I am using a 3rd party remote for long exposures.

Using ND filter, I put the camera in Manual and bulb mode and see the "--" indicating bulb mode when the shooting dial is in remote.

What I expected was that the first time I pressed the remote the exposure would start and the second time I pressed the remote the exposure would stop

When the exposure was about 30 seconds (timed on my iphone) (which is the limit for automatically timed exposures) the final picture didn't come up on the LCD. I pressed the review arrow button but still nothing came up on LCD. I turned camera off and on and found that camera had taken 2 images.

I tried same procedure with a 40 sec and 60 sec exposure and had no problem. Could review on LCD and only one picture taken.

Is it a problem with the remote, the camera, or something I'm doing?

-- Afterwards I was looking at the data in View NX 2 and the first image in the 'bad' pair was 30 seconds which is correct and the 2nd image was about 7 seconds which is probably the delay until I turned the camera off.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Steve,

Have you turned off Noise Reduction in your D7000. If NR is on the camera will take a while to process the image and if you're like me you get itchy to see something and wind up taking another image - prolonging the problem.

Try turning Noise Reduction Off.

Tom

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

To expand a bit more. When NR is turned on for long exposures, the camera automatically takes a second long exposure with the shutter closed (black frame) in order to identify camera-generated noise and hot pixels. The camera then used the 2nd photo to subtract camera-generated noise and hot pixels from the 1st photo.

As Tom stated, it takes a while for all this to happen.

Larry

"Red is gray and yellow white, but we decide which is right
....and which is an illusion"

Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Thanks for responding. Noise reduction was off. I only had the problem at an exposure of about 30 secs. It didn't happen for longer exposures. I didn't change any menu settings and noise reduction was always off.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

>What I expected was that the first time I pressed the remote
>the exposure would start and the second time I pressed the
>remote the exposure would stop

That's not how the remote works, the Nikon remote has a lock to hold the button down for long exposures.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Are you using an IR remote or a wired remote?

Dean
Phoenix, Arizona USA
Nikonians Team Member
Website: The Splendid Silence of Light

Recent Trips: Grand Canyon 2012 Glen Canyon 2012 West Clear Creek

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Steve,
That's NOT the way a shutter's "bulb" mode works! The nomenclature goes back to the days of pneumatic remote releases that used a small piston to actuate a plunger on the shutter. The air pressure was provided when a rubber "bulb" was pressed - a length of small bore, flexible, tubing connected the bulb to the piston. The pneumatic release could/can be exchanged for a MECHANICAL cable release for remote distances of up to about 4ft.

With shutters on film-based cameras there were (still are) "B" and "T" settings. The B setting causes the shutter to remain open while the release is pressed, closing it again when the pressure is removed. The T setting works like an on-off toggle: A press-and-release opens the shutter and LEAVES it open until a subsequent press-and-release.

By your description, you are expecting the shutter on your D7000 to act as if it's in "T" mode - but the camera only offers "B" mode. In fact, I don't know of any digital camera which offers a "T" mode shutter release.

The effect you describe is completely separate from any noise reduction setting - and is EXACTLY what the camera is supposed to do.

Good luck,

Pete

Hi Steve,

The camera will do a 30 second exposure without being on bulb, so you don't need to use bulb if you are only doing a 30 second exposure.

As far as the 3rd party remote and your click to start and click to stop, my nikon wired release has a lock to hold it open or you just hold it until your exposure is complete. My wireless remotes both take a long press to lock the shutter open and then just a quick press to close the shutter.

I have also found that even with NR off sometimes long exposures take longer to save to the card. The two easiest ways I have found to know whats going on is to either watch the activity light on the camera ( when it goes out your image is saved) or to make sure my image review is turned on that way as soon as the image is saved the review pops up.

"Step into my world and see as I see"

My Nikonians Gallery

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

>By your description, you are expecting the shutter on your
>D7000 to act as if it's in "T" mode - but the camera
>only offers "B" mode. In fact, I don't know of any
>digital camera which offers a "T" mode shutter
>release.

The D7000 does offer T-mode via the use of the ML-L3 and the remote mode while using the M exposure mode. And the fact that Steven reports seeing a "--" symbol in the viewfinder means that he did put the release dial into remote (ML-L3) mode.

We still need to know if the third party remote is infrared or wired. Being he is using the remote release mode I'm assuming its an IR unit.

Pete

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Yes, an IR unit.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.