Long Exposures with Digital Cameras

[Meysha]

I was wondering what the longest exposure you've done on your digital camera is.

Last night I had a little bit of trouble with my 350d. I did a long star exposure for 15 minutes-ish and that was fine, it worked. But then I wanted an even longer exposure. So I left the shutter open for 30 minutes.
But then when I came back to the camera, I couldn't close the shutter. Then the camera just kept saying it was busy. So I waited a good few minutes, Then I just turned the camera off coz it was getting ridiculous.
When I turned the camera back on, the mirror came back down but the camera was still saying it was busy. Processing the image I assume. So I waited another 5 minutes,,, still ridiculous. So turned the camera off, took the card out and turned the camera back on and it sorted itself out after a couple of seconds.

The image wasn't on the CF card. So i'm assuming the processing got stuffed up in the camera because it was such a long exposure.

Has anyone else had this problem, or do you think it was a one off? What's the longest exp you've done (successfully) on your digital camera?

Cheers!
Vicky

 

[hobbes28]

The longest exposure I've done with the D70 so far has been five minutes and it didn't do that at the end. I don't know what would've caused that.

 

[bluesaphyer]

I've done a 30 minute exposure with my 350D and had no problems. You might want to call Canon because that sounds really strange. I think the mirror should have came down as soon as you turned the camera off. Maybe it was a problem with your CF card? Maybe the card was corrupted, and the camera kept trying to write to it, but couldn't.

Julie

 

[Meysha]

I'm going to try it again tonight (if it's not cloudy) and with different settings. It might be that it has trouble doing all that data in raw, but it might be able to handly the jpeg. Although it might be the other way round... because the camera has to 'do' more to the jpeg so it might get bogged down more easily on them.

hmmm i dunno. We'll see after I try again tonight. Thanks.

 

[pursuer]

Strange, I personally have never gone longer then 5 or 6 minutes. Were you useing a DC coupler or were you running off the battery? If you are using a battery perhaps that might be part of the problem. Long exposures in the minutes are notoriously hard on batteries. just a thought

 

[Jeff Canes]

Pursuer - That sound like a reasonable guess

 

[Meysha]

I was using the battery. But it was fully charged, and I've shot off another bunch of photos on the same charge after the failed night shots. So the battery didn't die mid exposure or anything weird like that.

 

[Digital Matt]

I had done a 40 minute exposure with a 300D, and I've done several 20 minute exposures with my 20D, all battery powered, no problems. I would say try again, just to rule out that it wasn't a glitch. The 350D has a larger buffer than the 300D, so I've done it with a 300D, (raw + jpg) it shouldn't be a problem for you in that respect.

 

[Jeff Canes]

I was using the battery. But it was fully charged, and I've shot off another bunch of photos on the same charge after the failed night shots. So the battery didn't die mid exposure or anything weird like that.

Damn, I hate when the easy fix is not problem:lmao:, Back to the drawing board, good luck