Yetibuddha said:
Boemboem,

I was actually referring in different parts of the comment to both an internal and external intervalometer. For me, the programming with the external one, your HAMA, is easier. For other people it may not be. I don't have the HAMA but another brand, which is probably made in the same factory but in a different week. Sounds like you have plenty of time to practice. I will attempt to post a star trail photo in the 24 April edition of Photo A Day here on NR. I am eight hours behind you, so you probably will not see it until early evening.

Haha ok, maybe you can text me when you have a clear night so I know when to setup my equipment ;-)

spraynpray said:
Oh man - an interval timer that goes to sleep on the job! That is funny - and as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

Yeah hilarious isn't - cheap chinese stuff i ques

spraynpray said:
That's even funnier!

Please don't laugh ;-)

I'm Dutch so I need to read everything double ;-)

That's even funnier!

Oh man - an interval timer that goes to sleep on the job! That is funny - and as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

Boemboem,

I was actually referring in different parts of the comment to both an internal and external intervalometer. For me, the programming with the external one, your HAMA, is easier. For other people it may not be. I don't have the HAMA but another brand, which is probably made in the same factory but in a different week. Sounds like you have plenty of time to practice. I will attempt to post a star trail photo in the 24 April edition of Photo A Day here on NR. I am eight hours behind you, so you probably will not see it until early evening.

Yetibuddha said:
Boemboem,

Glad to hear you got your problem straightened out. Taking star trail images can be pretty frustrating because of all the settings. I found on the D700, which had a problem similar to yours, only an external intervalometer will work. The intervalometer on the D7000 works well for star trails, up to 100 exposures. I think now that the problem is resolved, you should have lots of fun. I generally use these settings: ISO 400, F4.5, 30 Seconds, manual focus, white balance set to tungsten, and jpeg format. This will take really good trails, but one hour total is the minimum.

Have fun

Thank you for the advice! :) I will definitely try your settings as you suggested. Now it's waiting for a clear night, here in Holland that can last weeks :)

p.s. With intervalometer you mean the remote HAMA 5201 I bought?

Boemboem,

Glad to hear you got your problem straightened out. Taking star trail images can be pretty frustrating because of all the settings. I found on the D700, which had a problem similar to yours, only an external intervalometer will work. The intervalometer on the D7000 works well for star trails, up to 100 exposures. I think now that the problem is resolved, you should have lots of fun. I generally use these settings: ISO 400, F4.5, 30 Seconds, manual focus, white balance set to tungsten, and jpeg format. This will take really good trails, but one hour total is the minimum.

Have fun

jonnyapple said:
Careful with the built-in intervalometer. I haven't used it since I had a D300, but at least with that camera, I'm pretty sure that if you set 10 frames, 1 s between shots, and 20 s shutter speed you would only get one frame. The time between shots is the time from the start of one exposure to the start of the next exposure. So, for 30 s exposures, set the time between frames to be 31 s.

I thought then that it was a huge design flaw, but maybe they thought they should just leave it in subsequent models lest they confuse people. ;-)

If you want a good solution, you might do what I did—I bought myself a dedicated external intervalometer. The one I have is a phottix Nikos, and it is a treat to use. What finally pushed me over the edge to buy it was how the D300 would delete everything I had just set in the intervalometer if I forgot to push okay to start the program. I wanted to tear my hair out.

shouldn't the intervalometer work like this? (that's what I thought, and though that the camera was malfunctioning)

Example settings

interval: 2 seconds
frames: 50
Exposure 20 seconds

1 click
2 20 seconds exposure
3 shutter closed (picture 1)
4 2 seconds pause
5 click
6 20 seconds exposure
7 shutter closed (picture 2)
8 2 seconds pause

etc, etc

Hello all,

I want to thank all those people who helped me find the culprit of my problem.

It's finally solved, the problem was my remote control, first I had an HAMA NI3 wireless remote. For some reason this remote goes into "sleep mode" after a while.

Now I bought a HAMA 5201 wired remote and all my troubles are gone at this point.

jonnyapple said:
I still think it's a problem with the intervalometer settings.

Look at this comment, for example:

With a 20 second exposure set, 4 of your interval releases are triggered during each time the shutter is open (the first starts the exposure and three go to waste). That's 12 or 13 images at best of the 50 frames you're asking for.

What cable are you using to release the shutter in bulb mode, boemboem? I don't know why that would stop after a few minutes.

Can you please explain to me what you mean with this? Especially with the 4 interval releases?

Edit: After reading your answer a couple of times I got the clue (it's not you, it's me :D, I'm Dutch so I need to read everything double ;-)

Still sounds like the camera is busy trying to write data while you are expecting to do the next frame. Why don't you increase the frame rate keeping the exposure the same until it fails then do it again keeping the frame rate the same but exposing each frame for longer until it fails? That should give you an idea of where and why you are getting the problem. I am certain it is not the camera.

I did a string of about 200 exposures of fireworks using bulb (1-3 seconds each exposure, 1-3 seconds between exposures) without any problems on my D5000 and I don't see any problems with the settings you used other than the long time and high frame rate (for your exposure length). During experiments the night before that shoot I found that the longer I exposed the longer it would take to write the data.

HTH.

I still think it's a problem with the intervalometer settings.

Look at this comment, for example:

boemboem said:
I've tested the interval too.

I can only take 10 frames with interval and 20 seconds exposure (interval time 5 seconds) set to 50 frames. That is strange imo.

With a 20 second exposure set, 4 of your interval releases are triggered during each time the shutter is open (the first starts the exposure and three go to waste). That's 12 or 13 images at best of the 50 frames you're asking for.

What cable are you using to release the shutter in bulb mode, boemboem? I don't know why that would stop after a few minutes.

boemboem said:

My problem is that I can't make more then 3 or 4 pictures with 30 seconds exposure. The camera stops shooting after a few pictures. Also Bulb mode is not infinite, it's stops after a few minutes.

None of this is normal and I'm not sure why we are discussing interval timer shooting when you have mentioned none of it.

I know you have said LENR was off but I can only think of that as a limiter to the duration of a shot other than the 30 min limit.

Either that or you have an issue - maybe a short - with your D5000 which is causing overheating somewhere and cutting the exposure short.

boemboem said:
Have you made your interval time 1 or 2 seconds longer then your exposure time?

Just saw that you posted this, boemboem. It doesn't work even with this set?

Teo said:
I've got a thing with my D800 (probably coz I didn't read the manual long enough)
but when I want to shoot star trails with the in camera interval timer, I set the number of frames to 100 (max) and the speed to 20-30 sec, the camera stops after a few frames like 7 I think, and I then need to restart the whole thing
It's annoying especially that it leaves gaps in the middle of the star trail when combining in post (look at my flickr to see my last star trail photo with the D800 http://www.photos.teomorabito.com )...
Anyone knows what we are doing wrong ?

Careful with the built-in intervalometer. I haven't used it since I had a D300, but at least with that camera, I'm pretty sure that if you set 10 frames, 1 s between shots, and 20 s shutter speed you would only get one frame. The time between shots is the time from the start of one exposure to the start of the next exposure. So, for 30 s exposures, set the time between frames to be 31 s.

I thought then that it was a huge design flaw, but maybe they thought they should just leave it in subsequent models lest they confuse people. ;-)

If you want a good solution, you might do what I did—I bought myself a dedicated external intervalometer. The one I have is a phottix Nikos, and it is a treat to use. What finally pushed me over the edge to buy it was how the D300 would delete everything I had just set in the intervalometer if I forgot to push okay to start the program. I wanted to tear my hair out.

I've tested the interval too.

I can only take 10 frames with interval and 20 seconds exposure (interval time 5 seconds) set to 50 frames. That is strange imo.

Have you made your interval time 1 or 2 seconds longer then your exposure time?

It's frustrating because your SD card is fast enough :)

SD : 95MB/s 64gb
CF : 90MB/s 16gb
shooting jpeg for those star trails as raw would simply be toooooo big hehe
I'll try again tomorrow, but I've tried all night last time and I couldn't get more than 9 if I'm not mistaken (definitely no more than 10!)

What kind of Sd card are you using?

I've got a thing with my D800 (probably coz I didn't read the manual long enough)
but when I want to shoot star trails with the in camera interval timer, I set the number of frames to 100 (max) and the speed to 20-30 sec, the camera stops after a few frames like 7 I think, and I then need to restart the whole thing
It's annoying especially that it leaves gaps in the middle of the star trail when combining in post (look at my flickr to see my last star trail photo with the D800 http://www.photos.teomorabito.com )...
Anyone knows what we are doing wrong ?

Hello Jonny,

I'm aware of the program and how to do it. I have edited my original question because that was the part which was not there, excuse me for that.

As for your other suggestions, thank you for that, it's worth trying that :D

The edited part is:

** EDIT: My problem is that I can't make more then 3 or 4 pictures with 30 seconds exposure. The camera stops shooting after a few pictures. Also Bulb mode is not infinite, it's stops after a few minutes.

I'm not sure what the problem is, but based on your settings I'm going to guess at one. ;-)

You're probably not seeing much movement of the stars in 20s. What you need to do is take many of these shots consecutively, then stack them with a program like startrails (google it—it's free software written by a german guy named Achim Schaller). It will overlay them, and you'll get your star trails.

Think about it this way: If you could combine pictures from 8 hours of the kind you mention above, you would get the stars making 1/3 of a circle around the poles (8 hours/24 hours). You get 1/24th of a circle for every hour of photos you combine. 1 hour of 20s-long exposures is 180 photos.

Disregard this if I guessed wrong.

Other suggestions: you might try boosting your ISO a little higher, setting the white balance to daylight instead of auto (especially if you're shooting jpg)—even moonlight is the same color temp as sunlight, and see if neutral picture control gives you better results. The sky is a very high-contrast scene to begin with, so you might get better results if the camera isn't boosting contrast much.

I have a Nikon D5000 camera and I really love it! But something is not working as good as I hoped. I think I have a strange question and I hope anyone can help me with this.

I'd like to make pictures of star trails and I thought I knew all the basics for it.

I have a Nikon D5000, a tripod and a remote shutter release (HAMA NI3) and a Kingston 16GB class 4 Sd card

** EDIT: My problem is that I can't make more then 3 or 4 pictures with 30 seconds exposure. The camera stops shooting after a few pictures. Also Bulb mode is not infinite, it's stops after a few minutes.

These are my settings atm.

Mode = M
Exposure = 20 seconds f4.2
Exposure compensation +/_ = 0.0
Flash compensation = 0.0
Picture control = SD
AE Bracketing = off
ADL = off
Metering = the first one of three (little girl in a play house)
Release mode = []]]
ISO = 200
White balance = auto
Long exp NR = off
High ISO NR = off

Any help would be great on this matter