Timelapse Photography Equipment Guide

Photography Tips  •  Time-lapse Photography

Getting smooth pan shots for a timelapse sequences generally requires the use of equipment that is too large to be considered portable and also quite expensive. Oftentimes, the dollies used to glide the camera are 6 feet or longer in length, which makes them less than ideal when you have to hike four miles to your shooting location such as Tom Guilmette did in the following video. Fortunately, Guilmette has found a some select pieces of gear that redefines portability in the world of timelapse equipment which he covers in great detail below, have a look:

Here’s the breakdown of Guilmette’s equipment list:

• Kessler Pocket Dolly Traveler
• Kessler Basic Controller 2.0
• 500 series ElektraDRIVE motor and motor mount kit
• Manfrotto 701HDV fluid head outfitted with a flat mount adapter
• Canon 5D Mark II
• 16-35mm L Series Lens
• Matte box

In the photograph above, you can see just how compact the entire setup is. Guilmette added that photographers wanting to capture long pan shots shouldn’t be put off by the relatively short length of the dolly; there is still a lot you can do with it with when paired with correct head and motor.

For Further Training on Timelapse Photography:

Check out this new COMPLETE guide (146 pages) to shooting, processing and rendering time-lapses using a dslr camera. It can be found here: Time-lapse Photography Guide