Bulb mode.

pinmonkey46

pinmonkey46

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Does anyone know that if i use my Nikon d3000 in bulb mode will I damage the sensor. What is a safe time to use in bulb mode. Thanks
 
I've heard about it, but that's all, "heard". It would be good to get a definitive answer. (if there was one).
 
It would depend (if it does happen) on the amount of light entering the lens. 20 min pointing the camera at a starlight sky is different to pointing it at the sun for 20 min.
 
I don't think they would have a bulb [long exposure] mode if it was in any way unsafe! Although I wouldn't point it at the sun for half an hour. Basically you would use bulb for any exposures longer than 30 seconds. So if you want 1 minute, 10 mins, an hour, how ever long it is, bulb is where you go. So for example, doing night time stuff, star trails, etc. Go and have look at that kind of picture in the creative picture sharing section to get some ideas and inspiration for uses of longer exposures
 
i think it will if you using bulb mode and holding it for a super long duration of time pointing at a sun during day time, but why would you want to do that anyway?

Night time long exposure shouldn't cause any problem .......
 
It wasn't unheard of, in the days of rangefinder cameras (which didn't have a mirror between the lens and the shutter curtain) for the shutter curtain to be "burned through" when you pointed the camera at the sun (or more likely, left the camera on the dashboard of the car, and the sun shone directly into the lens.

Obviously, in a SLR (film or digital) theres a mirror in the way of this happening apart from when you open the shutter. So - in theory - it is possible to damage the sensor in bulb-mode, but you do have to go out of your way to do so - i.e. pointing the lens directly into the sun.
 
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I've heard of 20 minute exposures, I'm sure
 
I was reading the tutorial on star triais here. It says
the traditional way is to open the camera shutter for a extended period of time to allow the camera to record the movement of the stars across the sky, and it is possible under the right conditions to achieve exposures in excess of one hour in a single exposure to capture the stars movement. A note of caution with this method is the risk of your camera/sensor overheating so please take this into consideration

The other way, that is more popular and more accessible to most photographers is to go down the stacked approach, this is where you take a series of single exposures and then layer each one on top of the other to create the effect of a longer exposure time
Click to expand...

But if you want star trails without gaps, surely you need to take the stacked images in quick succession. Doesn't that have the same heating effect on the sensor as one long exposure?
 
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pinmonkey46 said:
Does anyone know that if i use my Nikon d3000 in bulb mode will I damage the sensor. What is a safe time to use in bulb mode. Thanks
Click to expand...

How long an exposure do you need?

The sensor can get hot and this will firstly ruin the image and therefore would be pointless. The ambient temperature will also impact on the time allowed for exposure. I have used a 50D and 450D taking multiple long exposures for about eight hours without problems.


gridlock said:
I was reading the tutorial on star trials here. It says

But if you want star trials without gaps, surely you need to take the stacked images in quick succession. Doesn't that have the same heating effect on the sensor as one long exposure?
Click to expand...

Yes it does.
 
It would be dependant not only on what you are shooting, but also what lens you are shooting it with. For example 5mins at the sun with a 600mm is very different from 5mins at the sun with a 24mm.
At the end of the day, simple logic dictates that you are unlikely to damage your sensor if you are taking normally exposed pictures. Many dSLRs these days are built for 10-30mins of video capture, which has to be at least as demanding on the sensor - and if your sensor is genuinely starting to overheat through long exposure, you will see it as excessive noise in your photographs.
 
miniyazz said:
It would be dependant not only on what you are shooting, but also what lens you are shooting it with. For example 5mins at the sun with a 600mm is very different from 5mins at the sun with a 24mm.
At the end of the day, simple logic dictates that you are unlikely to damage your sensor if you are taking normally exposed pictures. Many dSLRs these days are built for 10-30mins of video capture, which has to be at least as demanding on the sensor - and if your sensor is genuinely starting to overheat through long exposure, you will see it as excessive noise in your photographs.
Click to expand...

Not sure where all this talk of shooting the Sun has come from? Damage from focussing on the Sun is a whole different discussion. :shrug:
 
maybe best to avoid long exposures of arc welding as well..:cool:
 
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