CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

I need some help....I went out last night to our horse pasture to try to get some star trails....I set up the camera and Pixel Pro TW283 and thought I had everything correct to take 80 shots at 2 second intervals with a 30 second exposure.....NOPE.....after everything was done....I looked and I only got 40 shots...not sure why.

Here is my setup:

Nikon D500 with Sigma Sport 18-35 lens
Both camera and lens set to manual focus and lens set to infinity
Camera set to 30 second exposure F2.8 ISO 400
White balance set manual to 4500k
Raw
Center weight meter
Sandisk Extreme Pro 170 mb 64 gb card (formated for the evening so it is empty)

Pixel set to:

Delay - 5 seconds
Long - 00 00 30 --- for 30 second exposure
Intvl - 00 00 02 - for 2 seconds between shots
N1 - 80 -- total number of shots wanted
Repeat - 1
N2 - 01

So I hit the button and the camera starts....it sounds like it's going off every 30 seconds -- so I walk away and watch my Pixel reading....it's counting down like it should.

Once it all stops I head home and go to take the pics off the camera and I only have 40 shots instead of the 80.....anyone have a clue as to what I did wrong?

Looking at the Pixel today and watching what it does it goes like this:

I hit the start button - the delay counts down - then the screen goes to the Long with N1 flashing and the screen shows 80 (flashing) 00 30 (counting down), screen gets to 0 and switches to Intvl with 2 counting down - then goes back to Long N1 and 79 and starts all over again. As the counter is going the camera is clicking:

Once the delay gets to 0 the camera clicks and is engaged to take the shot - now when the Pixel gets to 0 for the first shot and switches to Intvl and starts counting down 2 -1 and that's when I hear the next click.

So to me it looks like it's working fine but it's not and I am baffled as to what I am doing wrong. Can anyone help me get this working correctly?

Here is the shot with just the 40 pics.

(Download)

bcplimpton Loc: Southern New Jersey

Did you turn off long exposure noise reduction? If not you need at least the same amount of time between exposures as the shutter exposure time. Hint, always turn off all in camera noise reduction, do it in post. Given that you got 40 instead of 80 exposures this would be my first guess.

Quixdraw Loc: x

Maybe buffer? Link https://photographylife.com/nikon-dslr-buffer-capacity-comparison

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

Both Long Exposure NR and High ISO NR are set to off...thanks though for trying to help....appreciate it!

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I second that this is the first thing to check. LENR is very useful for single images...it does things without having to guess that can never be done as well later. But it is not good when making multiple exposures...like for a panorama or for what you are doing, because of the delay involved with that second, shutter closed exposure. You can use High ISO Noise Reduction, if you desire, but need to check whether it is costing you either resolution or the loss of capture of less intense stars.

Oops...your reply popped up while I was typing. Gives me a chance to add this...

The other thing to check, which you can do indoors, is to observe carefully just ow your intervalometer functions are working...whether they are working completely and correctly. I have an older Nikon intervalometer that I'm still using because the newer model is expensive (the MH-36 vs. the 36A, I believe). It works great with my D810, but I have to be careful when using it with either the D500 or D850. Basic functions work OK, but some others do not.

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

That might be it....it might not be able to read to the card in 2 seconds....I will test with say 5 seconds and see if that works. But is 5 seconds between shots to long for star trails?

Quixdraw Loc: x

Don't know. I responded based on Camera - if you post a question on Astro Forum, you'll likely get expert answers.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I just tried this with my D500. I have raw files set to go to my SD card. Total transfer time (green light on) is less than a second. And...I can do another shutter release while the green light is still on as long as the buffer is not full. You are doing single images, not continuous or bursts, so I'd focus on other things first. One thing we haven't said out loud...any chance your memory card got full? If not, you might either recreate last night and try to figure out whether the images that you got were the first 40 or the second 40 out of the 80 that you wanted.

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

Thanks but the card was formated and empty when i started...so that can't be it, I should have put that in the main post...sorry.

I also just tested what you did ....I am able to hit the shutter release while the green light is still on and tested this just now with taking 10 shots with no problem manually....so could this still be a buffer issue? How can I tell if the buffer is full?

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

When you 'half press' the shutter release, you should see a display of "rxx" where ISO is normally displayed. (I don't think this is something I've changed in setup.) The "xx" is the number of exposures remaining before your buffer is projected to fill up. Mine shows "r22" before I start shooting. So I'm not thinking this is a buffer issue. You could verify just by turning to "CH" shooting and firing away, releasing the shutter when the camera stops, then looking to see how many images you captured. My bias here remains toward your controller. Might check its manual to see if it has any limitations, and it may just not play nicely under some circumstances with the D500...

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

So I also tried with the internal timer on the camera and set it as follows:

interval 00 00 05 - for 5 seconds between shots
No of Intervals x shots/interval = 25 x 1 = for a total of 25 shots
Camera still set to 30 second exposure

Start now....the display shows 25 1F....so that should mean I get 25 shots right? As it's going...it doesn't sound like it is waiting the 5 seconds....as soon as the shutter closes, it opens again. Intervl is flashing on the display starts out at 25 1F on first shot, then goes to 18 1f on 2nd shot, then to 11 1f on 3rd shot, then 4 1f on 4th shot and then done and it stops! No more shots taken......I can't figure this out!

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

Thanks larry....mine shows R29...I will test and see how many shots I can get on CH. Put camera on CH and shutter up to 100 and I can get 41 shots before it slows way down.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

That sounds pretty much right, because it is emptying the buffer while shooting. I'm guessing that you are sending your raw images to the XQD card, which should be faster than the way I am set up. In any case, I think the buffer is not the problem.

I've not used the internal intervalometer, so will have to investigate along with you. But what you describe in the post just above sounds like something is out of whack with the control setup or somewhere else in the camera. Right now, without having tried anything (meaning that I'm shooting in the dark...humor intended), I'm wondering if perhaps bracketing might be turned on. Let me try a few things...

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

I think I figured out my issue with the external timer.....I need the D500 set to bulb mode....then the external timer works fine....just finished testing that. And no I don't have and xqd card...can't afford one of those just yet only have the sd card.

I had double checked to make sure that I didn't accidently hit the bracketing button as well....that was my first thought...have no clue why the internal intervalometer does that but at least I got the external one working....now if I can stay up late enough tonight to try again!

Thanks for the help!

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

You are welcome. Glad you figured it out. Have fun tonight.