Circles in the southern sky

[adame]

As, most of you may have noticed I have BigV here to visit. We always seem to push eachother to try some new stuff and generally it's our sleep that suffers, especially with ou current weather. This image is 245 Stacked 30 second exposures using my D200, I dont have a cable release so i'm using the D200 teathered to the lappy this lets me do my shots in lots of 25, you can see the gaps where the 25shots are uploading before i can start the next.
The first half of the images were 30sec @ F4.5 @ ISO3200, and the second dropped down to ISO1600 as the moon came up.



Cheers
Adam

[Alpha_7]

Hi Adam,

Cool result but you've got me wondering, what is the limitation that means you can only shot in lots of 25 ? I've shot tethered before more on the D70 then with D200 or D700 but I've never encountered a limitation ? I wasn't doing 30 second exposures though.

[Pa]

i like these type of images....time to have a few drinks as well

[Big V]

Nice to see the nikon being pushed in high ISO!! The camera control software that Adam was using meant he pushed the button once and the software then took 25 images of 30 seconds each. The camera then wrote the files to the laptop, clearing the buffer and was then ready for the next run of 25. If anyone has better software for the d200 it would be appreciated.This is where a timer remote is such a useful tool, I set how many images I want taken and how long the images are for push once and walk away. However last night this functionality proved to be my downfall as I bumped the focus ever so slightly when setting up and because the remote works so well I just walked away and left it to do its own thing, end result slightly out of focus image meaning I missed caturing a lot of extra detail. Example here 67 images for a total of 2 hours 50 minutes. Not to worry we will be out again tonight trying to reach perfection!!!.

[ATJ]

Cool images.

I don't know about the D200 but I used to use Nikon Capture 4 Camera Control with my D70 and it would download each image as soon as it took it - nothing was stored on the card. I would expect Camera Control Pro 2 would do the same.

[Big V]

What Adam is looking for is something that you only have to push the button once and it automatically takes a large sequence of 30 second images (250 images or so). There is plenty of software that does this for Canon cameras but cant find one for the Nikon. Poor old Adam had to push the shutter 150 times against my 1 the first night, at least last night he only had to push it every 25 frames. If any one can provide a suitable fix it would be much appreciated and yes he is going to buy a timer remote for future shoots but we are trying to solve this for this weeks shoot.

[ATJ]

I never tried 30 second shots, but I was able to set Capture Control to shoot indefinitely. i.e. you start it off and away it goes until you tell it to stop. I shot over 200 this way during the moon eclipse in August 2007.

[Big V]

Thanks ATJ, well guess what Adam just bothered to do a google and it turns out that the D200 has a built in intervalometer!!! We have just tried this setting out and it works a friggen treat - bloody idiot been doing it harder than he needed to all this time, talk about suffering for your art. Now whose mistake is worse - my out of focus or Adam not knowing the menu system of his D200? mmmm oh well at least he does not have to buy the timer remote and yes I do know that my camera has this feature as well but I prefer using the timer remote as it is quicket to make changes. Now the fun really starts as the creativity juices flow!!!

[aim54x]

You can always look at the Phottix TR-80 (available off the forum) I bought one of these for the bulb timer but you can use it instead of the intervalometer built into the D200 and D300. BTW how do you stack images? What sort of opacity settings do you use? Is it a piece of software?

[Greg B]

And although they are ridiculously expensive, the MC-36 is still well worth consideration
notwithstanding the built in capabilities of the D200 (and others).

[team piggy]

Awesome work boys. I was so close today to jumping the plane to join you today it wasnt funny.

Adams words of "looks like lots of clouds coming over" put a stop to that!

[Yi-P]

Interesting, I'm wondering if you guys used batteries or AC power adaptors? Those long exposure shots should rack up the battery draw and temp inside the cameras...

[adame]

Interesting, I'm wondering if you guys used batteries or AC power adaptors? Those long exposure shots should rack up the battery draw and temp inside the cameras...

No A/C adapters Yi-P , for me i used approximatley 1.5 enel3-e's for about 2.5-3 hours shooting at iso's 1600 and 3200, But Tony's 1DMk3 was astonishing, would easily achieve 6 hours shooting on one charge, possibly more. And as for temps the canon wasn't to bad but my D200 was prety warm to touch by he end of the night, no falloff on image quality though.

[team piggy]

end result slightly out of focus image meaning I missed caturing a lot of extra detail.

heheh Its MkIII it dont focus anyway remember?!?!?

[tommyg]

What HDR software did you use for making all these amazing images?

[team piggy]

Knowing the boys I would suggest Photochop CS3.

[Big V]

Adam is using CS3 and I am using CS4

[fozzie]

adame - looks like the competition was red hot between the Nikon and Canon shooter in Big V, as was the weather. Outstanding shot, with great colour and composition go Nikon

fozzie

[Big V]

Fozzie, it was good to see the Nikon being used at high ISO for a change!!!!

[Marvin]

Nice, boys

[Potoroo]

And although they are ridiculously expensive, the MC-36 is still well worth consideration
notwithstanding the built in capabilities of the D200 (and others).

I suggest people consider the Micnova MQ-TC timer remote. I paid $149 for the MQ-TC1 (Canon), less than half the asking price for the TC-80N3. I expect the MQ-TC2 (Nikon) would be similarly competitive against the MC-36.