Hi Gunther,

I have been shooting time lapse sequences for many years using DSLRTimelapse software with a camera-connected WIFI transmitter. I recently purchased a Nikon Z8 and thought I would try using the camera's WIFI. At first it seemed to work well. But I have noticed that my DSLRTimelapse sometimes loses the WIFI connection on occasion after 20 or so minutes and I also recently experienced my camera shooting a shot every 2 seconds (as programmed) and then about 0.1 seconds later.

What I tried:

1. Turned off my iPhone WIFI to avoid the WIFI signal jumping to my iPhone. Not sure if this was silly, but I noticed one time that my iPhone became connected to the Nikon WIFI while shooting a timelapse.

2. I made sure there was a signficant interval between photo's (e.g., 2.5 - 3 seconds, with photo's being taken at 1/10th to 1/60th of a second).

3. Made sure DSLRTimelapse has the Android screen stay on (and that has never been an issue).

I am shooting RAW only (not RAW plus JPEG), so wondering if that could be causing an issue?

Have you heard of these issues. Maybe Nikon WIFI is just not ready for prime time with respect to DSLRTimelapse and I should go back to what has worked for many years?

Thanks,

John

What is DSLRTimelapse? Or are you talking about qDslrDashboard?
I use qDslrDashboard with the Z 8 via Wifi without any problems. Make sure you have the very latest version of the app installed.
Set the camera to S (single shot mode) to avoid double releases. Also use an external interval timer, like the LRT PRO Timer, if you can.

Thanks. Yes, I should have said qDslrDashboard (not DSLRTimelapse). I use your LRT PRO timer (which I love). I will check, but thought I was on single shot mode. Glad to hear you do not have any issues. What is the minimum interval between shots that you use?

This post was last modified: 2023-10-20, 09:39 by Gunther.

The interval is the time between one opening of the shutter and the next opening. It includes the Exposure Time and a residual dark time.

Interval = Exposure Time + Dark Time.

So what matters is the Dark-Time that you can use on a specific camera.
The Z 8 is very performant, so you can go down to darktimes of 0.5 sec. or even less. This means, you could for example do 3 Secs Interval and 2.5 secs exposure, which would give you a dark time of 0.5 seconds.
You can read more about this in the manual of the LRT PRO Timer: (Section: Fine Tuning the LRT PRO Timer to your camera): https://lrtimelapse.com/lrtpt/manual/

Great to hear re the very short Dark Time that is possible with the Z8. What I have discovered is my Android is old and I am unable to update the software. I bought this Android only because I cannot use qDslrDashboard on any of my Apple Devices (what a bummer). So just bought a 2022 Android and hopefully that will solve the problem.

This post was last modified: 2023-10-20, 19:54 by Gunther.

I'm quite sure it will!

Hi Gunther,

I ended up purchasing two new (2022) Samsung Tablets, but only ran into continued issues. So I reached out to Zoltan to see if he could help. He could not have been more responsive and helpful. I really appreciated his patience with me as I ran many test time lapse sequences over 10 days. After much trial and error, Zoltan suggested I move away from using JPegs and select "Allow RAW only in LRTimelapse mode (Nikon)". This worked great (along with also deciding to move away from WIFI for the time being and some other changes). In the end the following is how I set-up for my time lapse photography, which has now been tested on two different Nikon Z8's and two different Samsung Tablet A8. I am providing in case this may be of help to anyone else in my situation.

Best,

John


qDslrDashboard settings
• Keep screen On
• Image review after capture
• Delete thumbnails on exit
• Use Nikon high speed capture
• Allow RAW only in LRTimelapse mode (Nikon)

Nikon Z8 Settings
• RAW only (not RAW + JPEG)
o Use AF-S to focus camera
o If using back-button focusing, then no changes needed
o If not using back-button focusing, switch camera or lens to manual focus

• Single shot (not burst-mode or AEB)

Samsung Tablet A8 and Camera
• Turn on camera (Nikon Z8)
• Set desired exposure settings, which can easily be adjusted later in qDslrDashboard.
• Focus camera
• Attach high-speed USB C cord to Camera
• Turn on tablet
• Open qDslrDashboard (this is an important step before attaching USB C cord)
• Attach high-speed USB C cord to Tablet
• Select USB button (far left with USB icon). In some cases the USB connection will happen automatically.
• Have fun!

This post was last modified: 2023-11-08, 22:03 by Gunther.

Thanks for sharing! Indeed with the newer Nikons I also found that shooting in Raw only works very well and with those cameras, you probably don't need the jpgs anymore.

qDslrDashboard works well with my Z9.

One thing I found with the Z9/Z8 Timelapse's compared to the D850, is that you need to separately select Silent Photography in the settings page, while on the D850 you have silent photography as a settings in the Timelapse section.

You might reach out to Zoltan via https://dslrdashboard.info and ask him to implement this.