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hi, i know the D70 locks up the mirror for cleaning, but is this the same as locking it up for long exposures? And does the D70 offer long exposure lock up?

Hope that makes sense.

No - it’s only for cleaning

ohh crud!

thanks mate. happy new year and all that jazz

Pehpsi, the D70 is capable of doing night time shots with long exposures. I think 30 seconds is the longest exp time.

Set it up on a tripod and do a few test shots. Are basic night shots what you are after - is this what you are planning to do?

The mirror lock up feature on the D70 is not used for this purpose - this feature is intended for cleaning and maintenance.

Cheers, Mick

hey, oscar.

i've done a bit of night shooting before using up to 30s, but never used the bulb setting.

i just couldn't understand why the mirror is able to lock up, but only for cleaning, and not long exposures, just didn't make sense.

thanks for your reply, and have a good one

cheers..

Hey Pehpsi,
using M mode you can choose settings that will get to the bulb setting and using bulb the exposure time depends on how long you hold the shutter open for.
That is the shutter should remain open for as long as you hold the shutter release down. I haven't yet tried this but this is per the manual.

Cheers, Mick

There's a workaround to this shortcoming - use the delay timer so the shutter goes off say 2 seconds after you press the shutter release, hopefully giving time to stabilise things more than during the moment of shutter release.

Also for longer than 30s bulb shooting, I find using the ML-L3 IR remote somewhat more useful. You could program it to release upon first press, and have the shutter remain open until you press the button on the remote again, thus not having to hold your finger on the camera's shutter release button for it to remain open.

Might have to have a look on my 400D and see if there is a delay timer as i think perhaps that would come in handy... I took shots a few nights ago, just to play around and found that Bulb setting that your talking about...

I dont know exactly what was happening but Id lock in the focus, then push the shutter button, and something would click but it wouldnt be exposing the CCD.... then the next time id press the shutter button it would click down ( a lot faster than normal, and allow me to keep the CCD exposed for as long as i wanted to. Also a timer appeared on the LCD to tell me how long id kept the shutter open for.

-Rob.

Using a remote with the D70 can reach maximum exposure time of 30 minutes.

Yi-P's right Pehpsi - The D70 can handle long exposures on BULB setting but only up to maximum of 30 minutes, at which point it closes the shutter. Be aware also that, if you are using the in-camera long exposure Noise Reduction feature, the camera will carry this out for another 30 minutes after thew image has been taken. (You don't have to use this process but it's a handy way of clearing the noise and artefacts that can pop up in long exposures.) As your camera will be operating for an hour continuously, make sure you've got fresh batteries in it before you start.

The lack of a mirror lockup for long night exposures is no big deal. Any vibration caused by the mirror is likely to be of such a short duration in comparison to, say a 30 second exposure, that it will have no influence on the sharpness of the image.. The CCD will not have received enough light in that short time to record the vibration. It is a big deal, however, in macro-photography, where exposures are likely to be much shorter and the influence of any vibration is unwanted. If you are really particular about vibration on long exposures you can set +2 stops of exposure compensation and use a black card over the lens as an auxiliary shutter.

As Matt said, on really long exposure not a big deal. In the Thom Hogan D200 book, he says that mirror lock-up is useful for exposures of 1/15s to 1s.

Very good tip Matt, thanks,

André