Long term and Wide angle low lux Project cam or Construction Cam is here

Only three time lapse cameras available in the marketplace except for those DSLR or Point To Shoot from Canon or Nikon. i.e Brinno, Wingscapes and GoPro. The GoPro also is often regarded as the “short term” sports cam( battery life is at most 2 hours). Our review of the Brinno and Wingscapes will cover up to the camera “appearance” “batter life” and “ video quality”.

First look: Mail box vs R2D2

Viewfinder: traditional optical vs electronic screen

GUI: Mechanical gear buttons vs Color Graphical menu

Wingscapes’s optical viewfinder

Brinno TLC200’s LCD viewfinder and graphical menu

Wingscapes “Nitentendo” 80’s like operation buttons and switches ( my favorite)

Brinno rotation lens for more flexible targeting

Brinno’s versatile accessories ( Ex changeable lens, Motion sensor kit…)
Power consumption:
It’ crucial for these portable and standalone cameras to have exceptional battery life where no plug or external power available.

Capturing time for one frame:
TimeLapsecam: 17Sec. ( it’d cause the instability if time interval is less than 17 secs in theory)
TLC200: 0.8~1Sec. (It does have the potential to shoot less than 1 sec interval)
Total power need for capturing one frame:
TimeLapsecam: 5673 mW-Sec
TLC200: 140mW-Sec


TimeLapsecam: 5673 mW-Sec, So total frames is 7615
TLC200: 140mW-Sec, total frames is 308,571
(Both using 4 AA batteries with standard 2000 mA hr)

Suppose you shoot every one minute, then Wingscapes may only have 4 days of operation (from our estimation, the real number must be lower due to power management like hibernation). One of the other model from Brinno, TLC100 is doing ok which can last for 10days(the published data from Brinno). TLC200 is 83 days. Once again, Battery life is very significant for these time lapse cameras.

Video quality: Does resolution(8 MP) count for video footage?
Remember those 90’s camcorders or DVs from Sony? They never have any high resolution (most are 0.3 MP) but come up with great video quality.
Is 8.0MP really better than the 1.3MP in term of videos? ( not still image , 8.0MP means still photo resolution). These user upload videos (no caned videos) will bring you the true colors.

Does Wide angles matters in time lapse photography?

You may actually get Brinno TLC200 f1.2 here at Focus Camera

It’s said TLC200 f1.2 aspherical lens will significantly increase the lux by 4 times more than TLC200. So Night shoots can be easily done by 140 degree wide angle lens. Here are some photos to feel the amazing power of the Brinno f1.2 lens

The left one is the normal TLC200; The right one is the TLC200 f1.2, You can the stunning Field of View difference now. It’s 140 degee!

The package showing the Brinno TLC200 f1.2

FOV of Wingscapes 8.0MP &Brinno TLC200f1.2

Top photo: showing the Wingscapes traditional optical viewfinder

Above: the photo actually taken by Wingscapes

Here is the Brinno f.12: No one is left behind!!

Exclusively Available at

Get Brinno TLC200 f1.2 at Focus Camera
Available at

Get Brinno TLC200 f1.2 at Focus Camera

construction time lapse camera, project camera, motion camera, time lapse camera

GoPro tether and adhesive based anchor on a helmet.

The GoPro Tether Kit comes with five tethers and five adhesive based anchors that can be stuck on any flat-ish, smooth surface. The anchors use the same 3M VHB adhesive that is found on the GoPro curved and flat surface mounts, which we have found to be super strong. As mentioned above, it’s highly unlikely that the adhesive based mount will come off (as long as it was put on properly); it’s more like that the black plastic base on the bottom of the camera will snap so don’t worry about the attachment method of the mount and the anchor being the same.

Attaching the tether to your GoPro is the part that most people have trouble with, although it’s quite simple once you know how. All you have to do is the loop the tether (or any thin piece of cord or wire trace) through the middle of the door hing on the bottom of the camera and then back on itself and voila!, you have a tether on your GoPro camera. It’s a lot easier to do with either the black clip unscrewed from the bottom of the camera or with the rear door pulled off ( to do this, just open the rear door and pull it away from the camera…..it will pop out quite easily). Of course you don’t have to use the GoPro anchor points; if you have somewhere solid that you can tether to then you can just as easily use that as your anchor point.

Putting a tether on your GoPro is always a good idea when you are using it somewhere where you wont be able to find the camera if the mount lets go. If you are using your GoPro camera around water, you might also want to consider the GoPro Floaty Backdoor which is designed to keep you GoPro camera afloat and easy to find (it’s bright orange!).

Most helmet cameras save footage to a removable SD memory card making it easy to take virtually unlimited video by swapping out memory cards. These cameras are often powered by an onboard rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can record for about 2 hours on a single charge . Of course, it is advantageous to carry along an extra battery so that the fun doesn’t have to stop when the battery dies.

The video captured by point of view cameras can be recorded in a variety of formats with the most common being MP4, AVi, and MOV making editing your video as easy as opening up the video editing software that comes pre-installed on most newer computers.

Overall, point of view cameras offer a fun way to share your unique point of view with friends, family, and fans.

For the full footage CLICK HERE

Embedded GPS in still digital cameras has been a hot topic since last year and now has made it to the action video camera realm thanks to the ContourGPS.

Some uses these the new GPS enabled videocams can be used for:

• training feedback on course runs
• archive routes and run lengths you raced so you can revisit the course again
• tracking competitive data for races
• share unique videos with embedded GPS data, unlike other POV videos
• Contour camera with a proven track record
• reasonable price; only a slight premium over regular ContourHD 1080p camera
• lots of mounting options compatible with earlier ContourHD cameras

Contour wisely kept the camera the same size while retaining all the 1080p recording options including:

1. Full HD 1080p, 1920 x1080 at 30 fps
2. Tall HD 960p, (1280 x 960 @ 30fps designed for sports like surfing that benefit from a taller image
3. Action HD 720p, (1280 x 720 at both 30 and 60 fps) for smooth motion and reduced blur and rolling shutter effect

The Contour helmet cameras are unique among video cameras in that they are built specifically for capturing action sports so they are encased in a rugged weatherproof case to withstand shocks and drops as well rain and mud splashes. Since shooting sports is different than everyday shooting these new cameras typically sport a much wider lens, 135 degrees in the case of the ContourGPS vs typically 50 to 55 degrees for a normal consumer video camera.

Another common feature of action sports cameras like the Contour are the customized mounts for attaching to all types of sports gear from surf boards to car bumpers.

The ContourGPS is still one of the lightest action cameras at 5.3 ounces with the battery and microSD card. With support of up to 32gb memory cards the ContourGPS will run out of battery life before you run out of video storage space.

Contour is giving away their new Storyteller software for video editing and embedding of the new GPS data onto the redesigned Contour web site to view the extra data. The moving GPS map runs alongside the video in a special player on their site so the GPS features won’t show up if you post the same video to Youtube or other video sharing sites.

We plan to have more on the Contour GPS cam once we get one for review.