Time-Lapse Planning Calculator

Decide whether your timer measures starts or pauses

This calculator uses the time between exposure starts. Some devices instead ask for a delay after each exposure finishes. For those devices, subtract exposure and applicable processing time from the intended start-to-start interval, following the camera manual. Readout, write speed, long-exposure noise reduction, and missed shots can make a real sequence slower than the arithmetic schedule.

Frame boundaries, playback, and storage formulas

Capture seconds T = minutes × 60. With positive start interval I, frame count N = ceil(T / I), with N = 0 for a zero-length window. Starts occur at 0, I, 2I, and so on, strictly before T. A final exposure may finish after the window; this tool counts start times, not completed exposures. Playback seconds = N / fps.

Image storage in decimal GB = N × MB per exposure / 1,000. Usable storage = card GB × available fraction. Additional storage needed = max(0, estimated storage - usable storage). MB means 1,000,000 bytes and GB means 1,000,000,000 bytes; an operating system's GiB display uses different units. Encoded movie size and editing cache are not included.

For target video V seconds, target frames K = ceil(V × fps), and ideal start interval = T / K. This deliberately rounds frames up so the target is not shortened. The reverse plan does not replace your entered interval. Its exposure warning compares against the ideal interval; camera settings may need finer rounding and additional write-time headroom.

Worked example: two hours at ten-second intervals

In a 120-minute window with starts every 10 seconds, there are 720 photos, from t = 0 through t = 7,190 seconds. At 24 fps the clip lasts 30 seconds. At 25 MB/photo, storage is 18 GB. A 32 GB card with 90% budget available provides 28.8 GB, so extra storage needed is 0 GB. Two-second exposures have a 20% exposure duty cycle. A 30-second target also needs 720 frames and a 10-second ideal interval.

Interpretation and limitations

A shortfall means the modeled photographs exceed your chosen usable budget, not that the camera can span cards automatically. Exposure duty cycle is the exposure/interval fraction for a nonzero window, not a battery-life estimate. A target-interval warning does not reject the current capture plan; it signals that the separate reverse plan needs a shorter exposure or a different target. Zero capture time requires a zero target and gives no frames.

This is counting and unit arithmetic, with no camera-specific empirical presets. Use your manual and test files to establish interval semantics and storage size. Inputs support up to seven days, 0.1-second minimum entered intervals, and frame rates from 1 to 120. A computed reverse interval outside your timer's capabilities is only a mathematical requirement, not a selectable setting. Weather, motion smoothness, flicker, power, dropped frames, and exposure ramping are outside the model.

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Last updated: 2026-10-09. Verify a short trial sequence before a long unattended shoot.