Shooting in Bulb mode

[bikefreax]

Hey guys I was wondering if you know a way to have a longer than 8 minute shutter speed in bulb? If i use the remote it closes after 8 minutes and if I use the other corded remote that locks it open it still shuts after 8 minutes. I was wanting to take some star trail pictures and it usually takes a 30 minute exposure. Oh yea I have the E-510.

[Greg McCary]

I am not sure about the 510, but on the E3 you can custom set the bulb timer. Check your manual. The E3 is factory default at 8 min but can be set up to 30min. 8 min could be the limit on the 510? You are probably going to get a fair amount of noise with exposures that long.
I found the setting under Custom menu 1, exp/iso. It took me a few minutes to find it.
When I do star trails I get better results from an old film camera. There is no noise. But good luck. Find an old SLR and a wide lens, get some 800iso film and give it a try.

Update, I did a google search and 8min is the limit.

[mjs1973]

Sorry I don't have any specific advice for you as far as your bulb mode goes, but I do have some advice for shooting star trials with a DSLR. I have done a few star trail photos with my DSLR and I have found that I get the best results by merging several shorter exposures instead of using one really long exposure. I use exposure times from anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. If the longest your camera can go is 8 minuets, that's what I would use. Take a series of 8 minute exposures back to back, and they overlay the images in post to create the long star trails. The shorter exposures really help to keep the noise levels down.

Once you get your series of images, open them in Photoshop, and drag one image on top of the other, then change the blending mode to Lighten. This will allow all of the lighter areas, the stars, to show through. Do that with all of your images from the series and you will get some nice long star trails. Here is a link to a photo I created using this method last spring.

Enee Point

[rhianna15]

Hopefully the price of the E30 will drop after it has been a few weeks, but it is a different camera all together from the E3. The E30 is much smaller than the E3 and the E30 is packed with new features. New sensor ect. I wonder about IQ over the 520? Time will tell and PJ's full review should be an interesting read.

[alexau]

There is only one reason that I have to use another app, from one of your competitors, instead of HR. That is when my camera is not physically accessible during shooting, and I have to control the camera settings 100 from the app. I know that Bulb is not supported over usb on my Nikon D7000, but please let me set Bulb mode when LiveView is not active. I would like to frame & focus my target etc via LiveView with 1/30 sec, and when I am ready to shoot I would just stop LiveView, set Bulb and start shooting with the serial trigger cable, not via usb. That is the way I work with the other app, and it works great. But I would still prefer to work with HR if it only was possible.

[warmchirping]

Sorry I don't have any specific advice for you as far as your bulb mode goes, but I do have some advice for shooting star trials with a DSLR. I have done a few star trail photos with my DSLR and I have found that I get the best results by merging several shorter exposures instead of using one really long exposure. I use exposure times from anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. If the longest your camera can go is 8 minuets, that's what I would use. Take a series of 8 minute exposures back to back, and they overlay the images in post to create the long star trails. The shorter exposures really help to keep the noise levels down.

Once you get your series of images, open them in Photoshop, and drag one image on top of the other, then change the blending mode to Lighten. This will allow all of the lighter areas, the stars, to show through. Do that with all of your images from the series and you will get some nice long star trails. Here is a link to a photo I created using this method last spring.

Enee Point

This is informative thanks for sharing!