Time lapse stopping early.

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ulyssis31

Senior Member
I have an issue where my camera doesn't complete the time lapse I program using the interval shooting mode.

Here is my setup:

D750, 200mm Macro f/8

Mode: Aperture Priority because it's taking shots during various levels of light.

Focus: manual

Interval time: 1min 30sec

Number of shots: 9999

Smoothing: off

AC Adapter (no battery)

Card: 128GB Lexar X2 (overflow)

I googled this issue and the main reason people have this problem is that their exposure is longer than their set interval. Mine however, is not. My interval is 1min 30sec between shots and I checked the shutter time at the lowest light and it's no more than 15sec. Plenty of time for the shot, card writing and even any smoothing (which I have off). Also it is stopping during the lightest periods, so it's definitely not because the exposure is too long.

The card I'm using is 128GB and it's not even close to full when I pull it out and check. 118GB free. I have 2 of these cards in and set to overflow.

Battery? Non issue. I'm using an AC adapter.

It's happened 2 days in a row now. Stopping around the ~350 shot mark.

Any ideas? It's pretty disappointing coming home from work to find out it didn't complete. 2 times in a row.
 
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WayneF

Senior Member
I don't have that Time Lapse option on my D800, so I'm just guessing without knowing.

But D750 manual page 230 says Elapsed Time has a maximum "shooting time" up to 7 hrs 59 minutes.

~350 shots at 1.5 minutes is 8.75 hours. 320 shots would "compute". I understand the finished movie is not nearly that long, but it says "shooting time", and seems to about match your report?
 
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ulyssis31

Senior Member
WayneF said:
I don't have that Time Lapse option on my D800, so I'm just guessing without knowing.

But D750 manual page 230 says Elapsed Time has a maximum "shooting time" up to 7 hrs 59 minutes.

~350 shots at 1.5 minutes is 8.75 hours. 320 shots would "compute". I understand the finished movie is not nearly that long, but it says "shooting time", and seems to about match your report?
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Interesting. I'll look into that.
 
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ulyssis31

Senior Member
WayneF said:
I don't have that Time Lapse option on my D800, so I'm just guessing without knowing.

But D750 manual page 230 says Elapsed Time has a maximum "shooting time" up to 7 hrs 59 minutes.

~350 shots at 1.5 minutes is 8.75 hours. 320 shots would "compute". I understand the finished movie is not nearly that long, but it says "shooting time", and seems to about match your report?
Click to expand...

Thanks WayneF but that is not the issue here. That part in the manual refers to using the video mode to do the time lapse. I'm using the the still camera mode. There are 2 ways to do time lapses on the D750: still camera (traditional way) and using the video mode, which assembles the final image sequence in a movie for you. I'm doing the former. I was a little skeptical when I first read your suggestion as I thought to myself, why would Nikon put a time limit on a feature that's main purpose is to capture long duration of time. Anyhow, thanks for that though. Still looking...
 
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WayneF

Senior Member
ulyssis31 said:
Thanks WayneF but that is not the issue here. That part in the manual refers to using the video mode to do the time lapse. I'm using the the still camera mode. There are 2 ways to do time lapses on the D750: still camera (traditional way) and using the video mode, which assembles the final image sequence in a movie for you. I'm doing the former. I was a little skeptical when I first read your suggestion as I thought to myself, why would Nikon put a time limit on a feature that's main purpose is to capture long duration of time. Anyhow, thanks for that though. Still looking...
Click to expand...

So I think you are saying you are using the Interval Timer, and NOT Time Lapse?

They are similar, but Time Lapse makes a movie, and Interval Timer does not, we have to do that manually later. Movies do have limits that still pictures do not, but nothing that I can identify as a problem, other than the stated 8 hour limit.

If you did use the menu named Time Lapse, I think you will see the 8 hour limit that you report.

I don't know why the Interval Timer would stop. I have used Interval Timer with 30 second intervals for about 50 hours on a D800. No issues.

You said an interval of 1 minute 30 seconds, and mentioned a shutter of 15 seconds, so I am changing subjects, and this is NOT an issue here, but it could be some day.

Note that the cameras actual shutter speed for 15 seconds is 16 seconds, and the actual shutter for 30 seconds is 32 seconds. The marked numbers are just rounded approximations for humans, but the camera has to use 1,2,4,8,16,32 intervals (to honor each stop being an exact 2x stop of exposure). This normally does not matter to humans.

So a common issue that users setting shutter speed 30 seconds, and interval 31 seconds thinking they've got it (typically shooting stars), will have serious problems (balky action, missed shots). That interval must be 33 seconds, because the shutter is actually 32.
 
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U

ulyssis31

Senior Member
WayneF said:
So I think you are saying you are using the Interval Timer, and NOT Time Lapse?

They are similar, but Time Lapse makes a movie, and Interval Timer does not, we have to do that manually later. Movies do have limits that still pictures do not, but nothing that I can identify as a problem, other than the stated 8 hour limit.

If you did use the menu named Time Lapse, I think you will see the 8 hour limit that you report.

I don't know why the Interval Timer would stop. I have used Interval Timer with 30 second intervals for about 50 hours on a D800. No issues.

You said an interval of 1 minute 30 seconds, and mentioned a shutter of 15 seconds, so I am changing subjects, and this is NOT an issue here, but it could be some day.

Note that the cameras actual shutter speed for 15 seconds is 16 seconds, and the actual shutter for 30 seconds is 32 seconds. The marked numbers are just rounded approximations for humans, but the camera has to use 1,2,4,8,16,32 intervals (to honor each stop being an exact 2x stop of exposure). This normally does not matter to humans.

So a common issue that users setting shutter speed 30 seconds, and interval 31 seconds thinking they've got it (typically shooting stars), will have serious problems (balky action, missed shots). That interval must be 33 seconds, because the shutter is actually 32.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Interval timer. The language they use is time lapse when referring to the video mode do the similar function. I'm just got the terms mixed up.
 
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