Time Lapse Calculator

Time-lapse photography compresses a long real-world event into a much shorter moving image. A camera captures individual photographs at regular intervals, and editing software plays those images at a normal video frame rate. Slow changes such as clouds, construction, plant growth, traffic patterns, or a sunset then appear to move quickly. Planning connects four quantities: real capture duration, final playback duration, playback frame rate, and the interval between photographs. The desired final video determines how many frames are needed. Multiply playback seconds by frames per second. A 30-second sequence at 24 FPS needs 720 frames. Divide the real capture duration in seconds by that frame count to find the interval. Capturing two hours, or 7,200 seconds, in 720 frames requires one photograph every 10 seconds. The compression ratio divides real seconds by playback seconds; the same sequence compresses time by 240 to 1. This calculator accepts real durations in seconds, minutes, hours, days, or thirty-day planning months. Final video duration can be entered in seconds, minutes, or hours. When the fixed-interval field is empty, the calculator derives the interval needed to reach the requested playback duration. When a fixed interval is supplied, it instead calculates the whole frames that fit within the real duration and reports the resulting playback length. This is useful when camera hardware or subject motion dictates the interval. Choose an interval short enough to represent movement smoothly but long enough for each exposure and file write to finish. Exposure time must normally be shorter than the interval, with additional margin for processing. Fast clouds, crowds, and traffic often need short intervals. Construction or plant growth can use minutes or hours. Frame rate affects required image count: 30 FPS needs 25 percent more frames than 24 FPS for the same playback length. A complete field plan also includes storage, battery, weather protection, and post-production. Multiply total frames by average image size to estimate storage, then leave room for backups. Long projects may require external power and a weather-sealed enclosure. Locking focus, white balance, and exposure can reduce visible flicker, although sunrise and sunset sequences may require controlled exposure changes. The mathematical result is the starting schedule; test the setup before leaving a camera unattended and confirm that the intervalometer uses the same units.