D5000 Intervalometer

danny cable

New member
I'm not sure if I’m posting this in the right section or even how I’m going to explain my problem.
I'm trying to use the cameras intervalometer but having no joy, this is what i have done so far. As well as the results below I have read that your interval time should be 1s longer than your exposure but all that does is increase the interval between shots.

Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was single, F8, shutter was 20s.
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'01s, number of intervals 050,
Result was 3.
Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was continuous, F8, shutter was 20s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'01s, number of intervals 050,
result was 6.

Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was single, F8, shutter was 30s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'01s, number of intervals 050,
result was 4.
Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was continuous, F8, shutter was 30s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'01s, number of intervals 050,
result was 8.

Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was single, F8, shutter was 20s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'02s, number of intervals 050,
Result was 5.
Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was continuous, F8, shutter was 20s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'02s, number of intervals 050,
Result was 6.

Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was single, F8, shutter was 30s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'02s, number of intervals 050,
Result was 3.
Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was continuous, F8, shutter was 30s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'02s, number of intervals 050,
Result was 6.

As you can see from the above shoot mode seems to make the biggest difference so from here on all will be shot in continuous mode.

Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was continuous, F8, shutter was 20s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'05s, number of intervals 050,
Result was 16.

Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was continuous, F8, shutter was 30s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'05s, number of intervals 050,
Result was 8.

Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was continuous, F8, shutter was 20s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'05s, number of intervals 050,
Result was 17.

Camera settings manual, jpeg fine, iso100, release mode was continuous, F8, shutter was 30s
Interval timer setting were, start now, interval 00:00'10s, number of intervals 050,
Result was 13.

You can see where this is going now I hope….
The reason for this attempt was I want to have a go at star trails and to get any kind of success I would have to fire manually for 3+ hours which is going to be a pain or put up with large gaps in the trails if I can find an interval time that will allow to shoot automatically for that long.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
I'm trying to use the cameras intervalometer but having no joy, this is what i have done so far. As well as the results below I have read that your interval time should be 1s longer than your exposure but all that does is increase the interval between shots.

I think your only problem is that the interval may need to be 2 or 3 seconds longer than the shutter time.
If 20 second shutter, try 23 second intervals.

If you are missing shots (if result is fewer shots than calculations predict), then you simply need a longer interval.

The interval time includes:

1. Shutter duration time.
2. time to process/compress the image file.
3. time to write the image file to the memory card. If you have a slow memory card, this takes more time.

If writing large Raw files to a slow card, you will need a lot more time. Writing 40 MB D800 Raw files to the fastest 1000x memory card needs 3 seconds more interval than a long shutter time. JPG is a smaller file to write, but other cameras are slower writing, and certainly other cards are slower writing. No one answer, but you need more than one second.

If your interval time is too short, and operations are not complete yet, then it simply skips next interval, and waits for next scheduled interval. Your results will have fewer shots than you planned.


Start a short test with interval time being too long.. maybe 5 seconds longer than the shutter time.

Then as you see the card writing access LED finish and go out, and you realize there is a lag before the next shutter, then you know about how much you can reduce the interval to reduce that lag. But there needs to be at least a tiny lag time, or it cannot do it. This seems to imply that multitasking and buffering do not apply to interval timer.

But a one second lag before next interval starts will not affect star trails. It will make your intervals be very reliable.
 
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danny cable

New member
I had already filled out my profile but just checked again and some of the details had not saved, its done now.
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

and what WayneF ^^^^^ said.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Wayne is spot on. The Nikon intervalometer function could have been written so much more intuitively, but alas it's not. The interval time is not the time between shots, it's the total time from the beginning of one shot to the beginning of the next. In other words...

Minimum Interval Time = Shutter Speed + Post-processing Time (i.e. Long Exp NR) + Wait Time Before Next Shot​


No one thinks of it that way off the top of their heads, but I suspect that when Nikon engineers put it together they had no way of easily calculating it consistently, so they opted to make it simply the amount of time between shutter actuations and left the calculating to the photographer.

As for the number of actuations, they are counted regardless of whether or not a photo was actually taken.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
No one thinks of it that way off the top of their heads, but I suspect that when Nikon engineers put it together they had no way of easily calculating it consistently, so they opted to make it simply the amount of time between shutter actuations and left the calculating to the photographer.

I suspect most intervals are regular short exposure times every several seconds, giving no problem. But the menu is a little troublesome for me. Sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out how to get it started, even though I've done it many times.

But the question in my mind is why is multitasking and buffering suspended for Intervals? Why can't the shutter just go on working while it is buffering and writing the previous file, during the next 20 second exposure? It does that at all other times. If you hold down the shutter button for continuous shots, say of 2 seconds, it has no trouble continuing while writing. Why is Intervals so different?
 
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danny cable

New member
I think your only problem is that the interval may need to be 2 or 3 seconds longer than the shutter time.
If 20 second shutter, try 23 second intervals.

If I follow your recommendations and up the interval time to say 32s I only get 1 photo for every 62s of time, losing over 50% of my time taking the actual photos, but if I continue adding time it actually changes and jumps backwards to how it should be shown below

My camera setting 30s exposure, jpeg fine.

The below are the results of extending interval times and the amount of shots taken until camera stops taking photos.
18 @ 15s intervals = 4 ½ min’s jegs fine
24 @ 20s = 8 min’s jegs fine
25 @ 31s = 13min’s jegs fine
50 @ 35s = 29 min’s jegs fine now getting the correct amount of intervals as set in camera
50 @ 33s = 26 min’s jegs fine adjusted time down to find lowest interval time for full interval count
I got the same result in raw as above but led is on constantly so may adjust by 1s for raw images

Cheers for your help
 
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