GoPro as timelapse camera?

[aeroencychris]

Hi all,

I have an old GoPro Hero 2 lying around and I thought I might be able to repurpose it as a timelapse camera.

My main concern is that the battery is dead and I don't have a charger. Can I just power it directly from the wall or does it require a battery?

Also, I'm going to be doing long span timelapses (months at a time) so I was wondering if I could offload the pictures to something like a Raspberry Pi so that the camera is solely used to take the pictures (don't think the GoPro has such a long timelapse feature built in). I know it had a mini HDMI out but I haven't messed with it yet.

Is this outside the limits of the GoPro?

[skimmilk5]

I know that EarthCam does long span timelapses (over years), but I think they use a proprietary software. If you want to add a camera (probably using that mini HDMI out, but I'm not sure), EarthCam does let you do that.

[aeroencychris]

13 minutes ago, kimsejin5 said:

I know that EarthCam does long span timelapses (over years), but I think they use a proprietary software. If you want to add a camera (probably using that mini HDMI out, but I'm not sure), EarthCam does let you do that.

Looks like I would have to use an HDMI capture card which is pretty expensive

Luckily my school loves funding these sorts of things so maybe I can spin it as a PR thing so I can make timelapses of our campus?

[Hackentosher]

You might be able to power it over USB. Doesn't it have time lapse built in?

[aeroencychris]

10 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

You might be able to power it over USB. Doesn't it have time lapse built in?

I think it's only for very short periods of time. I would want to be taking a single picture a day, for example.

[Hackentosher]

6 hours ago, cdsboy2000 said:

I think it's only for very short periods of time. I would want to be taking a single picture a day, for example.

Not sure if the go pro has that functionality, maybe there's a third party software you can run on a connected computer or a script of some kind. 

[skimmilk5]

21 hours ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Looks like I would have to use an HDMI capture card which is pretty expensive

Luckily my school loves funding these sorts of things so maybe I can spin it as a PR thing so I can make timelapses of our campus?

(will admit, am slightly biased towards BMD) The Blackmagic Design "Intensity" line of capture cards are among some of the top out there, if you're not sure where to start. I also think that Avermedia makes capture cards.

[aeroencychris]

1 minute ago, kimsejin5 said:

(will admit, am slightly biased towards BMD) The Blackmagic Design "Intensity" line of capture cards are among some of the top out there, if you're not sure where to start. I also think that Avermedia makes capture cards.

Looks great but it's also $200. Might as well just buy a USB webcam at that point.

[piemadd]

On 9/18/2016 at 10:43 PM, cdsboy2000 said:

Hi all,

I have an old GoPro Hero 2 lying around and I thought I might be able to repurpose it as a timelapse camera.

My main concern is that the battery is dead and I don't have a charger. Can I just power it directly from the wall or does it require a battery?

Also, I'm going to be doing long span timelapses (months at a time) so I was wondering if I could offload the pictures to something like a Raspberry Pi so that the camera is solely used to take the pictures (don't think the GoPro has such a long timelapse feature built in). I know it had a mini HDMI out but I haven't messed with it yet.

Is this outside the limits of the GoPro?

The GoPro hero 2 should have a time lapse feature. The GoPro can be charged straight from the wall

[piemadd]

A good capure card can be a really cheap device. All it has to do is take pictures.