My last blog post describes field testing my Fujifilm X-T3 for making time lapse videos, when two sets of photos were taken: the first set was used to create the following "Sky Lapse" time lapse video; next I shot the set used to create the "Road Lapse" featured in my last post.
The camera was facing east toward the sky from the 6th floor of a seven-story parking garage. A time series of 302 JPG photos was shot from 12:06 pm to 12:21 pm using a three (3) second interval. 15 minutes of actual recording time resulted in approximately 10 seconds of time lapse video, given the recording settings I used.
31 March 2026. Facing east.
A few thin, wispy cirroform clouds were the only clouds in the sky.
Panorama Photo
The following panoramic composite image was taken from the top of the same parking garage using the "Camera" app on my Apple iPad mini 6, set for "Pano" mode. The camera panned nearly 360° from west-northwest to south-southeast.
31 March 2026 at 12:42 pm. Panoramic view. (16350 x 3790 pixels.)
Wind (mph), Weather and Sky Condition
"Wind (mph)," "Weather" and "Sky Cond." are highlighted by red rectangles in the following excerpt from a table of three-day weather observations for KDCA on 31 March 2026 nearest the times when I recorded the photos used to create the time lapse video, and the panoramic composite image.
A few clouds were reported at 25,000 feet. At that altitude, the cloud types were high level cirroform clouds.
Tech Tips
My Fujifilm X-T3 camera was set for manual exposure and manual focus. Aperture was set for f/11. Shutter Speed was 1/500 second. ISO was set for 160. White Balance was set for "Daylight." The focal length of the 18-55mm kit lens was set for 18mm (27mm, 35mm equivalent). Aspect Ratio was set for 16:9 (6240 x 3512 pixels). Image Quality was set for FINE+RAW (Fine JPEG plus RAF).
The ELECTRONIC LEVEL was turned on. The manual focus DEPTH-OF-FIELD SCALE was set for "FILM FORMAT BASIS."
I selected a three (3) second interval to be sure there was enough time for the camera to write the FINE+RAW files to a memory card. In retrospect, my usual two (2) second interval probably would have worked.
I set the camera to use the Fujifilm "Velvia/VIVID" "Film Simulation" in the hope it would add a little "pop" to the clouds in the sky. In this case, the film simulation didn't help with the thin, wispy clouds. I haven't edited the RAW files I recorded -- maybe I can tweak them to look better than the JPEGs that were processed in-camera.
You know, there's more than one way to make a time lapse video and I'm a man on a mission to field test all of the gear I own that can create time lapses.
I decided to test the "Interval Timer Shooting" feature of my Fujifilm X-T3 camera. The camera has a built-in intervalometer; it doesn't do in-camera rendering of photos to video.
My camera was facing east from the 6th floor of a seven-story parking garage. A time series of 311 JPG photos was shot from 12:24 pm to 12:29 pm using a one (1) second interval. Five (5) minutes of actual recording time resulted in approximately 10 seconds of time lapse video, given the recording settings I used.
All trees "flower," some more noticeably than others, like the ones with purple- or white flowers shown in the video. At the time when this video was recorded many trees were almost in full leaf. In my experience, that's two weeks earlier than usual despite record-setting cold during this past winter.
Panorama Photo
The following panoramic composite image was taken from the 6th floor of the parking garage using the "Camera" app on my Apple iPad mini 6, set for "Pano" mode. The camera was facing east. No, the black metal safety railing isn't actually curved.
31 March 2026. Facing east.
Tech Tips
My Fujifilm X-T3 camera was set for manual exposure and manual focus. Aperture was set for f/11. Shutter Speed was 1/500 second. ISO was set for 160. White Balance was set for "Daylight." The focal length of the 18-55mm kit lens was set for 18mm (27mm, 35mm equivalent). Aspect Ratio was set for 16:9 (6240 x 3512 pixels). Image Quality was set for Fine JPEG.
The ELECTRONIC LEVEL (green line) was turned on. The manual focus DEPTH-OF-FIELD SCALE (blue bar), set for "FILM FORMAT BASIS," indicated everything from slightly more than three (3) feet to infinity was acceptably in focus, as shown in the following HDMI screenshot of the X-T3 LCD.
Fujifilm "Film Simulations" are "recipes" for recording JPG files in-camera. ("Film Simulations" aren't applied to RAW files.) I set the camera to use the "Velvia/VIVID" "Film Simulation." ("Vibrant reproduction, ideal for landscape and nature." Source Credit: Fujifilm.)
Apple "QuickTime" was used to render the video; the output was edited using Apple "Photos." Titles, credits, and a music bed were added using Apple "iMovie."
Editorial Commentary: Both "pal2tech" and "Grandads Reviews" are correct in their explanation of how the Fujifilm "Depth-of-Field Scale" works but I chose to follow "Grandads Reviews" recommendation to set the scale for "Film Format Basis" when doing landscape photography.
I think the Fujifilm "Depth-of-Field Scale" set for "Film Format Basis" looks like and works similarly to the manual focus scale (yellow bar) featured in my Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ150, shown below.
My Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ300 superzoom bridge camera was facing east-southeast from the 6th floor of a seven-story parking garage. A time series of 250 JPG photos was shot from 1:24 pm to 1:36 pm using a three (3) second interval. 12.5 minutes of actual recording time resulted in approximately eight seconds of time lapse video, given the recording settings I used.
A short time lapse video segment was created in-camera using the FZ300. The in-camera video creation process features an option to change the duration of the output -- I selected the option to double the duration of the video segment from eight (8) seconds to 17 seconds. The output was edited using Apple "Photos."
20 March 2026. Facing east. (0:17 s)
The next time lapse video was created using Apple "QuickTime" to render the same 250 JPG photos. The output was edited using Apple "Photos."
20 March 2026. Facing east. (0:08 s)
Both videos show high level cirroform clouds moving across the sky from west-northwest to east-southeast.
Panorama Photos
The following panoramic composite images were taken from the top of the same parking garage using the "Camera" app on my Apple iPad mini 6, set for "Pano" mode. The camera panned nearly 360° from west-northwest to south-southeast.
2:12 pm. Wider panoramic view. (15394 x 3678 pixels.)
2:17 pm. Wider panoramic view. (15905 x 3640 pixels.)
Wind (mph), Weather and Sky Condition
"Wind (mph)," "Weather" and "Sky Cond." are highlighted by red rectangles in the following excerpt from a table of three-day weather observations for KDCA on 20 March 2026 nearest the times when I recorded the photos used to create the time lapse videos, and the panoramic composite images.
"Sky Condition" was reported as FEW, SCT, and BKN -- the cloud level was 25,000 feet at all times. The sky was filled with a mix of high level cirroform clouds, as mentioned previously in this blog post.
Looking Down
The following images were captured from Meteor M2-4 -- one of two Russian polar orbiting weather satellites -- during the afternoon on 20 March 2026 by Luis Acosta, my good friend and amateur radio guru.
Luis's ground station is located in New Jersey (USA) but as you can see the view shown in the satellite images includes my location in Northern Virginia (USA). Although the time of the satellite pass (4:22 p.m. EDT) isn't perfectly synchronous with the times of my time lapse video and panoramas it's close enough.
Meteor M2-4. Image used with permission from Luis Acosta.
Meteor M2-4. Image used with permission from Luis Acosta.
Zoom in on the mid-Atlantic region (USA). Notice Luis's weather satellite images (above) show the same mix of cirroform clouds as is shown in my time lapse videos and panoramic images.
The following video was created by Luis Acosta. Video used with permission from Luis.
Tech Tips
My Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ300 camera was set for manual exposure and manual focus. Aperture was set for f/7.1. Shutter Speed was 1/500 second. ISO was set for 100. White Balance was set for "Daylight." The focal length was 4.5mm (25mm, 35mm equivalent). Aspect Ratio was set for 16:9 (4000 x 2248 pixels). [Picture] Quality was set for Fine JPEG.
Luis's weather satellite receiving ground station includes the following hardware and software: Raspberry Pi 4 running the RaspiNOAA V2 image; RTL-SDR V4; generic wideband low noise amplifier (LNA); and DIY Quadrifilar Helix (QFH) antenna.
The "zoom in" video (shown above) was created by Luis using the "ActionDirector" Android app running on his Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra smartphone.
Halo - another blog post by Walter Sanford [Note: See the section entitled "Tech Tips" for information about how to capture very wide panoramic views of the sky.]
The following time lapse video shows two "Road Lapses" along Richmond Highway, U.S. Route 1 in Fairfax County, Virginia USA on 20 March 2026. [Source Credit: Thanks to my good friend Luis Acosta for suggesting the name "Road Lapse."]
My Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ300 superzoom bridge camera was facing east-southeast from the 6th floor of a seven-story parking garage. Notice the trees look "nervous" due to a wind speed of 10-12 mph reported at KDCA. High level cirroform clouds appear to be moving across the sky from west-northwest to east-southeast.
20 March 2026. Facing east-southeast.
Camera Settings
The camera was set for manual exposure and manual focus. ISO was set for 100. White Balance was set for "Daylight." The focal length was 4.5mm (25mm, 35mm equivalent). Aspect Ratio was set for 16:9 (4000 x 2248 pixels). [Picture] Quality was set for Fine JPEG.
I recorded two sets of 200 photos per set using an interval of one (1) second. The first video segment was created using an aperture of f/7.1 and a shutter speed of 1/200 second. The last video segment was created using an aperture of f/7.1; the shutter speed was increased to 1/500 second in order to slightly underexpose the clouds in the sky.
Tech Tips
Two short time lapse video segments, created in-camera using my Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ300 superzoom bridge camera, were edited using Apple "Photos" and combined using Apple "iMovie."
The in-camera video creation process features an option to increase the duration of the output -- I selected the option to double the duration of both video segments. Based upon a limited sample size, I think in-camera creation of time lapse videos works well.
Wind (mph), Weather and Sky Condition
"Wind (mph)," "Weather" and "Sky Cond." are highlighted by red rectangles in the following excerpt from a table of three-day weather observations for KDCA on 20 March 2026 nearest the times when I recorded the photos used to create the time lapse videos shown above.
The following time lapse videos show the sky over Fairfax County, Virginia USA during the afternoon on 11 March 2026.
My Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ150 superzoom camera was set to record Standard JPG plus RAW (RW2) files using an interval of two (2) seconds. [Note: I should have set the camera to record Fine JPG plus RAW. Oops!] 215 photos of each file type were recorded. Each photo is 4000 x 3000 pixels. Approximately 11 minutes of actual recording time resulted in 7 seconds of time lapse video, given the recording settings I used.
Apple "QuickTime" was used to quickly convert the JPG files into a .mov file.
launch "QuickTime"
select File / Open Image Sequence...
set Resolution: Actual Size
set Frame Rate: 30 frames per second
Encode For: Greater Compatibility (H.264)
click "Open" button
select File / Save...
Apple "Photos" was used to post-process the resulting .mov file.
11 March 2026. Facing north-northwest.
Here's the same video clip showing the output from Apple "QuickTime" before it was edited using Apple "Photos."
11 March 2026. Facing north-northwest.
Camera Settings
The photos were intentionally slightly underexposed in order to preserve/recover highlights in the clouds. My camera was set for manual exposure (aperture f/7.1, shutter speed 1/800 s) and manual focus [~2 feet to infinity (∞) was acceptably in focus using the hyperfocal distance for f/7.1]. ISO was set for 100. White Balance was set for "Daylight." The focal length was 4.5mm (25mm, 35mm equivalent).
I tried to shoot another time lapse, but there was a write error after only 16 photos were recorded to the memory card. I speculate the recording settings I used were too demanding for my older camera/memory card. For more information about the type of memory card I used, see the section entitled Tech Tips (below).
Decisions, decisions.
I own two Panasonic LUMIX superzoom cameras: an older DMC-FZ150; and a newer DMC-FZ300. The FZ150 can be used to shoot time lapses using an external intervalometer; the resulting time-series of photos must be post-processed to convert the photos to video. The FZ300 features both a built-in intervalometer and in-camera processing of time lapse videos.
So you might be wondering why I decided to use my older superzoom camera for the first time lapse field test. In my strong opinion, the FZ150 features a much better implementation of manual focus than the FZ300. Newer isn't always better! Hey Panasonic – are you listening?Please bring back the old way of setting manual focus using a colored bar that represents the range of distances that are in focus, as shown in the following photo.
Yellow manual focus bar indicates range of distances (feet) in focus.
INT (Interval): 2 s ← 3-5 s might have been better for my older camera/memory card.]
N (Number): set for "--" (two dashes) ← This setting means the camera will continue shooting photos until the START/STOP button on the intervalometer is pressed.
Memory card used with my Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ150.
Weather and Sky Condition (shown in my videos)
"Weather" and "Sky Cond." are highlighted by a red rectangle in the following excerpt from a table of three-day weather observations for KDCA on 11 March 2026 nearest the times when I recorded the photos used to create the time lapse video shown above (2:11 - 2:22 pm). At 13:52 (1:52 pm) the Sky Condition was reported as "FEW" at 8,500 feet, "SCT" at 11,000 feet, and "BKN" at 16,000 feet. At 14:52 (2:52 pm) the Sky Condition was essentially the same as an hour earlier: "FEW" at 8,000 feet; "FEW" at 11,000 feet; and "BKN" at 14,000 feet. At both times, there was a mix of middle- and high level clouds in the sky.
Remember FEW = Few = 1/8 to 2/8 of sky coverage, SCT - Scattered = 3/8 to 4/8 of sky coverage, and BKN = Broken = 5/8 to 7/8 of sky coverage. See my blog post entitled "Cloud identification" for more information about how to use "levels" to make cloud identification a little easier.
What's next?
First, I need experiment with using RAW (RW2) photo files to create time lapse video. Whenever possible, I like to use free applications like Apple "QuickTime" and Apple "iMovie" to create relatively high quality time lapse video content. That being said, working with RAW photo files almost certainly means I will need to use Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop – applications that are available only by subscription. I have both Adobe applications; there are many ways they can be used to create time lapse videos and I need to experiment to see which process works best for me.
Next, I need to do a time lapse field test using my Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ300. "I bought a SUPERZOOM timelapse camera - Lumix FZ82" (12:22) – a YouTube video by time lapse expert Matthew Vandeputte – inspired me to try using my FZ150 and FZ300 superzoom cameras for creating time lapse video. As I mentioned earlier in this blog post, the FZ300 features both a built-in intervalometer and in-camera processing of time lapse videos so I should use the FZ300 for my next field test.
How to make a timelapse with iMovie (7:17) - a YouTube video by Matthew Vandeputte [Note: Matthew demonstrates how to use Apple "QuickTime" to make a time lapse video, beginning at the ~4:50 s mark.]
The following brief time lapse video segments were captured and created using "Skyflow," an Apple iOS app running on my Apple iPad mini 6. My goal was simple: Capture a time lapse using the "RAW+JPEG" photo setting that could be used for testing purposes. In particular, I wanted to experiment with in-app editing of RAW files.
Here's the JPEG version of the time lapse video exported "as is" from "Skyflow."
27 February 2026. Video created using JPEG files.
Here's the JPEG version of the time lapse video exported from "Skyflow" and edited using Apple "Photos."
27 February 2026. Video created using JPEG files, edited using Apple "Photos."
And here's the version created using RAW files (negatives/DNGs) post-processed using the "Skyflow" in-app editor. My objective was to make the RAW version look as good or better than the JPEG version edited using Apple "Photos."
27 February 2026. Video created using RAW files.
Looking at the JPEG and RAW versions of the same video side-by-side, I think the JPEG version looks slightly better, and the JPEG version edited with "Photos" looks the best of all three. That tells me my "recipe" for in-app editing of RAW files probably needs to be tweaked for better results.
The following photo shows the first frame of the RAW files before it was edited. Notice the RAW image looks "flat" and washed out. The RAW files have much more dynamic range than the JPEGs shot at the same time, so it should be possible to edit them to look better than the JPEGs.
HEIC image saved from RAW video before editing.
Finally, here's the "recipe" I used to edit the RAW files using the in-app editor.
Brightness = +/-0
Contrast = +14
Gamma = +/-0
Shadows = +14
Highlights = -14
Black Point = +/-0
Saturation = +26
Vibrancy = +14
Noise Reduction + 0
Sharpness = 8
Vignette = 0
Please comment on this blog post if you have suggestions for improving my "recipe." Thanks!
Tech Tips
The Apple "Camera" app on iPad mini 6 IS NOT CAPABLE of shooting RAW files (negatives/DNGs). Yet "Skyflow" can, and it uses the iPad camera. What's wrong with this picture? Hey Apple -- are you listening? This problem needs to be fixed STAT!
Among many nice features in "Skyflow," lots of useful information is available by tapping on a recording to open in "project view" (my name for the screen) and tapping the "i" button shown in the upper-left corner. In this case, I am reminded the app was set for Focus = Locked, Exposure = Auto, and White Balance = Locked.
"Skyflow" (i)nfo.
Nothing But Blue Skies ... well, almost
In my last blog post, I described how to interpret the "Sky Cond." shown in a table of three-day weather observations for KDCA on 27 February 2026 nearest the time when I recorded the time lapse video (shown above). The low level clouds shown in the video are fair weather cumulus (Cu).
The following panoramic time lapse video shows the sky over Fairfax County, Virginia USA during the afternoon of 27 February 2026. The sky is most mostly clear except for a few low level cumuliform clouds.
The video was recorded using my GoPro HERO4 Black action camera mounted on an inexpensive "Orbit" two-hour mechanical hose watering timer. The camera was set for "Video" mode / "Time Lapse Video" submode at a resolution of 4K and an interval of two (2) seconds. Approximately 26 minutes of actual recording time resulted in 26 seconds of "raw" time lapse video, given the recording settings I used.
27 February 2026.
"Sky Condition" - cloud amount and height
The following graphic shows an excerpt from the table of three-day weather observations for KDCA on 27 February 2026 nearest the time when I recorded the time lapse video (shown above). The columns labeled "Weather" and "Sky Cond." are highlighted by a red rectangle.
On 27 February, the "Sky Condition" was reported as "FEW030" and "FEW040" for the two times shown in the table of observations for KDCA, meaning the cloud amount was "FEW" (1/8 to 2/8 of sky coverage) and the cloud height was "3,000" to "4,000" feet. These low level clouds are fair weather cumulus (Cu).
A well defined aircraft condensation trail (contrail) is also visible beginning at the 18 s mark and continuing until near the end of the video. The contrail is much higher than the cumulus clouds.
Average air pressure at sea level is 1013.25 millibars (hPa), or 29.92 inches of mercury (inHg). Cloud formation was suppressed by the relatively high air pressures of 1019.0 and 1018.4 millibars observed at KDCA on 27 February 2026. Hence the mostly clear skies at the time I recorded my video.
Tech Tips
Notice the "lens flare" that appears from the 26 second mark to the end of video. This was caused as the camera rotated counterclockwise toward the Sun in the sky. Please comment on this blog post if you can suggest how to avoid lens flare.
