I was working audio-visual at a charity race and got to talking with the pro-photographer. Besides his very expensive top end DSLR, I noticed he had a Canon Point and Shoot (P&S) on a tripod. I look at it quizzically and he explained that he was going to set that up over the vendor/awards area and take time-lapse shots of the crowds.
WAIT: I have a Canon SD600 P&S, a model above his, and mine won't do timelapse.... explain.
He then asked if I knew about the Cannon Hack web site. Seems some very industrious people have figured how to hack the firmware in the Canon P&S and allow access to all the features and to even write your own scripts. Time lapse, motion sensitive exposures, multi-camera sync for and panoramic pictures, exposure bracketing, and focus bracketing are some of the neat things that can be done.
http://chdk.wikia.com/It's not that difficult to follow the directions and download the "hack". Some of the "scripts" are already written, you just have to load it to your camera. The cool thing is the entire "hack" is on you memory card. Remove the memory card, put in a clean one and the camera returns to normal operation!
So I did a timelapse overnight of the backyard to see what creatures may be crossing it. Nothing last night, but it was fun. Among other things we're thinking is tethered and high-altitude balloons with time lapse.
Tonight, I'm taking it to the indoor range and do a time-lapse of the match!
I'm sure other camera models (Nikon, Olympus, etc) have "hack" web sites as well.
Alf