This post was last modified: 2021-12-02, 20:56 by zuhair.

Hi,

I bought LRTimelapse Pro Timer 3.0 to use it for Astrophotography (star trail and Milky Way). When setting up the camera (Nikon Z7 II) in Timelapse (M) as per the manual it skips a lot of shots even if I increase the release time.

LRTimelapse settings:
Timelapse (M)
Interval 15 secs
100 shots
Release time 500ms (to give the camera enough time to clear the buffer)

Camera Settings:
Mode: M
Shutter speed: 15 sec

The only way it worked is by changing the settings as following:

LRTimelapse settings:
Timelapse (M)
Interval 15 secs
100 shots
Release time 500ms

Camera Settings:
Mode: M
Shutter speed: bulb

Please advise the recommended settings for Astrophotography with shutter speed between 15~20 secs

Thanks

it's correct to use Timelapse M for exposures <30 second.
I think the problem might be that you set 15 secs in the camera which in reality are 16 seconds. All camera times will be to the power of 2. So despite what the camera displays, it will be 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 - use a stopwatch to confirm!

This might interfere with an interval of 15 secs.
Unfortunately you didn't tell the exposure time that you set in camera.

So please try the following: set 15 secs exposure in camera (it will be 16 secs) and an interval of 17 secs which would be a dark time of 1 second then.
In terms of release time in the timer you should leave it at the default.
Let me know!

PS: There is absolutely no need to send me the same question vial email that you posted here. Support is mainly here in the forum and I'll answer here as frequently as via email. Thanks!

Thank you for your prompt reply, I only knew about the forum after sending the email, apologies for that.

You are correct, the shutter speed on the camera is 15secs. I'll try to increase the LRTimelapse timer to 17 and see.

What about the bulb mode? Isn't better to leave the camera on M & bulb mode and leave the math to LRTimelapse?

Regards,

This post was last modified: 2021-12-04, 15:39 by Gunther.

No, bulb mode in the camera is not as exact. If you know about the 15 v.s 16 and 30 vs. 32 then you'll be good to go with M mode.
'

And here I always wondered why, when setting the camera to 30 sec + 2 sec. self timer + mirror lockup, an interval of 33 sec would not work and I needed to set it to 35 sec.
Learned something new again! Thanks Gunther :-)