D5100 Stops taking Pic's when using interval Timer but Camera is still on?

Hi' I was going to do some Star Trail shots to Stack in PS and have tried two Different methods on both occassions the camera stops taking pic's but it is still on? First method,Camera on Manual,set to 30 sec',set to Continuous,and locking it on with my Cable Release,I thought that this would keep taking pic's until the Battery ran Flat,but it only takes pic's for about 14min then stop's the setting are still displayed in the View Finder so the camera is still on?
The second way was using the Interval Timer Settings, same deal,30 sec' exposure's,had number of pic's set to about 900,let her rip with Start Now,it went for about an Hour and a Half then Stopped taking pic's maybe took around 110 , I looked in View Finder the power was still on,I have tried a few different SD Cards (16g 4 and 16g 10).
Is there a setting in the Menu that needs to be Changed or do I have a Dodgy Camera????????
Are there any Upgrades/Patch that I can Download ???......Any Help would be Great

"Interval" is the time from the start of one exposure to the start of the next exposure. Example: Assume that as soon as the picture was taken it instantaneously wrote to the memory card and was ready for another pic. In this case, you want a 15sec exposure and 2 sec between shots...the "interval" to set would be 17.

With all noise reduction turned off.... a 15sec exposure...and 2 sec between exposures....assume 1sec to write and set a "interval of 15+2+1="18"

The key word here is: "Interval." Nikon doesn't explain this with an example.

The problem was with buffering. Once the buffer was full, the camera stopped the set program. The green light remaining on all the time should have given me a clue that the camera was still writing the file while it was taking the next frame, and thus filling the buffer to capacity.

By assuming I was supposed to create an interval of 2 seconds between shots, it didn't give the camera time to put the pictures on the card.
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"The problem was with buffering"

Bingo! I had this same problem. I solved this issue by getting a class 10 card, and by leaving a 1 second gap in-between my 25 second exposures. When I reverted to my class 4 card, the 1 second gap had to turn into a 6 second gap.

-Wahugg

I had this exact same issue when trying to shoot star trails last night, I set the camera up to shoot 100 30 second exposures with interval set at 10 seconds, I assumed this meant an interval of 10 seconds between shots (IE from when the shutter closed at the end of one photo to when the shutter reopened in the next photo.) So based on what was said above, if I shoot with the same settings as last night (100 shots for 30 seconds, with a 10 second "break" in-between) then I should be setting the interval timer at 40 seconds (Or 35 seconds if I want a 5 second pause between shots...) ?


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Samsonite said:

So based on what was said above, if I shoot with the same settings as last night (100 shots for 30 seconds, with a 10 second "break" in-between) then I should be setting the interval timer at 40 seconds (Or 35 seconds if I want a 5 second pause between shots...) ?

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Having this same issue myself!

Did you try the above?

I also set the exposure to 30secs, 60 shots and a 31 sec interval. I ended up with 30 shots with a 30 second ish gap before the camera stopped taking pics.

g3az66 said:

Having this same issue myself! Did you try the above? I also set the exposure to 30secs, 60 shots and a 31 sec interval. I ended up with 30 shots with a 30 second ish gap before the camera stopped taking pics.

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Welcome to the forum If you fill out your profile we can better answer any questions that you might have. You can do that at http://nikonites.com/profile.php?do=editprofile Some useful links http://support.nikonusa.com/app/ans.../nikon-product-manuals-available-for-download Nikon | Imaging Products | Digitutor Thanks

Will help if we have your camera information.

Samsonite said:

So based on what was said above, if I shoot with the same settings as last night (100 shots for 30 seconds, with a 10 second "break" in-between) then I should be setting the interval timer at 40 seconds (Or 35 seconds if I want a 5 second pause between shots...) ?

Click to expand...

Yes. Interval time must include the shutter time, and processing time, and time to write the image to the memory card.
Card time depends on the image file size (Raw is large) and the speed of the card.
Set up a temp test, interval at least two seconds longer than shutter, maybe three, and watch the green card light, and make sure card finishes before next shutter. If not some extra space there, you are cutting it close.
My D800 Raw files with fastest card sometimes needs interval three seconds longer than shutter time.
If card cannot keep up, it will skip one, very noticeable with a long shutter and interval. It is not stopped then, it is just waiting on next interval.

Something else to think about too with doing shots like this. Check what you have the 'Long Exposure NR' set to in your 'Shooting' menu. Having that enabled will at least double your processing time. The way it works, say you shoot a 10second exposure, it will then take another 10 second exposure with the shutter closed and subtract the noise from the first shot.
But yeah, in short, having that enabled will double the time of your shot pretty much, and then processing time!

God that's hard to explain! lol