Quick question on shutter speeds.

sduk

sduk

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Sammy
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I have the Sony A200 DSLR and enjoy mainly car photography. I tend to shoot on manual or on shutter priority.

The camera seems to only allow a maximum of a 30 sec shutter speed. But i see people on here talking of far greater lengths.

Is this down to the camera I have? or do i need to purchase an accessory to solve this?

Thanks for your help

Sammy
 
To get longer exposures than 30 s you would need to use the 'B' bulb setting and manualy time your exposure.
 
According to Google the A200 definitely has a bulb mode.
 
page 65
 
got it! thanks, I need to set the camera dial to M (manual) and then rotate this other wheel (which in all honestly i have never even used on the camera before lol) and then select BULB :D

so I could in theory select this setting and do i press the button once to open the shutter and then after 60 secs for example close it?
 
Edit: FFS that's the second time i've posted as someones figured it out, LOL
 
set mode dial to M

rotate control dial to left until Bulb is shown on lcd
 
thats perfect, thanks for the help, will give me another excuse to wait for darkness and go out with the camera :)

for some low light car shooting would i be best setting the ISO to a low number ie 100 and reducing the exposure to -2 then increasing the shutter speed?

is shutter speed infinate on bulb setting?
 
sduk said:
got it! thanks, I need to set the camera dial to M (manual) and then rotate this other wheel (which in all honestly i have never even used on the camera before lol) and then select BULB :D

so I could in theory select this setting and do i press the button once to open the shutter and then after 60 secs for example close it?
Click to expand...

The shutter will stay open for as long as the shutter button is pressed. I use a remote release which has a shutter lock on it, which saves a lot movement.
 
Just be aware that unless you are shooting in very dark conditions, exposures longer than 30 secs could result in your picture being overexposed.
 
sduk said:
yeah cool, would dropping the exposure to -2 make any difference?
Click to expand...

No it won't.

If you use a very long exposure time like that you are allowing a massive amount of light on to the sensor. Normally you would readjust that to maintain correct exposure by using a high f/number and/or low ISO, but in normal light, over 30secs is way outside the available range of adjustment.

Unless it is pretty dark, you will need a neutral density filter over the lens to use a shutter time like that - basically dark glasses for your camera.

You will also need a tripod and a cable release - the slightest movement of the camera will result in hopelssly blurred pictures.
 
sduk said:
yeah cool, would dropping the exposure to -2 make any difference?
Click to expand...

On the basis that you'll be using Manual 'M' to take the pic, no it wont.
The camera cant underexpose by '-2' when its in manual, cos the camera doesnt know what the correct exposure is to underexpose.
 
idigitize said:
On the basis that you'll be using Manual 'M' to take the pic, no it wont.
The camera cant underexpose by '-2' when its in manual, cos the camera doesnt know what the correct exposure is to underexpose.
Click to expand...

Funny, I thought this until about 2 days ago.

I was playing about on my camera. Using manual set it to +2 above the centre mark on meter and then dialed in -2 exposure compensation. When i checked the meter it then showed the marker over the 0.

This can be quite handy if you know your camera under or overexposes all of the time.

Although in bulb mode, totally irrelevant.
 
leaky5 said:
Funny, I thought this until about 2 days ago.

I was playing about on my camera. Using manual set it to +2 above the centre mark on meter and then dialed in -2 exposure compensation. When i checked the meter it then showed the marker over the 0.

This can be quite handy if you know your camera under or overexposes all of the time.

Although in bulb mode, totally irrelevant.
Click to expand...

In manual mode you set absolute values for aperture and shutter speed, which wont change if you set exposure compensation - in fact exposure compensation has no function in Manual mode as it's not necessary. Exposure compensation was introduced with the first aperture priority camera as a means of overriding the camera choosing the shutter speed.

If you do your test again you'll find that regardless of what the exposure compensation scale indicates, the aperture and shutter speed wont change from what you set them at.
 
CT said:
In manual mode you set absolute values for aperture and shutter speed, which wont change if you set exposure compensation - in fact exposure compensation has no function in Manual mode as it's not necessary. Exposure compensation was introduced with the first aperture priority camera as a means of overriding the camera choosing the shutter speed.

If you do your test again you'll find that regardless of what the exposure compensation scale indicates, the aperture and shutter speed wont change from what you set them at.
Click to expand...

I agree with with that, what I was trying to say was -

The exposure compensation function does move the meter marker.

I did one shot with it on 0 and another with +3 compensation dialed in and the picture/histograms were identical. The only difference was with +3 the meter was showing the marker way off to the right.

If you know your camera always overexposes by 2 stops, you can dial in -2 compensation and it will show the marker over the 0.
 
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