D7000 interval timer

[JulesP]

Has anyone had any degree of luck using the interval timer on a D7000?
When using a wired timer, I set the shutter to 30 seconds, the interval to 31 seconds and the number of shots to however many I need for startrails.
Trying to cut down on kit carried around, I thought it best to try the D7000 inbuilt intervalometer but can I work it out? can I heck!

I set the shutter speed to 30 seconds
Interval to 31 seconds
Number of shots per interval to 1
number of intervals to 100
and then start the timer

The camera then decides to throw away all the settings I just programmed and do its own thing
It takes one shot of 30 seconds, waits another 30 seconds then does another shot and so on.
I have tried just about every possible permutation of interval, number of shots, intervals and shutter speeds but it still eludes me.
I know the shutter speed is incorporated into the interval time so on the above settings it should crack off a shot, wait 1 second and then crack off another shot and so on.
I have turned off long exposure noise reduction and just about everything else I can think of, even set it to small basic JPEG. I have very fast Sandisk cards in the camera.
I have googled for hours trying to sort this out but nothing clear so far.:bonk:

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks
Julian

 

[Bambi72]

Try turning the interval to 1 second or 0 if you can. Its probably taking the shot, waiting 31 sec then taking another of 30 seconds. I dont use Nikon, but thats my guess.

 

[JulesP]

Thanks Danny but I've tried that with no luck.
I'm not overly bothered as I have a Hahnel Giga T Pro timer which is pretty good but it's bugging me more than anything

 

[ausemmao]

Your interval settings are fine.

You have Long Exposure Noise Reduction on, which works by taking a second same length dark frame. Turn that off and make your own dark frames at the start and the end of the sequence, or make your interval 61 seconds.

 

[hunnymonster]

How are you setting up the camera? Bulb or 30 sec exposures?

I ask because I discovered that 30" on my (not Nikon) is actually 32"... which obviously if I were to use the above settings, the intervalometer would fire the shutter for the second time before the camera had finished taking it's 30" exposure...

If you set the camera to continuous shooting and 30" exposure though - you could just set the intervalometer to fire the shutter, lock it and leave it for the appropriate amount of time...

 

[Deleted member 49549]

I had to use a 33s interval on my d300s to get continuous shooting.

 

[JulesP]

Nope - long exposure noise reduction is off. I haven't tried setting the interval to 33 seconds - will try that. I will also try timing the 30 second exposure setting to see if it is actually longer - that could explain it.
Thanks for replies

 

[vizzair]

Tried it last night on my D7000, looks like the way the interval timer works doesn't let you do what you want.

I tried various things:-

1) I assumed the timer started after exposure had finished , so set interval time to 1 sec , number of intervals to 10, picture per interval to 1, exposure time to 10sec, -- It took 1 picture and stopped

2) set interval time to 14 secs, now it take multiple pictures but delays 10 'ish seconds between shots:bonk:

Its a nice feature, shame it doesn't quite work how you would expect.

However it was late , so I will experiment more with this when I'm not so tired.

--

I now have three wired remotes methods that allow the button to be locked down, so to take multiple exposures i simply set to 30 sec exposure, continous shoot and lock the button down and go for a brew.

or use a intervalometer , there are reasonably priced ones on amazon.

 

[ausemmao]

Nope - long exposure noise reduction is off. I haven't tried setting the interval to 33 seconds - will try that. I will also try timing the 30 second exposure setting to see if it is actually longer - that could explain it.
Thanks for replies

I'd only done 10-20 sec exposures - turns out there's a second or two delay on the first exposure when set to 30 sec an that completely throws the timing off, so 33 second intervals fixes it.

 

[vizzair]

Hi, yes just tried that and it works, so they havn't broken it :|,
looks like you have to adjust the interval to suite.

I like this feature as you can set it to take bursts of pictures spaced apart,
which I can't do with my intervalometer.

Glad you sorted it.