Hi all,

Over the past year or so I've been working on a small timelapse photography appliance.

It all started with the idea to put a webcam to shoot a nice valley in east of France to get live view (and display it right on my screen as a wallpaper, a bit like looking through a window).

I first thought to use a usb webcam but the quality was poor, then I discovered remote capture capabilities on my girlfriend's Powershot A420 and started to build a script to capture a picture and send it via FTP to a small server. (initial work available here: http://buhl.spottrotters.com/).

The camera was not very stabled, crashed almost every 4 days (I'm about 500km away from the system) which was far from practical. So I bought a S50 which can be restarted every day via a timer on the power socket), and finally got a stable system.

But it was a script, not very practical to let other people change setup so I build a small web interface and started to add new capabilities controllable via this interface.
Bits by bits it became a larger project and we ended up more or less with a remote controllable appliance for compact and DSLR cameras.

Months after months I worked on new functions for the system:
- Automated or custom HD video creation (1080p, 720p, ...), adding a soundtrack, browser view, ...
- Watermarking, ...
- Connectivity (DSL, 3G, ...), FTP capabilities, Youtube uploads, ...
- Multiple camera support (including USB webcams, IP cameras, Compacts, DSLR, Internet images), ...

The system is not far from completion and its first "public" release, I'm currently updating the interface to support multiple languages.

It is pretty stable, five test systems are currently running without too much trouble.

If you want to have a look to the "viewer" interface, it is available here: http://demo.webcampak.com, login: demo - password: omed
I also built a small website, http://www.webcampak.com, but only available in French for the moment.

Development process right from the first bits is available one of my friend's blog here (but in French again): http://infracom-france.com/blog2/?tag=webcampak

Regarding the system itself, the basic version is based upon an ATOM CPU running Ubuntu Linux (that's why it's stable ). Camera capture is made using gphoto and the whole systeme is based upon open source software (lftp, ImageMagick, mencoder, ffmpeg, apache2, ...).

It is likely that I'll be releasing the source code under GPL in the next months or so.

I would really appreciate your feedbacks on this topic.

Fanf'

Out of curiousity, did you look into the Elphel camera for this project?

I just discovered it, isn't quality an issues with video cameras (compared to DSLR )?

Ephel project looks very nice but I think it is not really the same direction than the project I've been working on (I may be wrong on this).

Today, the main objective (in two words) of "Webcampak" project is to take regular pictures to record something over a long period. Then to generate a video concentrate of this period.

From what I saw on Ephel website, (only spent the last 15minutes on it) their project seems to focus on videos capture or creating specific pictures (such as 360°).

But on a lot of aspects both projects seem pretty close, I'm sure there is a very good reason why they decided not to use DSLR cameras and I'd love to know it

Hi Fanf,

Our product does just about the same thing as yours except we are using the canon SDK and windows xp.

Best of luck to you.

Hi Nick,

Sadly the SDK only seems available for MS Windows. Just by curiosity do you have access to remote zoom functionalities with the SDK ? This is an option which is lacking on this project.

You seem to have a great deal of knowledge in this area, what is your feedback regarding DSLR lifetime (i.e. number of shots) ?

The Elphel is an open hardware / free software camera. It does not focus on any particular application but leaves the freedom to the user how he/she utilises it.

What milapse suggested is looking into the possibility to use the Elphel camera in your project instead of a Canon camera to add new possibilities. Elphel cameras for example run an embedded Linux inside the camera and are in general very easy to interface with in Ubuntu which sounds desirable the way you described your project.

Maybe you also want to check out the Apertus project: http://cinema.elphel.com/

It looks very interesting and you are right it may be a good addition to the project.

I'm currently working in parallel on a "lighter" version of the webcampak with no storage capabilities, no GUI and a smaller CPU (based on a PC Engines ALIX board). Idea being to install it in "remote" locations. Elphel might be a good replacement.

Can Elphel has 3G and VPN capabilities ?

We could implement Elphel as a possible source (see diagram below, sorry in French but should be easy to understand), directly controlled by a local "webcampak".


Another option would be to use Elphel as an independant source without local "webcampak" but I think remote control capabilities would be necessary: SSH or other, VPN (mostly to allow connections into the device from Internet via an operator private network).


What is your opinion ?

Do you know if there are test kits available in Europe (i.e. to test an Elphel camera during 2-4 weeks).

About 3G and VPN: Not 100% sure if anybody did it so far, but from hardware (Ethernet and USB connectors) / software (Axis specific Linux kernel version 2.6.19) point of view it should in theory be possible of course depending on the connected hardware as well.
SSH is working out of the box.

I think for remote locations it would be easier to have a nettop/netbook like computer together with an Elphel camera. That way you would be able to remotely upgrade the cameras firmware and 3G / VPN setup should be straight forward.

Elphel has a map that shows where customers are located: http://map.elphel.com/
Maybe that helps you to find a camera owner close-by that would be willing to lend you a camera.

Thanks for this feedback.

I'll see if I can find a way to get an Elphel Camera but first I need to work on an english version of the documents/website

We can remote zoom a number of cameras in the point and shoot lines from canon. Our product is a hardware/software turnkey kit. No software meddling involved, we handle that portion for you.

We can also remote focus any Canon DSLR lens but not zoom these. No use really, just get a larger resolution body and crop out the section you like.

As for lifetime of DSLRs Canon has published rated snaps on the internet. Most consumer level cams such as XSi and T2i are rated to 100,000 shutter releases.

You can see more of our cameras and setup at our website, linked below.

Thanks for your reply.

I saw earlier "official" shutter releases values from Canon, I was more looking at "real" feedbacks.

I initially added zoom control capabilities into Webcampak, at that time I was playing with a point and shoot camera (Canon A520), sadly (correct me if I'm wrong) remote control capabilities has been removed by Canon on later models and I'm not sure see buying second hand cameras to use for a new project. I need to look at CHDK into details to see if there is a way to get remote control for latest Point and Shoot.
But you're right at the end we can get a similar result by increasing the resolution and cropping. I just think it would have been a nice to have feature.

We've developed a way to support most of the new point and shoots from Canon. You can see an example of a G11 here: http://www.evsjupiter.com/main.htm We can also capture live video through the USB link and get 30FPS video clips.

Have you seen this site for real shutter life expectancy: http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/

Thanks for those useful links Nick,

G11 shots are really nice, you found a great location for the camera.

I made a few searches on the camera, latest version of Gphoto can capture "Live View" from cameras so it should be a way to capture live videos. I'll implement it within the webcampak after Christmas.

On another subject I worked a bit on the English version of the website (www.webcampak.com), still need to check if there are errors but it should give you the overall idea.

If some of you want to test webcampak on your hardware just let me know.

Requirements we'll be asking are:
- Dedicated "box" (ideally a nettop but latop, netbook, desktop are fine) with Ubuntu 10.10 server and SSH installed,
- Remote access (SSH, HTTP),
- Up 24/24 with if possible a nice "spot",
- ... and others to be discussed.

The idea is pretty simple, we install it for "free" (we don't provide you with the hardware) and on the other hand you provide us with your opinions/feedbacks and it gives us the opportunity to test it with various hardware in various conditions.

Fanf'