FIELD TOOLS / 06
A time lapse calculator with the timing made explicit.
Frames, exposure, recovery and the moment you finish.
One sequence.
Two meanings of interval.
YOUR SEQUENCE
One still photo becomes one video frame.
Start to start: the interval includes exposure and the gap before the next frame.
Enter the measured time your camera needs after an exposure. Recovery must fit within the wait; it is not added twice. Check the timer manual and camera mode.
Decimal MB. Blank stays unknown. Include RAW + JPEG together if saving both. Point or comma decimals are accepted.
A PLAN WITH VISIBLE ASSUMPTIONS
All timestamps start at frame 1 = 0 seconds. A final wait is never added to the last exposure end.
Last exposure ends
—Count the gaps.
There are N − 1.
Timestamp list; not to scale. Conflicted plans show requested timings only.
Excludes encoded video, filesystem overhead and spare capacity.
Illustrative 50 mm / f/8 camera setup. Import a shooting card or transfer from the ND tool to replace it.
Sequence exposure is independent of the camera context. Copy its ND shutter only when you choose.
Current ND shutter: —
Open exposure & ND tools ↗ · Adjust there, then use “Use this setup in timelapse”.
A conflict may be saved as a clearly marked draft; it is never marked executable. Files contain the camera context, independent sequence exposure, units and assumptions. No upload or camera control.
THE METHOD
Different timer interfaces use different meanings. Read the manual, verify Bulb / Time / shutter behavior, then test a short sequence with your actual equipment.
Start to start: an interval I of 5 s and an exposure t of 1 s means starts at 0, 5 and 10 s. Exposures end at 1, 6 and 11 s. Each 4 s gap must accommodate your recovery time.
Wait after exposure: with t = 5 s and wait w = 2 s, the next start is at 7 s. Here I = t + w = 7 s. If recovery is 1 s, it fits inside the 2 s wait, leaving 1 s spare. Do not add the recovery again.
Choose a whole frame count N, or supply target clip duration L and playback FPS F. For a target, N = ceil(L × F), so the clip is at least the requested length. Actual clip length = N / F.
Frame k starts at (k − 1) × I
Last exposure ends at (N − 1) × I + t
For 300 frames at 25 FPS, I = 5 s and t = 1 s: the clip lasts 12 s; frame 300 starts at 1495 s and ends at 1496 s. With t = 5 s and a 2 s after-exposure wait, it ends at 2098 s.
The one-frame counterexample: with N = 1 and t = 3 s, the last exposure ends at 3 s regardless of I. Multiplying N × I would incorrectly include a gap after the only frame.
For a 1.01 s target at 25 FPS, 25.25 frames rounds up to 26, producing 1.04 s. The actual duration is always shown.
The repeating cadence requires I ≥ t + r, with r your minimum recovery. If I = 2 s and t = 3 s, the next exposure is requested before the previous one finishes. The planner flags the conflict; it does not predict how a camera will skip or delay frames.
Storage bytes = N × MB per photo × 1,000,000. Thus 300 photos at 20 MB use 6000 MB = 6 GB. MB and GB are decimal, not MiB and GiB. An omitted size is unknown, never zero. No encoded-video estimate is made.
Supported planning bounds: 1–1,000,000 frames; 0.001–1000 FPS; exposure 0.000001–31,557,600 s; recovery and wait 0–31,557,600 s; start interval 0.000001–31,557,600 s; photo size 0.000001–1000 MB. Bounds prevent invalid calculations; they are not device capabilities.
Long-exposure noise reduction, write speed, buffer use, autofocus and timer behavior can change the recovery needed. The calculator does not control a camera, model battery life, forecast astronomy, ramp exposure or encode video. Timing compatibility is a mathematical check, not a guarantee against missed frames.
For a long exposure, start in the ND filter calculator, transfer the camera setup, then explicitly copy its shutter into this planner. Changing ND later does not silently alter a sequence.
PhotoPills and Omni Calculator provide established timelapse planning tools. This page’s implementation, examples and interval explanations are original. No camera database or recommended interval table is copied.
Calculations and file restoration run in this browser. No analytics, external fonts or settings uploads. Explicit camera transfer uses temporary same-tab storage, removed on arrival. Downloads are your backups. No input values are placed in URLs. Indexing and AI citations are not guaranteed.