Timelapse Calculator

Timelapse photography compresses a long real-world event into a short video clip. The key variables are: how long you shoot, how often you capture a frame, and what frame rate you output.

Core formulas:

Total Frames = Shooting Duration (seconds) / Interval (seconds) Clip Duration (seconds) = Total Frames / Output Frame Rate (FPS) Interval = Shooting Duration / (Clip Duration × Output FPS)

Standard output frame rates:

• 24 FPS: Cinematic feel
• 25 FPS: PAL broadcast standard
• 30 FPS: NTSC broadcast / YouTube standard
• 60 FPS: Smooth motion, sports, slow-motion timelapse

Worked example — Sunrise timelapse: Shooting duration: 90 minutes = 5,400 seconds. Desired clip length: 30 seconds. Output: 24 FPS. Total Frames = 5,400 / Interval Total Frames needed = 30 × 24 = 720 frames Interval = 5,400 / 720 = 7.5 seconds → shoot every 8 seconds

Exposure time rule (prevent flicker): Your shutter speed should be no longer than half the interval to avoid motion blur stacking. At 8-second intervals → maximum shutter speed: 4 seconds. At 5-second intervals → maximum shutter speed: 2.5 seconds.

Subject-to-interval guide:

Storage estimate: Storage (GB) ≈ Total Frames × File Size per Frame RAW files: ~20–50 MB each. JPEG: ~4–10 MB each. 720 RAW frames at 25 MB each ≈ 18 GB — plan your memory card accordingly.