pdsilen Loc: Roswell, New Mexico

I recently got my camera back from Canon after being repaired. Everything seems to be working fine except when I shoot in Bulb. When shooting in bulb I cannot focus. At first I thought it was the lens. But if I change lenses it doesn't make any difference. I don't have this problem when I shoot in other formats, only in bulb. Is it something I'm doing wrong? is it an easy repair? Or, do I have to send it back to Canon. I'm not enthusiastic about doing that.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Blurry or Out Of Focus when in Bulb? Why are you even using the Bulb setting? It is for exposures longer than 30 seconds! Why are you even making such long exposures? Night photography? With out a tripod, one would expect long exposures to be blurred. Most cameras today are either Time, Bulb, 30 sec to 1/4000 sec or Time, Bulb, 30 sec to 1/8000 sec. And this obviously also includes 30 sec to 1 sec to 1/30 sec. Sometime this is displayed in ways that are hard to understand, like 0.5 for 1/2 sec or 2 for 1/2 sec (in different colors).

pdsilen Loc: Roswell, New Mexico

I was using Bulb for outdoor night photography. I probably left the shutter open for too long. Thank you. That answers my question.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Good, you figured it out!

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

It sounds more like you're having an issue with the slow shutter speed and not the bulb mode. Are you not using a tripod and for how long do you leave the shutter open in bulb?

pdsilen Loc: Roswell, New Mexico

I was using a tripod. And I was also using using an external shutter release. What was going on was taking night photos using bulb and I couldn't get off a single shot because I couldn't get the camera to focus, no matter what lens I used.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Use manual focus!!!!!

travisdeland Loc: deland, FL

maybe there wasn't enough available light for the AF to work. As for shooting when AF is not achieved-there's a setting in the menu that will change that.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You set the camera to Bulb, and you cannot get sharp focus through the viewfinder? How about autofocus? Any camera repair will be expensive, and there are ways to get around having to use Bulb.

Some ideas for taking long exposures -
http://digital-photography-school.com/8-steps-to-great-long-exposure-landscapes/
http://digital-photography-school.com/long-exposure-photography-without-a-tripod/
https://fstoppers.com/originals/long-exposure-photography-without-tripod-146243
https://www.digitalrev.com/article/how-to-capture-long-exposures-without-a-tripod
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-take-AWESOME-night-photos-WITHOUT-a-tripod/

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

The first thing I do when I get a new camera is set it to shoot when I press the shutter button, regardless of focus. Anything is better than nothing.

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Agree!

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

The camera will have a difficult time auto focusing on something if there isn’t enough light. It needs contrast to focus. In the situation you describe, I use live view mode and manual focus to acheive the best focus.

Walt

rodpark2 Loc: Dallas, Tx

It can be nearly impossible to focus correctly on stars, especially with a wide angle lens. Forget autofocus altogether. I use a 14mm manual focus lens. I go out in daytime and find infinity focus point by focusing on something as far aways as possible. I then either mark that spot on the lens, remember it, or tape the focus at that point. Few infinity marks are perfectly accurate. The latter my preferred method, but which may preclude using it for other purposes. 20-30 sec exposure seems to the the max time to leave the shutter open to avoid star trails (slight blurring due to earth rotation) and that can be done setting the shutter-speed in manual mode. Most cameras go to 30 sec exposure, after that it's bulb. It usually takes a good F2.8 lens wide open at around 1600 ISO. A lot can be done in post to get it looking really good. Very little works automatically, not exposure, not focus. A solid tripod and self-timer release are pretty much indispensable. If you're trying for star trails it'll mean really long exposures, bulb setting, long shutter-speed and you may need to stop down aperture and lower ISO depending on the length of time the shutter is open. Turn off image stabilization or VR. It takes practice and experimentation, or using settings that someone else found right. I haven't tried it yet but focus peaking (magnified focus area) might work good on mirrorless cameras. It'll be hard to judge success on your camera screen, you'll probably need to check it on a computer. Again, a lot can be done in Lightroom or Photoshop. And most of all remember, guys like me are willing to help, but none of us know it all.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

My way also