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Garry Black Photography

Question:

I was in the audience at the Ottawa Camera Club tonight. Great night! You taught me lots of things and re-enforced other things I try to remember when shooting!

A question about the star trail shot. I have tried the same shot, but not for the 6 hour duration. Yours is much better (obviously) . I used to have two Pentax Spotmatic ll until a year ago, they were mechanical and handled the Bulb shots fine. BUT, I now have a Canon AE2

Anyway, I discovered that when using the BULB setting with the Canon, the battery drains quite quickly. I discovered this when trying the star trails shot last fall with the new camera, the battery was not fresh and died after about 2 hours.

Canon can not (!) tell me how long a fresh battery will last in the BULB setting. Do you have the same "problem" with the Nikons and if so, how long do the batteries last during BULB shots ?

I want to try the star trails shot again, but I wonder if the battery is going to last.....

Answer:

I am glad that you enjoyed my presentation last night.

A lot of cameras will work on bulb with the batteries removed. What you have to do is compose your shot then place on lens cap on the lens, start your exposure on bulb, then remove your batteries and remove the lens cap and wait six hours. When you are ready to stop the exposure, this is when you will replace the battery pack on the camera. Just before you replace the batteries, put the lens cap back on. The reason for the lens cap is so that when you are shaking the camera (putting the batteries back in), you don't get the stars recording on the film in squiggly lines.