How to Make a Time-Lapse Video with Your Fujifilm Camera

I recently started playing around with time-lapses, and I was happy to discover that Fujifilm cameras have a built-in function that makes it extremely easy.

Here's a 600-photo time-lapse taken with my Fuji X-Pro2 and Fuji XF 23mm f/2 lens. I've also done time-lapses with my Fuji X70, which is pictured below for demonstration purposes.

Step 1

In your camera's menu, navigate to the second page and select the Interval Timer Shooting option.

Step 2

On the left half of the screen, set how frequently the camera should take photos.

You'll want to choose a different photo frequency for different scenarios. For slow-moving subjects, longer intervals are good. But for fast-moving subjects, you'll want more regular photos to retain context and not end up with choppy frames that have no relationship.

Step 3

On the right half of the screen, set how many photos you want to take.

If your video will play at 30 frames-per-second, you'll need 30 photos for each second of video. Thus, 900 photos will result in a 30-second video. Video Length = Number of photos / Frame rate.

Step 4

Set when you want the time-lapse to begin.

This feature is great, because it'll actually wake the camera up and start taking photos once the timer finishes counting down. This could be great for capturing that early sunrise time-lapse without having to wake up at some unnatural hour! Just be sure to keep the camera switched on, it will fall asleep on it's own.

Exposure & Flickering

If you're shooting in Shutter Priority, turn on Auto ISO so that the camera will be able to correctly expose shot-to-shot. This will prevent exposure flickering in the resultant video.

If you're shooting in Aperture Priority, the camera will adjust the shutter speed to correctly expose shot-to-shot, so you don't have to worry about it.

If you're shooting in full manual and the light in the scene is changing much, you may have to correct the flickering in post production. I know there are various plugins out there to help with this, but I haven't used any of them.

Putting it All Together

Now that you have a ton of photos, it's time to put them into a video editing program. I'll be writing another tutorial to cover this process in detail, but for now here's the short version.

1. Import all photos (in the order they were taken) into your video editing program
2. Add all of them to the timeline
3. Set the duration of each photo to 1 frame (not 1 second)
4. Combine all frames into a single video clip (or "compound clip", in Final Cut Pro)
5. Correct the framing and/or aspect ratio (via the transform tool in Final Cut Pro)
6. Save the video or export it to YouTube/Vimeo

I hope this was helpful! Comment here if you have any questions, and feel free to share your first time-lapse!