If you have not done so already, please read or watch our tutorial information: http://alpinelaboratories.com/pages/radian-tutorial-master.


This issue is covered in our Radian TroubleShooting tutorial, which can be found here: http://alpinelaboratories.com/pages/radian-trouble-shooting.


Choppy or discontinuous footage can be caused by a number of issues, such as:

  • Your camera does not always take a photo.
  • Your camera sometimes takes multiple photos instead of one.
  • Your camera or Radian is moving/shaking during the photo (often due to wind).
  • Your camera is not in manual focus mode, and the focus is changing between shots.

Missed Photos

Your camera interprets Radian's signals in the same way as when you press your camera's shutter button with your finger. And just as sometimes your camera does not take a photo when you press the shutter button, even if Radian tells your camera to take a photo at the correct interval some photos may be missed. Here are some issues that can result in your camera missing photos:

  • If your camera is not set to manual focus, some photos might be missed if your camera cannot adjust to changes in the scene fast enough (light, motion, focus, etc). If you are having difficulty with missed photos, try switching to manual focus (you can still use autofocus to focus your image first, and then switch over to manual focus to hold those settings).
  • If you are able to, we recommend increasing the "hold" time (under advanced settings) to .5 or even 1 second on the Radian App if you are having issues.  This will help to ensure that the trigger is activated and an image is captured.
  • If your interval is too short, your camera may be busy saving the previous image when it is told to take another photo. This can be tricky to catch since the save time can be inconsistent between photos even in the same camera, so while you may be able to take most of your photos you still may miss some if one image takes especially long to save. In general, if you shoot with an interval of 3 seconds or greater you should be fine, though if you are shooting in large format or RAW you may need to use an even longer interval due to the lengthened image processing/save time on your camera.


Multiple Photos Per Interval

If you notice that your camera seems to take multiple photos when it should only take 1, you almost certainly have "burst mode" turned on in your camera. The instructions for setting this vary by camera, but you can test this by holding your finger on the shutter button. If your camera takes multiple photos while you hold the button down, then you have burst mode on, and you will need to instead set your camera to single shot mode.


Please see here for more solutions to this issue.


Camera or Radian Moves/Shakes during Time Lapse

If your camera and Radian are being moved or shaken during your time lapse, it will most likely affect your final video. Usually this issue is caused by wind, and below are some tips on minimizing the effect that wind can have on your camera and tripod:

  • Make sure that your tripod is securely positioned on the ground, with the widest base possible
  • Keep your tripod as low to the ground as possible
  • If you can, hang weight (a water bottle works well) from the central pillar of your tripod, like this. It's also important to have the weight closer to the ground as opposed to near the top of the tripod.
  • Make sure that all adjustable points on your tripod are tightened as much as possible, especially near the top.

In addition, if you are in very windy conditions the internal resistance of your Radian's backlash mechanism may not be enough to stop your Radian being forced to rotate a small amount during gusts of wind caught by your camera. While your Radian will spring back to its original position after the gust, this can be problematic if your camera takes a photo while the Radian is being bumped by the wind.

To fix this you can increase the friction between the base and the body by wedging a folded piece of paper between the two parts. Radian has plenty of torque, so you don't need to worry about stalling the motor, but this will make it much harder for the wind to rotate the unit.