Capturing Time-lapse with Sony RX100 II Camera

Few people asked for information about the time-lapse photography in my last blog post about 3D printing hamster castle. In this blog post, I'll share how to do time-lapse photography with Sony RX100 II camera.

The setup

1. Sony RX100 MKII camera
2. Android device Timelapse app
3. Tripod
4. Two power chargers with mini-USB cables

The Sony RX100 MKII doesn't have a built-in intervalometer. So we'll use an Android device with Timelapse app to take photographs at regular intervals. Also we'll power the the camera and the Android device with a wall charger so that they don't run out of battery during the long time-lapse recording. The Sony RX100 MKII can be charged directly using a standard mini-USB power adapter. That means I don't have to replace the batteries during the long time-lapse.

First, let's turn off the power saving mode on the camera. This prevents the camera from going into sleep mode. To control the camera using a Android device, navigate to your cameras 'Control with Smartphone' menu option. Once selected, the screen will display camera's Wi-Fi SSID and password (Read the Sony documentation about Wi-Fi Direct here). Now go the WiFi settings on your Android device and connect to 'Direct-XXXXX' WiFi access point with the password displayed on your camera. Once connected, Open 'Timelapse' app and select 'RX100 mk2' from the camera model drop down menu. Next you can select the interval for your time-lapse (I used 10 secs for this time-lapse) and start your recording. Please make sure that the Android device is near to the camera to avoid losing the WiFi connection. The camera takes the pictures and saves them to SDCard. What's next? You can now use a video program of your choice to turn this time-lapse photographs into a video on your computer.

Please don't forget to share your experiences doing time-lapse photography.