photogeneralist Loc: Lopez Island Washington State

Last night I went to the ferry terminal to shoot the streaks of the car’s headlights as they left the ferry. After an almost session ending ferry schedule misremembering, I arrived at the ferry landing, got set up with my tripod, took a few pre-ferry (4 or 5) shots to get the composition , focus and exposure as close as guesswork would allow , then waited for the ferry to arrive. I noted that during the trial exposures , the 10 second timer would beep and indicator lamp on the front of the camera would flash. During the actual exposure, the view-screen on the back of the camera went to a dark grey then to black for a split second when the exposure was done before the 5 second long review of the just taken photo.
When the ferry got there, the 15 or so cars started up the hill and I pushed the shutter. Because I had “instructed” the camera to have a 10 second shutter delay (to avoid camera shakes from pressing the button), I missed the first few cars. It was a just OK shot, but nothing like I see in the magazines or the You Tube how to tutorials where they make it seem as easy as falling off a log. When the camera timed out on it’s 30 second exposure all the cars had already passed. Just in case there was a straggler , I pressed the shutter button again but the second 30 second shot had no cars.
I then moved to the empty bicycle holding area for a long duration shot of the ferry as it left the dock. I shot one successful exposure of the boat at the dock. and tried several more when the boat was in motion as it left the dock. For some reason, (which I’m still trying to figure out) the camera did not take any more photos. Although the 10 second delay beeps and flashes from the front indicator light were now missing, It acted like it was engaged in taking a photo then the grey LCD on the back of the camera would just go black. The next shutter buttom press had the same non-result, as did the following one and the one after that. Any ideas out there about why my camera didn’t react appropriately when I pressed the shutter button? This AM everything was working fine again.
I had previously experienced “camera refusal " after several repetiive shots when trying for long duration star shots to stack into startrails. Even given that prior experience, I was still (for some reason) surprised when it happened again.

My camera setup was
Raw, ISO 100 F18 Aperture priority (I thought that I had set it to fully manual but I mistakenly hadn’t done that ) , manual focus, focus point 8 ft for hyper- focal distance coverage, Image stabilization off, long duration noise reduction off, white balance auto, 10 sec shutter delay.

I have run across accounts of a camera not operating due to overheating when trying to take a long video and accounts of buffering delays or refusals to slow SD cards. Could it be that repeated long duration exposures are overheating the sensor? Am I trying to do something that the camera won't do?

This is a photo of my card. Is my choice of card inadequate for this usage?

(Download)

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

I don't own an A77, so can't speak to the timeout issue, but I normally set the timer to 2 seconds which should be plenty of time to cancel any shake from pressing the shutter release. Or, if I need to time the shutter release a little more precisely (not very often in low light), I'll use a remote shutter release.

juan_uy Loc: Uruguay

I don't have an A77, but only based on what you mentioned, I would think of some sort of overheating protection. Check your manual to see if something like that is mentioned.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Something similar happened to me once - due to a brain fart I inadvertently came to the end of the roll.
Doesn’t your manual explain the meaning of error messages?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

If your tripod requires 10 seconds to settle down, you should invest in a better tripod and head.

Good fast cards like Sandisk Extreme Pros, have a 95mb/s speed, though I don't think this is an issue here. Overheating could be an issue, but again, not very likely. I shoot slow motion with my Sony, repeatedly, and there is no overheating involved.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Cooling units are available for some cameras to prevent long exposure overheating, so it must not be too uncommon. Extended use of live view can also cause overheating, at least with a Nikon Df.

jlg1000 Loc: Uruguay / South America

I never use the timer function for long exposure... It guarantees to miss the shot.
Use an external trigger or the phone remote app instead.

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

I think there may be a few errors going on. I do shoot Sony. But they are the a6000, a7s, a99ii, a7iii and a7riii. One is that your SD card may be too slow. Look for one with a faster upload speed 90MB/sec or faster. Second, on taking rapid photos, the camera is still processing the first images and won't take another shot. Or the buffer is full and the camera is waiting to download to your SD card. I know when shooting MilkyWay shots with any of my cameras, I wait for the processing light to go out before I take another photo. I have never had a "over heating" problem. Not even with my a6000. Which many reported when the camera first came out. I usually just use the 2 sec self timer for my night shots or a remote trigger. I hope this helps.

Crater Lake Sunset

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

Suggest investing in a cable release. They’re not that expensive and make a huge difference. If I’m doing a long exposure and forgot the cable, I set the timer for 2 seconds, max! Also a faster card would help.

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

Just a question for Sony users, because my old NEX system doesn't have any of these issues. If the A77 is rated around 45 MB/s, does a faster card really need to be faster in camera? I understand it would potentially speed up download from the card in a USB reader, but long exposures shouldn't require much more throughput than a regular shot.

I have noticed on my friend's A7ii that his long exposures take longer to process during long exposure shots than my DSLR, but I figured that was more of a function of the camera's operating system than anything else.

jlg1000 Loc: Uruguay / South America

The "processing time" that occurs after a long exposure has nothing to do with the operating system.

When a long exposure is taking, pixel inequalities (systematic error) dominate as a noise source. So the camera simply shots a second photo with the shutter close to create a "dark frame". Afterwards, it subtracts the dark frame from the long exposure photo.

You can test this with any camera... just disable "long exposure noise reduction": the camera will not got into "processing mode" and the resulting photo will be noticeably noisy.

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

I agree that the long exposure photo should require no more SD access than a 'normal' photo.

The Sony cameras have the Long Exposure Noise Reduction feature (1 sec or longer on my a99ii) that takes a picture of the same length of your subject, shutter closed, and removes the noise seen in the blank reference from the original photo. This is a feature that can be turned off/on.

I take milky way shots (30 secs or so) and never ran into an issue. I do have to wait for the 2nd reference shot to complete, but only 1 shot is delivered to the SD card.

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

Awesome, thanks for the explanation. I'm still going to give him some flak for taking too long after his shots :)

Canisdirus

A 30 second exposure is going to equate to a long process afterward in camera.
The 'second' shot was never recorded, because the camera was still 'processing' the long exposure.

chapjohn Loc: Tigard, Oregon

I suspect a couple of things going on. I owned an A77ii and I would suggest keeping long exposure noise reduction off. Use the bulb setting with a remote lease (wired works better).