Jump to content

D300 interval timer question


dominicbyrne

Recommended Posts

Hi

 

I am hoping to get out and shoot some star trail photography in the desert here in Dubai. Because of the very high

temperatures and humidity I am probably limited to exposures of around 30 seconds maximum which means I need

to take multiple exposures and use a stacking programme to create the image. Can anyone confirm whether the

interval I need to set should be 1 second or 31 seconds? (Basically I need to keep the period between exposures to

the minimum to avoid any broken trails).

 

Assuming that I want to create an image from a 2 hour exposure do I set the intervals at 240 and the No. of shots as

1?

 

Any help or advice would be very gratefully received.

 

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<p>Hi Dominic,<br />I have been reading up on just this subject and have understood that the interval should be the beginning of one shot to the beginning of the next. You have to add to that the cameras writing and 'thinking' time which by all accounts is covered by 2-3 seconds.</p>

<p>For the second part of the question I think it is (2x60x60)/30 = 240 frames of 30secs using interval of 33 secs.<br /><em>do I set the intervals at 240 and the No. of shots as 1? .... </em>will result in 1 exposure of 240 mins or secs, depending which counter you put your 240 into.</p>

<p>Btw, turn off long exposure NR or you'll have to add 33+ sec gap for the NR to work to your 33sec exposure interval.</p>

<p>Good luck and tell us how that works.</p>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<p>Dominic - If I understood you correctly, then you'll need to swap the settings you listed. To achieve 240 shots spaced apart by 1 sec, you need to set the interval to 1 sec, and the number of shots to 240 x 1 = 240 which yields a combined 2-hour exposure: 240 x 30s = 7200s.</p>
Link to comment
Share on other sites

<p>Thanks for the replies - not sure I am much the wiser really though as there seems to be so much confusion with the terminology.<br>

Does the camera really need the 2-3 seconds of "thinking time" and writing time? My concern with getting beyond 1 sec is that I may start getting breaks in the trails. If I get a chance I will experiment tonight before I go and see how it works.<br>

From what I have read the "Select Intervals" means number of intervals and the number of shots relates to how many images I want to take at each interval. I get the impression that this function is more geared towards time laspse photography over longer period and with a decent interval between shots.<br>

Any definitive help would stll be much appreciated - thank you</p>

<p> </p>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<p>I suspect that you found out that the interval value has to be set to 00:00:31 (31s) to work properly? When I use the intervalometer function, my exposure times are fractions of a sec so I don't have to consider them in the interval setting.</p>
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...