Good morning! I have been having a go at star trails but my D5100 stops taking pictures after about 100 30 second exposures. I have the remote locked and the release is set to continuous on the camera. The battery is good and the card is nowhere near full. This has happened twice. Is there somewhere in the settings on my camera where it might be set to shut off after a certain time?
I believe it depends on your card. Some cards read faster than others, and it may stall your camera out while it saves the images. Other than that, I have no clue.
@irishmamacita10 Look for a small number on the card in a partial circle. It's either a 2,4,6, or 10. The higher the number, the faster the write speed.
You are aware that you could just set the shutter to bulb and leave the shutter open for as long as you like, rather than doing lots of 30 second bursts aren't you?
@pschtyckque I know on my D90 I had to go into the menu and turn off the shutdown timer...I cannot remember where it was in the menu. The other thing (if you're not already) is to turn off the image review function and the NR (noise reduction function). Both of those delay your camera from taking a new shot and result in broken trails. You will still have some breaks but they won't be nearly as long as they would be with those functions on.
Once you get the settings right, turn those off, take your photos and when you go to take the last one, turn the NR function back on. That way you have one frame with NR. When you go to layer it, that will help with your noise and you won't have double the amount of memory used up.
No worries - just thought I would check.
I am aware of some of the issues. with long exposures vs stacked exposures etc, (my main one being noise related rather than battery life, but then I never usually go longer than a few minutes, let alone hours).
It's a limitation of most modern Nikon DSLRs. From your manual, page 29:
'The camera is equipped with a memory buffer for temporary storage, allowing shooting to continue while photographs are being saved to the memory card. Up to 100 photographs can be taken in succession'.
I've never seen a convincing argument for why Nikon have this limit, but it exists even on the new D800 (which provides a custom function allowing you to configure the limit to any number between 1 and 100 -- but not above).
If you wish to go further, you may be able to unlock and release your shutter release during one of the 30 second exposures, and then relock it before the exposure completes -- you would need to experiment to check whether that is sufficient to bypass the limitation and fool the camera. If not, you'll probably need a dedicated intervalometer.
@abirkill - Thank you. My page 29 doesn't say that but perhaps it says it somewhere else. It sounds most likely. My next step was to time it and experiment with the shutter release nearing the end of the 100 image cycle. Although...I have been eyeing intervalometers, too. ;-) Though, I was happy for now not to spend the extra money. Thank you again. :)
Did you try the bulb setting? That is made especially for that type of photo. I also have the Nikon D5100. I don't have a remote so I never tried the star trails but have taken much longer than 30 seconds.
@irishmamacita10 As Alexis mentioned this is an inbuilt limitation for most Nikons for 100 +1 sec exposures you can still do 999 for a times lapse, as I mentioned in your other thread a Yongnuo Timer Remote Control MC-36R will fix all your problems.
I have a remote shutter release, programmable. Most I have taken is about 700 shots (D5100) at one time, about two hours + . I think we paid $19 for the remote, your price may vary.
@myhrhelper I have tried the bulb setting. I've actually tried light painting with my kids. Tons of fun! For the star trails, though, I prefer stacking the images. Thanks! :)
@flagged@mcrt@byrdlip I will definitely look into a timer. I was out again last night and just timed it so I would be there to unlock and lock the release before my limit of 100 images was up. It worked but was not ideal. I'd rather just set it and leave it. Mostly because it is just way too tempting to stop it and go look at what I got each time I go out. ;) Thank you for all the input. Here's the pic from last night. http://365project.org/irishmamacita10/365/2012-09-16
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Once you get the settings right, turn those off, take your photos and when you go to take the last one, turn the NR function back on. That way you have one frame with NR. When you go to layer it, that will help with your noise and you won't have double the amount of memory used up.
I am aware of some of the issues. with long exposures vs stacked exposures etc, (my main one being noise related rather than battery life, but then I never usually go longer than a few minutes, let alone hours).
'The camera is equipped with a memory buffer for temporary storage, allowing shooting to continue while photographs are being saved to the memory card. Up to 100 photographs can be taken in succession'.
I've never seen a convincing argument for why Nikon have this limit, but it exists even on the new D800 (which provides a custom function allowing you to configure the limit to any number between 1 and 100 -- but not above).
If you wish to go further, you may be able to unlock and release your shutter release during one of the 30 second exposures, and then relock it before the exposure completes -- you would need to experiment to check whether that is sufficient to bypass the limitation and fool the camera. If not, you'll probably need a dedicated intervalometer.
Looking forward to seeing the star photos!
Challenge 8: bulb
http://365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/13296/camera-settings-challenge-8
http://365project.org/byrdlip/365/2012-07-06 - one example
@flagged @mcrt @byrdlip I will definitely look into a timer. I was out again last night and just timed it so I would be there to unlock and lock the release before my limit of 100 images was up. It worked but was not ideal. I'd rather just set it and leave it. Mostly because it is just way too tempting to stop it and go look at what I got each time I go out. ;) Thank you for all the input. Here's the pic from last night.
http://365project.org/irishmamacita10/365/2012-09-16