I don’t know how many of you have looked into long-term time lapse before now, but I’m renovating my house and I scoured the web for a solution that was simple to setup and use, and more economical than the ones I found.
Skip forward a few months and this is something we spotted at NAB this year!
An amazing little time lapse camera that is very big on features, but remains very economical on price – The AFIDUS ATL-200.
I wanted to write up an overview of this product for any of you that might be interested. A Macro Time Lapse of a plant growing, or your house being renovated, the possibilities are mostly limitless…
The camera was pointed out to me by my friend and filmmaker buddy, Lee Herbet. And then it went and won itself NAB Product of the Year! (Congrats!) To me, as a photographer first, what makes this little camera so appealing is its feature set.
Specifications at a glance
- Full HD Sony Sensor 1080p
- Optical zoom equiv. of a 16-35mm lens
- Wifi App controlled
- IP65 weather resistant
- System timer
- Motion Detection
- Pinch Zoom
- MP4 Video output
- Macro function
- One Touch Autofocus
- Wild battery life – weeks to months!
(Full spec here)
Features at a glance
- The lens has a macro capture feature. With the camera inches away from your subject, you can fill the frame with perfect clarity.
- Sony Exmor IMX sensor with HDR. Select the HDR amount within the app for great contrasts between bright and dark areas of your scene.
- Built-in PIR motion detection. This is a great feature. Capture animals, traffic, pedestrian movement and more.
- One tap autofocus with manual tap precision. If focus is off, manual saves the day and there is a focus calibration feature in the app.
- 16-35mm DSLR equivalent, optical zoom lens. Yes, the lens zoom actually moves within the camera.
- Full Wi-Fi app control. Press the camera button, connect to it with the Wi-fi signal on your phone and open the app. In seconds, you have complete control of your camera on your phone. IP65, which means dust protected and water splashing will have no effect on the camera. There is no need to purchase an optional housing with the ATL-200.
I was looking around for a solution to capture my home renovation a few months back. While there are a handful of different systems on the market, for me, they were quite cost restrictive. Whereas, the ATL-200 comes in at $389.00, which is much easier on the bank account.
There are a couple of the system’s features that really appeal to me. One is the system timer, which means you can set it up so that it captures your time lapse during the day while the workmen are on-site. It doesn’t fill your card with all the overnight photos where nothing is happening.
The ATL200 has a macro mode, too. So it can do some really creative things (I’m thinking of things like watching little critters in a garden). Also, it’s weather resistant, so just sit it in the dirt and off you go! Alternatively, capture a plant growing, or that sort of thing!
One of the real highlights is that the camera takes regular batteries. A set of four AA batteries will last you 45 Days at the 1-minute interval, 80 days at the 5-minute interval (8 hours a day). This is really quite amazing and great for long term time lapse. No special batteries required, and you can use rechargeable batteries, of course.
Here are a couple of example videos:
While we don’t have our own video made in-house just yet, we’re looking forward to trying the ATL-200 camera on a project very soon! For such a feature set at this price, this could be a really great addition to your content creation toolbox.
Find out the full tech spec and details here.
