1080p video.

Camera's that little unit stuck to the side of my helmet:

 

My Roam takes a ~5mp image when it's in intervalometer mode, at shutter speeds up to 1/4-second f2.8.  In low-light conditions, it leaves me with better images than video does since the shutter's open for longer.

Here's an image at full-resolution (click the pic, ~1.1MB JPG); some noise and CA on the image, but keep in mind i'm moving at highway speed on a bike with knobby tires, so it's not exactly ideal camera setup conditions.

 

And an example of the timelapse it'll do.  ~45min job, 1 photo every 3 seconds.  Mounted it on a Gorillapod in the corner of my garage.  After I was done, I smashed all the photos on the card into a video, added an audio track, then pushed to youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv_d_ZLwWjk

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Second... DSLRs. 

 

Big.  Heavy.  Expensive.  Complicated. 

Great images.  Lots of options/accessories to get the image you want (Settings, filters, lenses, lighting/sync). 

 

How much money do you want to throw at it, and is the quality of an action camera not good enough? 

You're going to need the body.  ($400 for a lower-to-mid end camera.)

You're going to need some glass in front of it.  ($150 for a 35mm or 50mm prime, up to several thousand for long/fast primes or good zooms.)

You'll need some mounting hardware - Gorillapods work, tripod, machine something up using the 1/4-20 thread on the bottom... whatever.  Say $100.

And you'll need something to automate the exposures.  Can probably do this in LV using some data acquisition, or get an intervalometer and plug that in. 

Then you'll need to figure out how to use it.... ISO, aperture, shutter speed, white balance, focusing, color modes, RAW vs. JPG, etc etc.  Lots of settings.

 

I've got a cheap chinese intervalometer for my Nikon, lets me do the timelapse photography and timed exposures longer than [M]anual mode on the camera allows me to do (anything over 30sec). 

 

 

A third option is a machine vision camera.  They're smaller than a DSLR, and more purpose-built for industrial applications.  These have I/O for triggering and lighting, so if you need to sync the images to the position of a part, then a camera/framegrabber or smartcamera might be worth investigating.

 

I've used an NI 1744 smart-camera for a system before, pushed images to some LabVIEW software over GigE with it. 

Personally, if you need a trigger and you need to sync that trigger with software or mechanics, I'd look for something like this over either an action-camera or DSLR.

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