Copyright Brinno
I've been interested in the world of timelapse photography since first trying my hand at it in 2010 with a decent camera timer and my Nikon D90. I captured some moving clouds, some sunrises and sets, and boats moving about in tidal water. Upon editing the whole thing together, I knew that I was hooked. The results were pretty decent for a first time effort, and I spent most of the time during the timelapse process simply sitting next to the camera and enjoying the view with my own eyes. While there are plenty of more complex techniques to take timelapse projects today - "hyperlapsing" among them - it's still a fun and creative way to meld photography and videography into one, no matter your skill level.
With that said, enter the Brinno TLC-200 timelapse camera. It's a simple device, really, and speaks to the inherent ease in simply going out and shooting a timelapse in its most basic form. Sunsets, events, security - according to Brinno, this camera does it all. As advertised, it takes timelapses in HD as well, which I would come to expect since almost all mobile phones today can take HD video. Additionally, the camera assembles your timelapse on its own, in camera, in just a few seconds. Seems like a neat little package. Let's take it for a spin and see what's what with this thing.
Specs
- 720p HD timelapse video capture
- 120 degree up/down rotating lens
- 1.44" LCD screen with image preview
- Add-on wide angle lens
- 300,000 frame battery life on 4 AA batteries
- Adjustable image intervals
Operation
Setting up this camera for a timelapse is rather straightforward: by using two navigating buttons and an "OK" button, you can set the time interval between shots, the output framerate of the .AVI movie file it generates, and other settings such as low light recording and resolution. Your two options in that regard are either 640x480 or 1280x720 (720p HD). While I would have liked to see an option for 1080p, as it is a strong standard in video production, I can't imagine that upscaling the 720p footage is all that difficult should you need to; 720p is fine for YouTube upload, anyway. Once everything is set up, you can preview your scene via the LCD screen. While tiny, it provides enough of an image for you to see what you'll be capturing, although in the future I would like to see a digital level or something similar to aid in horizon composition. Perhaps one of the best aspects of this camera is its battery life, as it will last for a very long time provided your settings are correct. For example: if the camera is set to take a photo every second, it will last 3.6 days(!), and if set to 5 minutes or more between photos, Brinno claims it will go for 120 days. A third of a year. Wow. Naturally for review purposes I'm limited on time, but my rechargeable batteries were barely used after the three timelapses shown here were taken. Therefore, I must commend Brinno on the efficiency of its TLC-200's battery usage.
Image Quality
As in the above example, the TLC200 has a solid foundation for taking timelapse photos. I tried to choose a scene that would bring out any obvious exposure ramping effects, and while this camera does indeed suffer from a degree of flicker, it's much more controlled than I expected. When the clouds break just in time for the sunset, there's a little exposure hunting but nothing that really breaks the illusion (for me, anyway). The camera has three image quality settings: good, better, and best, and I went ahead and skipped "good" and went for "better" in the above video. While I'd have liked to see less image noise, the detail and color reproduction was fine, if not a little washed-out. The camera also seemed a little thrown at times regarding white balance, but once again, the effects were subtle. Hint: unless you are using the camera for security or time-sensitive documentation, I would turn off the timestamp that is rendered on the timelapse by default from the factory.
What could use some improvement, however, is the wide-angle attachment lens. While it does indeed provide a broad perspective on the scene, there's a degree of softening and vignetting that increases as the distance from center frame increases. In my example above, the sky was overexposed due to the large amount of image data I was trying to capture with the wide angle lens, but I can't fault the camera for that, since my framing was a bit off and the camera had to average with the waterfall and foliage below the sky. Keep in mind what the dominant area in your frame should be, and the camera should expose for it just fine.
Overall
What Brinno has here is a great little timelapse camera if you want to "set it and forget it". For less than the cost of many other cameras capable of timelapses, you get a device that can last for months at a time, is incredibly easy to use, and has good image quality at 720p. While I would have liked to see a few more manual controls, framing guides for the LCD, and a bit more sharpness from the wide angle lens, I can't fault this camera much. It serves as a great introduction to the world of timelapse photography, and is a very approachable piece of gear if you'd like to try your hand at this growing photography trend.
Tim Kauger is a blogger and photographer based in Short Hills, NJ. You can visit his website here.