From time to time I like to feature timelapse videos that in my opinion stand out from the pack. Pano LA is a time-lapse by Joe Capra that has it all: it’s a well working and interesting experimental setup and it’s visually beautiful.

What makes this timelapse of Los Angeles different from others is the setup. By using two Canon EOS 5D Mark III cameras side-by-side on a custom rig, Joe gets a very wide angle of view without the distortion that usually comes as side effect when using wide angle lenses. He used longer lenses to shoot the time-lapse, i.e. two Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, two EF 24-105mm f/4L IS and two EF 70-200mm f/2.8. If you watch the video below, you’ll see how well the compression effect of the longer lenses works for the panoramic rendering.

In joe Capra’s words:

Shooting Pano LA has been the most ambitious, challenging, demanding, and rewarding project I have worked on to date. It was shot over a period of two years entirely in true panoramic form using two synced DSLR cameras side by side. The resulting panoramic timelapse footage comes in at a whopping 10K x 4K resolution when stitched. I did not shoot this film to achieve the extreme resolution. I shot it for the panoramic look, especially the compressed look you get when using long lenses.

Shooting panoramic timelapse was something I had always wanted to do. I love panoramic images and wanted to bring that look to timelapse, and I wanted to do it proper, not by faking it by just cropping the top and bottom of regular timelapse shots. I gave it a try many years ago but was never able to get the images from the two cameras to sync properly and get the images to stitched together correctly.

Along with the custom rig, Joe used RamperPro to control flickering and day to night transitions. For motion control he used a custom motion controller with Kessler Crane TLS with Second Shooter.

Kudos!