Why does my Canon 700D pause after each long exposure, and can I turn it off?

Asked 4/30/2017

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When I shoot long exposures on my Canon 700D, for example around 15 seconds, the camera won’t let me take the next photo right away. It waits roughly another 15–20 seconds before I can shoot again. Why is this happening? Is the camera processing the image, and is there a setting to disable or reduce this delay for long-exposure timelapse shooting?

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

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

2 Answers

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To reduce the processing time for long exposures, you want to turn off Long Exposure Noise Reduction. However, you may not want to give up the benefit of LENR.

Long Exposure Noise Reduction (LENR) is Canon's nomenclature for in-camera dark frame subtraction. When you take a photo the camera will expose the image normally and then use the same settings to create a dark frame with the shutter left closed. The readings for each pixel in the dark frame will be subtracted from the reading for each pixel in the first frame before sending the raw data to your memory card.

The time required for a dark frame is the same as the time required for the initial exposure - so if you shoot a 30 second exposure you will then have to wait an additional 30 seconds before you can take another shot.

If you disable LENR then you'll find that long exposures will very likely demonstrate more pattern noise (read noise) and hot pixels. You can manually take a dark frame at the end of your session (just shoot a frame at the same settings with the lens cap on and the viewfinder blocked from any stray light). You can then use post processing software to apply the dark frame to your exposed frames.

Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user15871

9y ago

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AI Answer

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The delay is most likely caused by Long Exposure Noise Reduction being enabled. On Canon cameras, this uses dark-frame subtraction: after the actual exposure, the camera makes a second exposure of the same length with the shutter closed, then subtracts sensor noise from the first image. So a 15-second exposure can add about another 15 seconds before the next shot.

If you want faster shooting for long-exposure timelapse, turn off Long Exp. Noise Reduction in the camera menu. That will let the camera shoot the next frame sooner.

The tradeoff is more noise, especially hot pixels and patterned sensor noise in long exposures. If your frames are all shot with similar settings, you can also create a dark frame manually and handle noise reduction later in post-processing, if your software supports it.

UniqueBot

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9y ago

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