Ready to Buy a Long Term / Construction Time Lapse Camera System? (start here)
Time lapse footage / video has become increasingly popular, as an interesting way to demonstrate a project’s progress. There are many different factors which will impact your decisions when it comes to buying a construction time lapse camera, so we’ve gathered all the information you’ll need, to help you find the right option.
Buy Long Term Time Lapse Camera - Our Systems & Packages
photoSentinel Tempo
STANDARD PACKAGE
5395
Looking to buy a construction time lapse camera system? The photoSentinel Tempo features include weather resistant housing, rugged hardware and industry-leading remote control, paired with quality DSLRs which make Tempo the definitive system for professional long-term time lapse video.
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
- State-of-the-art 4G Timelapse Controller
- Compatible with your choice of DSLR camera (see our recommendations below)
- Up to 100° field of view
- 3-axis image framing
- 20W solar panel
- Great Battery Life with a 12800 - 13600 mAh lithium ion battery*
- 64GB industrial-grade SSD storage
- Cloud Services (subscription required)
photoSentinel Tempo
PREMIUM BUNDLE
5895
Our flagship weather resistant housing system upgraded with a high-gain wi-fi antenna, Ethernet-ready housing and enough on-board storage to save months of raw images.
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
- State-of-the-art 4G Timelapse Controller
- Compatible with your choice of DSLR camera (see our recommendations below)
- Up to 100° field of view
- 3-axis image framing
- 20W solar panel
- Great Battery Life with a 12800 - 13600 mAh lithium ion battery*
- 500GB industrial-grade SSD storage
- High-gain external antenna
- Ethernet-ready housing
- Cloud Services (subscription required)
photoSentinel Tempo
STANDARD PACKAGE
5295
Looking to buy a construction time lapse camera system? The photoSentinel Tempo features include weather resistant housing, rugged hardware and industry-leading remote control, paired with quality DSLRs which make Tempo the definitive system for professional long-term time lapse video.
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
- State-of-the-art 4G Timelapse Controller
- Compatible with your choice of DSLR camera (see our recommendations below)
- Up to 100° field of view
- 3-axis image framing
- 20W solar panel
- Great Battery Life with a 12800 - 13600 mAh lithium ion battery*
- 64GB industrial-grade SSD storage
- Cloud Services (subscription required)
photoSentinel Tempo
PREMIUM BUNDLE
5795
Our flagship weather resistant housing system upgraded with a high-gain wi-fi antenna, Ethernet-ready housing and enough on-board storage to save months of raw images.
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
- State-of-the-art 4G Timelapse Controller
- Compatible with your choice of DSLR camera (see our recommendations below)
- Up to 100° field of view
- 3-axis image framing
- 20W solar panel
- Great Battery Life with a 12800 - 13600 mAh lithium ion battery*
- 500GB industrial-grade SSD storage
- High-gain external antenna
- Ethernet-ready housing
- Cloud Services (subscription required)
FREE WORLDWIDE EXPRESS SHIPPING
FREE WORLDWIDE EXPRESS SHIPPING
The photoSentinel Cloud - Capture and Store your Time Lapse Video Safely
Plans from $50/month
All photoSentinel systems are connected to a powerful cloud feature-set that includes:
- Remote Scheduling and Camera Control
- Professional HTML5 Image Gallery
- Status Reporting and Alert Notifications
- Auto-generated Progress Reporting Videos
- AI-Driven Timelapse Movie Composer
Not all features available on all plans; review Cloud Services plans for full details.
Enquire to buy one of our systems now
Extras
Time Lapse Cameras - Add a camera and lens to your package
photoSentinel Tempo works with a range of Canon and Nikon APS-C and full-frame DSLRs.
You can provide your own camera or purchase one directly from us as part of your package. We can provide Canon and Nikon DSLRs, along with Sigma and Tokina wide-angle lenses.
Enquire now for a competitive price on your preferred set-up.
Power options
20W Solar Panel
included
Thanks to Tempo’s extremely power-efficient electronics, the included small and lightweight 20W solar panel is more than enough for even the most rigorous video shooting regime. Adding a solar panel will allow you to capture and record quality video with less worry about power interruptions.
All-weather AC Charger
+ US$115
For jobs with access to mains power, the rugged IP55 AC charger can withstand anything the weather and the worksite might throw at it.
External Battery Box
+ US$199
For jobs with limited or no access to sunlight or AC, the External Battery Box is a weather resistant housing that allows you to use and protect a 12V lead-acid battery (not included) to significantly increase the runtime of your system. Never worry about battery life for your long-term time lapse video project again!
Power options
20W Solar Panel
included
Thanks to Tempo's extremely power-efficient electronics, the included small and lightwight 20W solar panel is more than enough for even the most rigorous shooting regime.
All-weather AC Charger
+ $150
For jobs with access to mains power, the rugged IP55 AC charger can withstand anything the weather and the worksite might throw at it.
External Battery Box
+ $269
For jobs with limited or no access to sunlight or AC, the External Battery Box allows you to use a 12V lead-acid battery (not included) to significantly increase the runtime of your system.
Need a longer lens?
For larger camera and glass lens combinations we offer an upgrade to ‘The Beast’ housing, which provides lots of extra room for larger full-frame camera bodies and telephoto lenses.
If you’re looking to buy a construction time lapse camera and think your video project might need The Beast, enquire now to discuss your requirements.
* Battery capacity will vary slightly depending on Li-Ion cell availability. All battery packs provided for photoSentinel units will range between 93 and 99 Wh suitable for UN3480 shipping regulations.
Chat to one of our team for expert advice or to receive a free, no-obligation quote for your timelapse project.
Long-term Time Lapse Camera FAQs
What are the best time-lapse cameras for construction?
There are times – like when you need 8K video content, or your client has money to burn – when it’s appropriate to use a more expensive set up.
But, when we’re asked what cameras someone should use for construction time lapse, we recommend the entry-level APS-C Canon and Nikon DSLRs.
With these cameras, you get full DSLR functionality, lens flexibility and high quality photos…
…all at a reasonable price for equipment that will be locked-up in a time lapse box for years on end.
Also, these types of cameras have been used on thousands of long-term time lapse projects around the world, so we know they’re reliable workhorses.
How do you create long-term time-lapse videos?
One of the most common long-term time lapse questions we get asked is how often to take photos to achieve the best construction time lapses.
The answer depends on a range of factors:
- Style of time-lapse video: Are you going for regular intervals throughout the whole project (like this video), or a series of shorter time-lapses cross-faded over each other (like this video)?
- Data storage and transfer: Are you wanting to save photos and images only locally or are you wanting to upload each photo as it is taken? How big is your onboard storage and how much 3G data will you use to upload photos?
- Length of project: If the project is just three weeks long, you probably don’t want just one photo per hour. Conversely, if the project is 3 years long, taking one photo every five minutes will give you 75000 photos and a 50 minute time-lapse movie!
There are pros and cons to each way of doing long-term timelapse, which I’ll discuss in a later post (for example, it may not be such a bad thing to have 50 minutes worth of footage to choose from!).
For now, it will suffice to say that the key guiding principle for long-term timelapse is: the more the better.
What are the best settings for construction / long-term time lapse cameras and equipment?
(HINT: under no circumstances use auto-focus!)
Using the right camera settings is essential to get consistency across your photos.
Choosing the wrong camera or intervalometer settings will give you troublesome variations in colour and lighting across photos.
Using automatic settings allows the camera to adjust to changing light automatically, resulting in heavy flicker.
This inconsistency can massively increase your post-production workload and cause a lot of frustration in the editing suite.
Is GoPro good for construction time-lapse?
GoPro cameras are popular for a reason: they’re small, lightweight and easy to use. But there are some drawbacks to using GoPros for construction time lapse that you should be aware of before making your purchase:
- GoPro cameras have a very limited field of view. This means that you won’t be able to capture as much of the construction site as you could with a larger camera.
- The GoPro’s small sensor also means that it isn’t great in low light conditions. This can be a problem if you want to capture night-time construction activity.
- Finally, GoPros have a shorter battery life than most DSLRs. As a result, you'll need to change the batteries more frequently.
