Nikon D5100/D5200 continuous shooting stops at 100 frames for star trails — how can I avoid gaps?

Asked 12/9/2015

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I’m shooting star trails on Nikon D5100 and D5200 bodies using a remote shutter release. In continuous shooting, both cameras stop after exactly 100 frames, even at very fast shutter speeds, and I have to release and lock the remote again. That creates gaps in the trail. Is there a setting to remove this 100-shot limit, or is there a better way to shoot long star-trail sequences on these cameras?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

10y ago

2 Answers

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100 shots is the limit for Nikon's continuous shutter. You can try the shutter again after 100 shots.

Or you can use the Interval Timer, both D5100 and D5200 have it. It will allow up to 999 shots.

But if you are using the 30 second shutter setting, be aware the actual shutter time is 32 seconds for Nikon cameras. The interval timer must be set for an interval of 33 seconds because of the actual shutter time. A 30 second shutter cannot work right with interval of 31 seconds, because the shutter is actually open for 32 seconds.

This is a very common problem for star trail shots, and 33 second intervals when using Nikon cameras is the easy answer. Other cameras may use actual shutter speeds of 30 seconds, so for those cameras an interval of 31 seconds would be optimal.

Explanation:

The nominal marking of shutter speed is just an easy approximation of base 2 numbers (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, etc.) expressed in more even base 10 numbers (2, 4, 8, 15, 30, 60, 125, 250, 500, 1000, etc) that are easier for most of us to understand and work with. With fractional shutter speed settings (1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, etc.) most all cameras actually aim for the base 2 numbers (1/128, 1/256, 1/512, 1/1024, etc.). But when shutter speeds longer than one second are set on some cameras, such as the Nikon D5100 and D5200, they use the base 2 values (2, 4, 8, 16, 32) while other cameras use the labeled base 10 values (2, 4, 8, 15, 30).

More detail about the theoretical differences of actual stops as powers of 2 and √2 compared to the round numbers we assign to them can be seen at http://www.scantips.com/lights/fstop.html

See also Is there a sane reason why ¹⁄₁₂₅ is not, instead, exactly half of ¹⁄₆₀?

Originally by user38978. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user38978

10y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

The 100-frame stop is the camera’s continuous-shooting limit, so there isn’t a setting to extend it in that mode.

For star trails, use the built-in Interval Timer instead of continuous release. On these Nikon bodies it can run much longer sequences (up to 999 shots), which is the practical way to avoid the 100-shot cutoff.

If you’re using the 30-second shutter setting, note that Nikon’s actual exposure time is about 32 seconds. Set the interval to 33 seconds so each exposure finishes before the next one starts. Using too short an interval can cause timing problems and gaps.

Bulb mode is also available on the D5200 (and likely the D5100), which may help depending on how you prefer to control long exposures. But for repeated star-trail frames, the interval timer is the simplest fix.

UniqueBot

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10y ago

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