Hi, I couldn't find this specification in the manual. What's the average file size of a 4K photo taken during a timelapse? Thanks.

Well, it really depends on what's in the scene. But upon doing a quick test, Video+JPEG will give approximately 5-8MB jpeg files (give or take a few). Video+RAW will result in a RAW file of around 20MB (give or take).

In 4K timelapse you only have the 16:9 option so these figures are for that aspect.

osmonauta Posted at 8-17 03:40
Well, it really depends on what's in the scene. But upon doing a quick test, Video+JPEG will give approximately 5-8MB jpeg files (give or take a few). Video+RAW will result in a RAW file of around 20MB (give or take).

In 4K timelapse you only have the 16:9 option so these figures are for that aspect.

Thanks for the reply.

Correct me if I’m wrong, this camera’s timelapse is done by taking individual photos at intervals and then stitched together, right? Based on that, I’d like to know what just the video option would be. It’s a mostly stationary scene (a plant growing) which I’d like to record over a 2-month period. It’s probably going to be really big in the end so I’m trying to calculate how much storage I’ll need? Ex. Are we talking about 1TB or should I expect a lot more?

It takes timelapses in 3 different ways.
1. video only. this results in an mp4 video
2. video + jpg. this results in an mp4 video (just like in case 1) plus a series of individual jpeg files that you can do whatever you want with
3. video + raw. this results in an mp4 video file (just like in case 1) plus a series of individual raw files that you can do whatever you want with

So timelapse always yields a regular mp4 video but you have the option to have a series of jpeg or raw file in addition to the video (or none). This implies that if you choose an option that results in individual photos (in addition to the video), this will always take up more space due to the extra image files.

I believe the specs states that the OA3 only takes a max size of 256G memory card. I believe you can use larger capacity card in the new 4 (512G). Either way, you will have to swap cards at some point. It would be ok if you had the option to shoot only images, but unfortunately it will always create a video file, too, which in case of 4k going to be big.

If you take a photo, say, every 30 seconds, then in 24 hours that would be 2,880 photos. So two months would be 172,800 images. If I just go with jpeg and use, say 5MB per image, that would be around 850MB (give or take). if you don’t use photos just video only (I mean technically you can just copy a frame if you want a photo, but I am not sure about the compression of a video frame vs a jpg photo…), it sould be around the same size - if my estimation is somewhat correct.

Either way, using a 256GB card (which is the max size), you will have to swap cards 3 times (well, twice if you don't count the first run). If you use 40 second interval, you can save a few (hundred?) megabytes.

osmonauta Posted at 8-17 06:07
If you take a photo, say, every 30 seconds, then in 24 hours that would be 2,880 photos. So two months would be 172,800 images. If I just go with jpeg and use, say 5MB per image, that would be around 850MB (give or take). if you don’t use photos just video only (I mean technically you can just copy a frame if you want a photo, but I am not sure about the compression of a video frame vs a jpg photo…), it sould be around the same size - if my estimation is somewhat correct.

Either way, using a 256GB card (which is the max size), you will have to swap cards 3 times (well, twice if you don't count the first run). If you use 40 second interval, you can save a few (hundred?) megabytes.

Yes, will definitely transfer the files out every few days.

But I’m still not understanding how a Timelapse video is captured here. Just the video option alone. There’s a setting to define the intervals in which a photo is taken. Even for just a Timelapse video, right? And then my assumption is that it’s processed into a video afterwards automatically by the camera.

If it is based on photos first (rather than just a straight up video that’s sped up) then I’m wondering what those individual photo file sizes might be. I understand there are also the JPEG and RAW options but those are different file sizes. So would the “video” option file sizes be different?

You don't have "options" for video. If you just want a video output, you can choose 1080, 2.7k, or 4k. All of them will be 16:9 aspect and 30fps. You can select whether you want H264 or H265 video.

The interval setting is one setting for the timelapse. There's no separate interval setting for video and/or photo. They all one.

This dude talks about all the timelapse settings:

osmonauta Posted at 8-17 10:20
You don't have "options" for video. If you just want a video output, you can choose 1080, 2.7k, or 4k. All of them will be 16:9 aspect and 30fps. You can select whether you want H264 or H265 video.

The interval setting is one setting for the timelapse. There's no separate interval setting for video and/or photo. They all one.

Ok sounds like I’m wrong about how the video portion does the timelapse. It doesn’t take photos and then stitch them together. Do you know the mechanics of how that works? Is it recording everything and then just speeding it up?

For example, what Apple seems to do is take photos but automatically adjusts the interval to keep the recording time relatively shorter. So as the recording time increases, Apple removes every nth photo. Also, I'm looking at timelapse calculators which ask for the file size so I thought that would be the case with the OA3.

I guess it works like most timelapses. Opens shutter for specified number of seconds. Closes shutter. Repeat as many times as necessary. Connect camera (or card) to computer. Xfer the video. Done. That's pretty much all I care about :-)

Or grab the images (if that's what you prefer) and DIY. There are plenty of technical details online (YT, google, etc).

I read somewhere, though, that the standard camera app on the iPhone have a different algorithm for creating the timelapse. It was a while ago I read it so don't remember much, but it discards certain number of frames depending on how long you've been recording - or something along those lines. Interesting...

"Time-lapse is a photography technique that captures individual photos or video frames at a much lower rate to create the accelerated time effect. For example, if individual photos are captured at one frame per second and then played back at 30 frames per second, time will appear to lapse 30 times faster."
Source: https://www.idownloadblog.com/20 ... ame-rate-explainer/