# Long Exposure on D300



## iflynething (Feb 14, 2009)

My D80 has a remote and I can use the ML-L3 for a bulb setting. Using the remote to open the shutter, keep it open for however long, then hit it again to close it.

I want to do some star trails but is there even a way to do this with the 300? There is no remote setting I know of. I can set it to bulb in manual, but can't REALLY control how long it's open? Or can I?

~Michael~


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## royalWITHcheese2 (Feb 14, 2009)

The wireless remote won't work, but there is a wired remote that you can get for it. I know they have them on amazon, the Nikon ones are pretty expensive, but you can get a generic one for much less money.


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## iflynething (Feb 14, 2009)

That's the route I thought I was going to have to go was the wired. It would work the same way at the wireless. I wouldn't have to stand there?

~Michael~


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## 92sir (Feb 14, 2009)

I bought a wired remote for my d80 its made by nikon and it has a lock position so you push the button and then slide it up. So you can jsut set it down and do what ever you want and when you want it to stop just come back over and release  the lock. They msut have something like that for the d300 too


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## feRRari4756 (Feb 14, 2009)

cant u just get something to hold down the wireless remote? like tape it down or somethingg..


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## kundalini (Feb 14, 2009)

Have a look at *this thread*.


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## Garbz (Feb 14, 2009)

Aputure Timer Remote for Nikon D300 MC-30 D3 MC-36 R8C - eBay (item 330307385610 end time Feb-16-09 21:00:54 PST) volah, a clone of the Nikon remote with builtin timer, and intevalometer. At less than 1/2 the price.

This will do the trick.

Just be very wary doing REALLY long exposures. Sensors do heat up. Less so these days, but there's still a chance if you try a 1 hour startrail you will either end up with nothing but noise, or burn out your sensor completely.

Consider using the intervalometer 20 seconds on 10 seconds off, and then taking the resulting photos through Image Stacker this program. The result uses less battery, causes less heat, and definitely less noise. That is how I got this:






2 hour exposure of the stars, despite my camera producing an image like this:






after only 20 minutes of continuous exposure.


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## iflynething (Feb 15, 2009)

Thanks Garbz and kundalini.

Is the Nikon remote seriously $100? Woah. I might reconsider.  I thought it was in the range you showed from that link to ebay.

Well, I have yet to get nice shots like yours Garbz. I have a couple 5 min exposure, totalling 30 min, but can't stack them (I would use the demo of Image Stacker but its only 640x480 resolution) the right way in Photoshop.

~Michael~


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## Garbz (Feb 16, 2009)

Unfortunately photoshop layers completely miss the "add" function with images. That said the program I linked to is by far not the only one out there. I did see a freeware one a while ago but it didn't do TIFF files so I gave it a miss.


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## Ejazzle (Feb 16, 2009)

i use the $30 phottix off ebay. It goes pretty far too


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## manaheim (Feb 18, 2009)

I have the MC-30 as well.  Runs ~$70 on bh.  I would recommend avoiding the $15 ones... they're very hit and miss.  The one I had lasted for about 30 shots before it died.


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## iflynething (Feb 20, 2009)

manaheim said:


> I have the MC-30 as well. Runs ~$70 on bh. I would recommend avoiding the $15 ones... they're very hit and miss. The one I had lasted for about 30 shots before it died.


 
I guess I"ll have to spend a little bit of money for them then if I really want to do this

~Michael~


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## JerryPH (Feb 20, 2009)

Be aware that very long exposure times on a digital camera... all that does is slowly overheat and in a relatively short time, kill the sensor.

How badly *do* you want those star trails in relation to how much you value your D300?


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## iflynething (Feb 20, 2009)

Is it like smoking? By heating up being equivalent to killing the sensor? Excuse the bad comparison but that's all I could think of. So by alot of long exposures does it eventually kill the sensor or what?

I have done alot on the D80 I have and it's aliright (on second thought, maybe that's why I have some dead and um......hot pixels 

~Michael~


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## manaheim (Feb 20, 2009)

I don't know how much of a problem this really is.  I take quite a bit of night photography, and a friend of mine constantly does star trails with his digicams.  (all Nikons)  I mean, yes, if you do this for hours a night for months on end, you're probably going to hose yourself, but I don't think the occasional session of star trails is going to destroy your camera.

Can anyone else who does more of these REALLY long exposures weigh in here?


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## iflynething (Feb 20, 2009)

I'm just going for the occasional trails...

~Michael~


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## AlexColeman (Feb 20, 2009)

I don't know, I want to try something like this, but don't want a D90 piece of toast.


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## LarryD (Feb 21, 2009)

What software is bundled with a Nikon  ??

With a Canon, you can hook it up to your laptop and operate the camera hands-off..


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## Kinz (Feb 21, 2009)

Why not set it to shutter priority and then set the shutter speed to whatever you want up to, up to 30 seconds?


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## manaheim (Feb 22, 2009)

LarryD said:


> What software is bundled with a Nikon ??
> 
> With a Canon, you can hook it up to your laptop and operate the camera hands-off..


 
It comes with some capture and raw conversion software (and you can run it hands off even in Windows, don't know about the SW that comes with it tho)

The only SW I use that comes from the Nikon suite is the image transfer utility, which is very handy.  I can't speak to the quality of the other stuff.


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