D3100 | Bulb mode | long exposure photography.

Hi Guys,

I am interested in doing night photography, light painting..for which long exposures are required.
I figured out that there is a bulb mode in D3100.. by switching to (M) mode, and increasing the shutter speed beyond 30 secs, bulb mode is switched on..
I have a concern, since D3100 doesn't have ir sensor, will it effect my camera if i take multiple long exposures? Is it harmful to the camera?

Thanks,
GJ

How long and how multiple are you thinking of? If I remember correctly, there might be something that might produce heat. But, since we know we can film but with a 20 minutes limit per sequence, I suspect that if you don't make your exposure more than 20 minutes you might be OK. Have a look in your owners manual just to make sure there is no other indication or warning.

​Please share these pictures with us.

Like Marcel says, staying within the video time limit should be safe. But unlike many models, the d3100 only has a 10 minute limit on video. The manual states to 'wait for the internal circuits to cool before resuming movie recording' after the timer runs out. I'm not sure how one would know if the internal circuits are cool,lol. I think a few minutes rest would be fine. I would assume they have a design that would not self-destruct from available user choices and further assume/hope that over heating would only degrade performance.

gaurav said:

Hi Guys,

I am interested in doing night photography, light painting..for which long exposures are required.
I figured out that there is a bulb mode in D3100.. by switching to (M) mode, and increasing the shutter speed beyond 30 secs, bulb mode is switched on..
I have a concern, since D3100 doesn't have ir sensor, will it effect my camera if i take multiple long exposures? Is it harmful to the camera?

Thanks,
GJ

Click to expand...

By “ir sensor”, you mean for use of a remote control? Are you sure?

I bought this, a few weeks ago, at Target. Actually, I bought two of them, because the price was so spectacularly good.



The package lists the D3000 as one of the cameras with which it is compatible. I have the D3200, and this remote works great with it. I have a hard time imagining that the D3100 would lack a feature that both its immediate predecessor and its immediate successor have.

My D3200 has two IR sensors, one of the front in the middle of the handgrip area, and one on the back, near the upper left corner. You might normally not notice either unless you were specifically looking for them, and knew what to look for. I bet your D3100 is the same.



By the way, with a remote such Nikon's ML-L3, or the cheap knockoff above that I bought at Target, a “Time” exposure mode becomes available, like Bulb mode, but instead of staying open as long as you hold the button, it opens when you push the button, and closes when you push it again. The manual for by D3200 says that it'll stay open a maximum of thirty minutes. Again, I bet your D3100 is the same, though some of the other postings in this thread lead me to suspect that the thirty-minute limit on my D3200 may be shorter on your D3100.

Bob Blaylock said:

By “ir sensor”, you mean for use of a remote control? Are you sure?

I bought this, a few weeks ago, at Target. Actually, I bought two of them, because the price was so spectacularly good.

View attachment 56914

The package lists the D3000 as one of the cameras with which it is compatible. I have the D3200, and this remote works great with it. I have a hard time imagining that the D3100 would lack a feature that both its immediate predecessor and its immediate successor have.

My D3200 has two IR sensors, one of the front in the middle of the handgrip area, and one on the back, near the upper left corner. You might normally not notice either unless you were specifically looking for them, and knew what to look for. I bet your D3100 is the same.

View attachment 56915 View attachment 56916

By the way, with a remote such Nikon's ML-L3, or the cheap knockoff above that I bought at Target, a “Time” exposure mode becomes available, like Bulb mode, but instead of staying open as long as you hold the button, it opens when you push the button, and closes when you push it again. The manual for by D3200 says that it'll stay open a maximum of thirty minutes. Again, I bet your D3100 is the same, though some of the other postings in this thread lead me to suspect that the thirty-minute limit on my D3200 may be shorter on your D3100.

Click to expand...

The D3100 doesn't have an IR sensor. I believe it was D3200 only. Either that or I haven't found it on my D3100.

-Brandon

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

The D3100 isn't wireless, there are some adapters to make it work but I can't comment on that because I don't have one.
Without searching for my manual and looking it up for you, I think it does say something about letting it cool after multiple long exposures.
If you don't have a manual, Google can be your friend. There may be some online manuals you can thumb through. Good luck and share some of those long exposure photos with us!

Brandonberg said:

The D3100 doesn't have an IR sensor. I believe it was D3200 only. Either that or I haven't found it on my D3100.

Click to expand...

How odd.

As I mentioned, my remote claims to be compatible with the D3000, which must mean that the D3000 has an IR sensor. It doesn't mention the D3200, which I attributed to the package having been designed before the D3200 existed. I figured that it was for the same reason that it also doesn't mention the D3100.

Looking at ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control (Infrared) from Nikon, I see the D3000 and D3200 listed as being compatible with Nikon's ML-L3, but not the D3100.

It seems rather odd to me that the D3100 would lack a significant feature that is present on both the D3000 and the D3200.

This seems to confirm it. Pictures of all three D3?00-series cameras. You can see the front IR sensor on both the D3000 and the D3200, but not on the D3100.

Bob Blaylock;210772) but not on the D3100. [IMG said:

http://nikonites.com/products/attachment.php?do=fullview&attachmentid=272[/IMG]

Click to expand...

Correct for some unknown reason to me the 3100 didn't come with it

Thanks for the help guys..
Here's one of my first attempt at long exposure light painting.. completed in 30 secs.
30 secs | f/6.3 | ISO-140..
Looking forward to get a wireless remote for my camera..so that i can make use of a bulb mode..