OT : Some advice/info on a camera for GIFs please

Other Gear
1

Hi


I have absolutely no knowledge in cameras, so i’d please like some advice.
Does anyone know what kind of (photo) camera i should look for to make some nice GIFs?
Something that can shoot several pics in a row in a short period of time… I’m guessing many cameras have this functionality , but what specs are important in this case to get clear shots?

The idea is to replace .mov and .avi files by .gif files in order to get a lighter hit on the CPU during live video processing and to sync the frame rate to the BPM or midi notes

Thanks !


2

Not sure of any cameras that do animated gifs. Your best bet might be an iOS device as there will be apps that can knock out animated gifs from videos shot or shot within app.

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The Nokia Lumia 1020 - the 41Mp one - can shoot a short movie which it saves as an animated GIF out of the box. Nothing else does AFAIK, even iOS machines make movies when they do timelapse. Other Lumias might.

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@spacetravelmadeeasy Sorry I wasn’t clear.

I’m looking for a camera which can take several “standard” pictures (.jpeg format or something) within about 3 to 6 seconds, not for one that can create .gifs standalone. I’ll use my computer to convert them.
@Rtk thanks for the tip i’ll check them out
5

So, why don’t you just convert your video files to animated gifs? Why take separate photos? I bet you can adjust the frame rate when transcoding into animated gifs.

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good point @vehka but what i would like to do is to capture my own short video loops with a stop-motion feel and not to convert existing video files.

By my understanding, a videocamera seems overkill/not suited, since the videos i use are usually never more than 3s long

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OK, point taken @SLOTH. By the way, if you upload a series photos into Google Photos, it automatically stitches them into an animated GIF. So just set your mobile phone or camera to rapid shooting, or just press the shutter repeatedly manually, upload the photos and that’s it.


Regarding what kind of camera to use… I can’t come up with any specific requirements for the camera, since they’re just a series of photos, really. Best value for a camera generally might be a Canon DSLR with the Magic Lantern firmware installed?
8

Just a random grab out of the app store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.listen5.gif&hl=en

Your mobile is surely more than enough to make gif’s
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Most cameras can be used for stop motion, but a Nikon D5100 will do everything you want. Decent FPS for just shooting a burst, but also has a built in stop-motion mode which then creates a short movie you can make into a GIF afterwards.

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The older Nikon D300 can shoot 8 frames per second while focusing, but it’s all up to how much you want to spend. Nikon also have a D5200 and D5300 out now.

A second hand camera with a low shutter count and lenses would be a great choice.

Canon or Nikon is an excellent choice, since you will have a variety of lenses to choose from.

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@vehka

wow i never imagined there are open source camera firmwares out there
people do amazing stuff

Thanks for all the info and references guys I think i’m set to start hunting for a camera now