jip Posted February 8, 2014 Share #41 Posted February 8, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) Yes it is 60 at 200 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 8, 2014 Posted February 8, 2014 Hi jip, Take a look here Long exposures on the M240. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Jared Posted February 8, 2014 Share #42 Posted February 8, 2014 Starscapes--very cool! I do a lot of astrophotography through my telescope and can offer some advice here... First question is whether you want to show star trails or fixed stars. If you want to show star trails, then the real problem is not going to be the maximum exposure duration in the M(240). The real problem is the fact that you can't turn dark subtraction off, so you are going to have gaps in your trails--dotted rather than solid lines. As far as I know there are no workarounds for this camera limitation such as turning the camera off during dark frame subtraction. My M just ignores the "off" setting until the dark is finished. I don't have an easy solution for this one--I think the M(240) is just a poor choice if you want to do star trails. If, on the other hand, you want to show fixed stars over a long exposure time the M(240) might be a reasonable choice. I haven't tried it myself, but it may be fine. In this situation you will want to build a composite image--one set of exposures for the stars, and another exposure (or stack of exposures) for the foreground. First the stars. Since the stars will start to show their movement (actually the Earth's movement) in as little as a few seconds depending on the part of the sky and the focal length, the sixty second limit is not really an issue. You'd probably want to stay under that value anyway. You'll want your camera mounted on a good tripod, and you can just shoot away at the longest exposure that doesn't show any hints of trailing. You'll need to use something like "Deep Sky Stacker" to register (align) your images and average them together. This will take out the rotation of the stars and let you see much fainter details of the night sky such as Milky Way star clouds and the like. I'd recommend stopping down one f/stop from maximum aperture since point sources are extremely challenging for most lenses, and even Leica glass tends not to be at its best wide open. Obviously, the foreground is going to appear to rotate in your image as you take out the rotation of the stars in the sky. This is inevitable--don't worry about it. Next the foreground. Take a few exposures of whatever duration you need to properly expose the foreground. If 60s isn't long enough, you can simply add exposures together in Photoshop (though it is possible, due to the noise characteristics of the M(240) that this may not be much better than a single, "stretched" exposure, meaning one where you play with the white point and curves. Now combine the two images in Photoshop--the starscape and the foreground. You will likely need to shift the starscape around a bit to make sure you can completely obscure the slightly rotated foreground. You'll obviously need to mask out the sky portions of your foreground image as well. By the way, if you want JUST a starscape with NO foreground elements, you could also consider a "barn door tracker" to allow you to avoid the registration/stacking challenges. Do a web search on barn door trackers and you will find instructions on how to build one--it's not very hard. There are also commercially produced equivalents such as the Vixen Polarie Star Tracker. Very nice little product. - Jared Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkP Posted February 16, 2014 Share #43 Posted February 16, 2014 Interestingly, the new $40,000 CMOS sensor Phase One IQ250 digital back has a maximum shutter speed of 2 min, whilst that of the previous top-of-the-range CCD digital back was 60 min. I wonder whether this really is a limitation of the technology and subsequent image deterioration. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted February 18, 2014 Share #44 Posted February 18, 2014 For long exposures put shutter speed dial on B and set self timer. Press shutter release button to open the shutter. Press a second time to close it. Keep shutter open as long as you want. Page 188 of the manual (English version). The viewfinder even keeps track of the time for you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkP Posted February 18, 2014 Share #45 Posted February 18, 2014 For long exposures put shutter speed dial on B and set self timer. Press shutter release button to open the shutter. Press a second time to close it. Keep shutter open as long as you want. Page 188 of the manual (English version). The viewfinder even keeps track of the time for you. Unfortunately, on the M240 the shutter closes at 60 sec @ ISO 200 and 30 sec @ ISO 800 regardless - try it for yourself. Maximim exposure time on the M9 and Monochrom independent of ISO is 240 sec. The display in the VF has always kept count on all of these cameras. To me, although I use long exposures relatively infrequently, I do enjoy long exposure night photography and this is the major limitation of this camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oyswong Posted February 18, 2014 Share #46 Posted February 18, 2014 I took my M for a trip to Finland to shoot the aurora light. I was lucky enough to see the light on the first day of the trip. To my disappointment, at the B setting the shutter closed at 8s @ISO 1600 to 3200. Also, the camera just shot black frames after 45 mins (it was real cold, minus 20 degrees C or lower). I was so frustrated. I later figured out the limitation of my beloved M, shutter speed closes at 8s @ISO 1600,16s @ISO 800 and 32s @ISO 400. However, the light never appeared again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted February 18, 2014 Share #47 Posted February 18, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) Unfortunately, on the M240 the shutter closes at 60 sec @ ISO 200 and 30 sec @ ISO 800 regardless - try it for yourself.Maximim exposure time on the M9 and Monochrom independent of ISO is 240 sec. The display in the VF has always kept count on all of these cameras. To me, although I use long exposures relatively infrequently, I do enjoy long exposure night photography and this is the major limitation of this camera. Hmmm… Should have tried it before I posted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkP Posted February 19, 2014 Share #48 Posted February 19, 2014 Hmmm… Should have tried it before I posted. Don't lose sleep over it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Likaleica Posted February 20, 2014 Share #49 Posted February 20, 2014 Don't lose sleep over it Zzzzzzzzzzz... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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