Long star exposure, low light error

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Tenzin Gyaltsen

New member
When trying to do a bulb exposure with my d5300, I get the the low light error message. Is there a way to bypass this or is the camera too smart to take a time exposure. Many thanks
 
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Moab Man

Senior Member
Not familiar with this model of Nikon or the error, but I'm wondering if you are in full manual mode? If not that's what I would be doing. Not being in full manual makes sense to be to generate that error. However, I'm not familiar but taking an educated stab at it.
 
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MeSess

Senior Member
Tenzin Gyaltsen said:
When trying to do a bulb exposure with my d5300, I get the the low light error message. Is there a way to bypass this or is the camera too smart to take a time exposure. Many thanks
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I think that error is because the camera can't focus in the dark. Try turning autofocus off and see how that goes.
 
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RON_RIP

Senior Member
MeSess said:
I think that error is because the camera can't focus in the dark. Try turning autofocus off and see how that goes.
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Just had that happen to me. I was freezing my apertures off in 25 degree weather and could not figure out why the remote would not trigger the shutter. My bad,
 
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MeSess

Senior Member
RON said:
Just had that happen to me. I was freezing my apertures off in 25 degree weather and could not figure out why the remote would not trigger the shutter. My bad,
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haha yeah I was so confused at first I thought my camera was broken because I bought it used. Pretty annoying to deal with still from time to time.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
Use the camera in full manual mode. If you have G lense, then determine where the infinity focus is. Many lense will go beyond infinity in manual mode. In general it is best to use the older manual focus primes for star images as the focus at infinity is at the end of the focusing ring's rotation. You can also get lower distortion at better price.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
Tenzin Gyaltsen said:
i thought that i did.... This is by using the switch on the lens? correct?

many thanks
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The switch on the lense is for auto focus. In "A" position it will auto focus in the "M" you focus manually (it just switches the motor off)

For manual exposure you have to go to the dial on the camera
top-001.jpg

The big round dial. Between the "Effects" and "Scene" on the left you see the letters (here it is set to "P").
M = Manual exposure
A = Aperture priority exposure
S = Shutter priority exposure
P = Program mode - the camera decides the best Aperture/Shutter/ISO combination

You have to set the camera to "M" to use manual exposure

In case you have the "G" lense, then do the following to set it to infinity
. Set the camera in AF (on the lense)
. Put the camera on a tripod
. Focus on a distant object
. Move the setting to "manual" on the lense

That should set your lense to infinity.
 
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