Interval in D7000

<p>Hi <br>

I use interval for startrail and timelapse in Nikon D7000. In 25 second and less every things is ok and for example I set shutter speed 25' and interval 26' and works great. But when I set shutter speed 30' and interval for 31' it doesn't work correct! Stranger than this is when I set interval for 33' it's work! </p>

 

<p>That's because the shutter speed is actually 32 seconds when you set the camera to 30 seconds. (You can easily test that with a stopwatch.) Similarly, when you set it to 15 seconds it's actually 16 seconds. Why this is, I'm not sure. I speculate it is so the difference between 8 seconds and "15" seconds is actually a full stop, and then another full stop to "30". But why not just show the actual values of 16 and 32? I don't know.</p>

<p>This is not unique to the D7000. It's true of every Nikon DSLR I've tested (D3, D7000, D7100, D2X, D70). It's probably also true of the sub-second values (that is, 1/30 is probably actually 1/32), but I lack the equipment (and interest) to test it.</p>

 

<p>@ Jonathan<br>

You're right. I tested on 15', it's the same!</p>

<p>Thanks for that Jonathan! That's undocumented information worth knowing.<br>

I've only used the intervalometer function with short shutter times, and was under the misapprehension that the interval was timed from the <em>end</em> of one exposure to the start of the next. Obviously that was far too logical for Nikon's designers, and would have made life far too easy for users. Still, it's nice to know that the shutter timings ignore the stupid rounding convention and are actually one full, accurate stop apart. I already suspected that the marked 1000th of a second was actually 1/1024th; 1/125th actually 1/128th, etc.</p>

<p>Actually, RJ, I have to go with Nikon on this one. When I'm using the intervalometer, I want to be able to set it to take a shot every N seconds and not have to figure the shutter speed into the calculation. I want to be able to set the shutter speed to get the exposure and/or motion effect I'm looking for without worrying about how that would affect the interval (up to the length of the interval, of course.)</p>

 

<p>That explains the strange ISO values on the EXIF data on my D7000.I had the ISO set to 400 and the exif gave it as 370,The brain power of the camera's processor is incredible.Another mystery solved</p>

<p>I can see the need for both types of interval calculation Jonathan, depending on circumstances, and it would be a pretty simple thing to program both methods into the menu options. Like: Option A) Interval Start-to-Start; Option B) Interval End-to-Start. Or call one option "Interval timing", and another option "Delay between shots".<br>

Not much point putting a powerful CPU into a camera if you don't make full use of it!</p>