Nikon D300s interval timer help

mark4183

mark4183

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Mark
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Hello all....

I have just got in after going out to have some fun light painting, great fun. I also decided to have a go at star trails, so after reading a tutorial guide on here and getting some advice from a TP member i thought here we go. wasnt keen on doing the star stacks but its easiest and best option apparently.

So before i went i had a look at how to take pictures for a set time, went on youtube and tried google and thought i knew what i was doing.

So i set my camera up on tripod and pointed it at the north star, camera settings:
Manual
f4 ISO800 and shutter speed 30s
WB is sunny
single shot
RAW
and plenty of battery

then i went into the menu, shooting and down to interval timer shooting:
start time was now
interval 00:00:02
select intervals x no of shots
207 x 1 =207
START....

i went and sat in the car and i could here the camera just snapping away, then it stopped. I went to check and it had finished but had only taken 15 shots.

Checked the settings again, checked the interval timing settings again and tried again.... same thing.
So i tried youtube for help, which it seems i had. tried again and the same thing.

Can anyone help? its probably me
 
This confused me greatly when i encountered this originally - you need an interval of 32 or 33s. the gap is measured from the start of the first exposure, not the end! And you need a gap of 2 or 3s for the camera to process the picture...
 
One reason it is better:-

I spent an hour and half taking 30s exposures. When i got back home and looked at the pictures, i found all pictures from 30 minutes onwards suffered from dew on the lens. If it was one exposure, it would be ruined, but at least i had 30 minutes or so of trails using the stacking method.
 
You also get far less noise when stacking rather than taking a single exposure, not to mention the sky will remain black instead of getting brighter.

Edit: manually focus on a star using live view. To do this I had to find Jupiter as most stars weren't bright enough. This was with a f2.8 lens, it's something that isn't as simple as everyone likes to make it sound :-)

Rap, leaving your camera outside to acclimatise for a bit before you start shooting may help with that (If you don't already)
 
Last edited:
wealthysoup said:
Edit: manually focus on a star using live view. To do this I had to find Jupiter as most stars weren't bright enough. This was with a f2.8 lens, it's something that isn't as simple as everyone likes to make it sound :-)
Click to expand...

Too right it's difficult!

I try and focus on infinity (sometimes streetlights from a few miles away may be in sight to get near to infinity) and have to take a test shot. I have brought my laptop out and shot tethered - that has helped.
 
I tried this a few times with my old d2x. Took several attempts to nail the technique. It's correct that you need an interval of approx 33 secs to avoid missing shots and creating gaps in the trails. Other stuff to remember, switch off the after shot review to extend battery life. Also switch off long exposure noise reduction. Manually set WB to stop it changing between shots.

A good program for putting the shots together can be downloaded for free at Startrails.de. there will be slight gaps in the trails because of the 3 sec interval between each shot.

An alternative method to obtain the shots is to set the camera to continuous shooting, 30 sec exposure, and hold the shutter button down with an elastic band and something to push on the shutter release. Worked ok for me on a d50.

Good luck with your experiments. I find it quite addictive.
 
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