Using B, T and long speeds for star trails and comet Neowise

**Rocket Rick** · 07-23-2020, 05:57 PM

When I go to manual mode and select shutter speeds from 5 to 30 seconds or use B ot T, the camaera says not enough light and refuses to fire the shutter.

Back in my 35mm SLR days (Nikon, Pentax, Minolta, and finally Olympus OM-1 ans 2s, I could shot pictures regardless. I would think that when you choose the B ot T shutter setting, the light metering is disengaged. Doesn't matter what ISO setting I do. Am I doing something wrong? Called Nikon customer service and they seemed not to know how to do star trails and such, suggested I use the night mode.

Last night I was forced to leave a light on when I depressed the shutter and as soon as the shutter fired I turned off the light.

Help

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**TwistedThrottle** · 07-23-2020, 06:15 PM

@Rocket Rick
When I am shooting AF-C, I have it set up to fire when I say so. When I have it on AF-S, it only fires once focus has been established. Head into your pencil menu and check to see these values are set.

**FredKingston** · 07-23-2020, 07:39 PM

Set Menu option A1 and A2 to Release

**hark** · 07-23-2020, 08:58 PM

Are you focusing manually or using Auto Focus?

**Rocket Rick** · 07-24-2020, 01:57 AM

Originally Posted by hark

Are you focusing manually or using Auto Focus?

Was using AF-A...choices are AF-A, AF-S, AF-C OR MF. Should I use MF ?

**nickt** · 07-24-2020, 02:21 AM

I think Cindy has it. The camera wants to focus before it will take the picture and there is not enough light. You have to use manual focus. I don't think the d3400 has the release priority mode settings the others mentioned.

Its not your other settings. In M, it doesn't care if the exposure works out. It does still care about focus, so put it in manual focus and it should fire.

**Moab Man** · 07-24-2020, 06:14 AM

What Hark and NickT said.

**Rocket Rick** · 07-24-2020, 07:01 AM

Originally Posted by Moab Man

What Hark and NickT said.

Thanks everyone, switching to manual focus was it. I can't believe I was talking with a Nikon Customer Service person for nearly 1/2 hour and never mentioned manual focus. Had me try lots of other things that didn't work.

The manual simply says under 'Night Vision' that "autofocus is available in live view only; manual focus can be used if the camera is unable to focus." Says nothing about needing to set to manual focus if shooting B or T. I guess I'm new to DSLR.

**hark** · 07-24-2020, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by Rocket Rick

Thanks everyone, switching to manual focus was it. I can't believe I was talking with a Nikon Customer Service person for nearly 1/2 hour and never mentioned manual focus. Had me try lots of other things that didn't work.

The manual simply says under 'Night Vision' that "autofocus is available in live view only; manual focus can be used if the camera is unable to focus." Says nothing about needing to set to manual focus if shooting B or T. I guess I'm new to DSLR.

Glad it worked for you! Possibly the Nikon tech has never taken night photos.

Nice to have you here with us.

**nickt** · 07-24-2020, 02:43 PM

Nikon is roundabout in documenting how some things work. There are 2 sets of books for the d3400, the reference manual and the user manual. I just searched the reference pdf and found a small mention under autofocus tips that the shutter might be disabled under some conditions. But the message in the viewfinder did not give you enough info to know it was an autofocus problem.

Anyway, you are better off in manual focus for very dark shooting. In most cases focus will be on infinity. Something to try is live view. You should be able to zoom in on a distant point of light in LV and then manually focus till its sharp. It doesn't have to be a star, it could be a very distant street light just to find infinity. When I say zoom in, I don't mean with the lens. I mean with the screen controls so you can see your focus better on the screen. Use magnifier and arrow buttons. It does not zoom your shot like a digital zoom, its just a method to examine focus. You can take the picture from LV, or switch back to viewfinder. As long as you stay in manual focus it won't change going back to viewfinder. This method is good for macro too. Other than special focus situations, I'm not a fan of live view. Its a battery suck and lots of extra motions to snap the picture.