Solve any time-lapse unknown — clip length, interval, shooting duration or frame count — plus storage from average file size.
About this tool
Time-lapse Calculator is a free, in-browser planning tool for interval shooting. Pick which value you want to solve — final clip length, shooting interval, total shooting duration or number of frames — enter the others along with your output frame rate, and it fills in the missing piece. Add an average file size and it also estimates the storage you will need. All math runs locally with nothing uploaded.
The relationships are simple: number of frames = shooting duration ÷ interval, and clip length = frames ÷ fps. From these the tool rearranges to solve whichever quantity you leave out — for instance shooting duration = clip length × fps × interval. Storage is frames × average file size, shown in MB or GB.
Use it before a shoot to answer questions like 'how long must I shoot at a 5-second interval to get a 20-second clip at 30 fps?' or 'how many gigabytes will 900 RAW frames take?', so you set the intervalometer and card correctly the first time.
Frequently asked questions
How are frames and clip length related?
The number of frames captured is the shooting duration divided by the interval between shots. The final clip length is that frame count divided by the playback frame rate (fps), since each frame becomes one frame of video.
Which value should I solve for?
Choose the unknown from the selector and enter the rest. Solving for interval tells you how often to trigger the shutter to hit a target clip length; solving for duration tells you how long to keep shooting; solving for frames or clip length reports the result of a chosen interval.
How is storage estimated?
Storage equals the number of frames times the average file size you enter. It is an estimate — real file sizes vary with scene detail, ISO and compression — so add a margin, especially for RAW capture.
Is anything sent to a server?
No. Every calculation happens in your browser; your intervals, durations and file sizes are never uploaded.