Plan any time-lapse in hours or days
A good time-lapse starts with simple arithmetic: how often to take a photo so that hours or days of real time become a clip of the length you want. This time-lapse calculator does that sum, and the ones that follow from it — how many photos you will take, how much card space they need, how many batteries to pack and the speed-up you will see.
It works three ways round. Find the interval for an event and clip length, find the clip length you will get from a chosen interval, or find the shooting time needed to fill a clip. Durations can run from a few minutes to many days, so it covers sunsets and cloud scenes as well as plant growth and building sites.
How to use the time-lapse calculator
- Choose what you want to work out: Find the interval, Find the clip length or Find the shooting time.
- Fill in the two things you know — the event duration in days, hours and minutes, the finished clip length, or the interval between photos.
- Pick the frame rate of your final video: 24 for a cinematic look, 25 in PAL countries, 30 for most web video.
- Choose a photo type or type the size of one of your photos, and enter how many shots your battery lasts.
- Read the result and set the interval on your camera’s built-in intervalometer, a remote or a phone app. Use Copy plan to keep the numbers.
Time-Lapse Calculator features
Three calculations
Interval, clip length or shooting time from the other two, for minutes, hours or days.
All common frame rates
23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50 and 60 fps, with fractional rates rounded up to whole frames.
Card space
Total size from the photo count and a size per photo, with typical JPEG and RAW sizes as a start.
Battery count
Batteries needed from your shots-per-charge figure.
Shutter guidance
The half-interval shutter speed for natural motion blur, and a warning when the exposure is too long for the interval.
Time-lapse formulas with a worked example
Each photo becomes one frame of video, so the number of photos is clip length × frame rate, and the interval is event duration ÷ number of photos. A two-hour sunset turned into a 20-second clip at 30 fps needs 20 × 30 = 600 photos, one every 7,200 ÷ 600 = 12 seconds.
The speed-up is interval × frame rate: 12 s × 30 = 360, so every second of video shows six minutes of real time. Card space is photos × size per photo: 600 × 8 MB = 4.8 GB (decimal gigabytes, as memory cards are labelled).
Strictly, N photos span N − 1 intervals, so the last photo lands one interval before the end. That difference is a single frame and the calculator ignores it, as most planners do — start a little early or stop a little late.
Typical intervals (rules of thumb)
Faster subjects need shorter intervals. These are common starting points, not fixed rules — test a short sequence first.
| Subject | Interval |
|---|---|
| Fast clouds, traffic, crowds | 1–3 s |
| Slow clouds, sunset, sunrise | 3–10 s |
| Stars and Milky Way | 15–30 s (back-to-back exposures) |
| Shadows moving across a landscape | 15–60 s |
| Flowers opening, plant growth | 5–30 min |
| Building construction | 10–60 min, daylight only |
Battery, storage and camera wear
Battery ratings printed by camera makers usually follow the CIPA standard test, which includes screen use, focusing and flash. A time-lapse with the screen off can do better, but long exposures, cold nights, stabilisation and image review drain batteries faster. For shoots over a few hours, use mains power or a USB power bank with a dummy battery, and switch off review and stabilisation on a tripod.
Photos can also be bigger than you expect: RAW files grow with ISO and detail. Use a card with spare room, and if your camera can, write to two cards. Every photo is one shutter actuation, so long sequences on a camera with a mechanical shutter add wear; an electronic shutter avoids it.
To turn an existing video into a time-lapse instead, use the time-lapse maker. To plan the framing, the camera FOV calculator shows how much of the scene your lens takes in.
Time-Lapse Calculator FAQ
How do I calculate a time-lapse interval?
Divide the event duration in seconds by the number of photos, which is clip length × frame rate. Two hours (7,200 s) into a 20 s clip at 30 fps needs 600 photos, one every 12 seconds.
How many photos do I need for a 10-second time-lapse?
Clip length × frame rate: 240 at 24 fps, 250 at 25 fps or 300 at 30 fps.
How do I plan a time-lapse over several days?
Enter the days in the event duration. Three days into a 30 s clip at 30 fps is 900 photos, one every 4 min 48 s. Plan mains power — batteries will not last.
What shutter speed should I use for a time-lapse?
About half the interval gives smooth motion blur (the 180° rule). It must always be shorter than the interval, with time to save the photo.
How much storage does a time-lapse need?
Photos × size per photo. 600 RAW photos at 25 MB is 15 GB; the same in 8 MB JPEGs is 4.8 GB.
Which frame rate should I choose?
24 fps looks cinematic, 25 fps suits PAL countries such as India and the UK, and 30 fps is common for web video in the US. A lower rate needs fewer photos.