Wind Up Camera Pan

Camera panning is a technique where the camera rotates on an axis, usually horizontal or vertical (sometimes diagonal). Camera panning can be combined with lapse to produce some interesting cinematic results. This technique can be used to capture changes over time that are difficult to notice in real time, like subtle changes in weather or how crowds of people move over time.

Using a regular point-and-shoot digital camera I set the camera to video and wound up my timer. Here's some footage I compiled with my camera pan, these videos were taken over about 10 minutes and sped up to show the slow pan effect:

Making your own is incredibly simple, all you need is a wind-up kitchen timer and a few bits from the hardware store; mine cost me about $4.

materials: wind-up timer 1/4" - 20 bushing 1/4" - 20 threaded insert 1/4" drill bit 3/8" drill bit

method: Drill 1/4" opening in top of timer Friction fit (or glue) 1/4" bushing into top of timer Drill 3/8" opening in bottom of timer for threaded insert Avoid drilling into winding mechanism Friction fit threaded insert into bottom of timer base

Almost all cameras with a tripod mount are 1/4" with 20 count threading (coarse threading). If you are unsure you can just take along your camera to the store and try out different bolts until you find one that fits your camera.

Once assembled the entire thing was mounted on my tripod and I set looking for areas that I could use my wind-up camera pan on. I found that areas that have slow change like boats and clouds work well, as do areas with lots of people like train stations and busy intersections. There's plenty of subjects to capture with this rig, so get out there and capture!

This is not an intervelometer (camera taking pictures at regular intervals), this is sped up footage of video taken with a standard digital camera. Footage can be uploaded and sped up using almost any video editing software.

Making a camera pan from a kitchen timer isn't new and people have exploited these wind-up timers for a while, some other examples of this technique can be found here, here, here, for the iPhone here , a no-drill option here, and this one where they actually used the same timer and method I used (though I came up with my design independently and only finding their design after I had taken my video).
Looks like good ideas are hard to keep down!

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Have you made your own wind-up camera pan? I want to see your results!

Have fun! Happy making :)