Leica Q2 Astro Photography

[tombre]

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I recently tried some astro photography shots of the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse in Western Australia using my Q2.  I thought the fast lens and wide angle would be ideal, but I ran into an issue.  I had taken a series of interval shots for the stars at 4 sec, f2 and ISO 6400 with the aim of stacking them later to reduce noise.  That bit worked.  I then wanted to take a one or two minute exposure for the foreground as I was about 200m away from the lighthouse and shooting uphill, so the bottom 20% of the frame was foreground. Light from the lighthouse was spilling onto the bushes and trees so there should have been enough light to get some foreground detail.  I had the Q2 set on fixed ISO 6400 (not Auto ISO), manual focus, manual aperture and manual shutter time.  When I selected the shutter speed of 1+ and then used the dial I could only select a maximum shutter speed of 4 seconds before it switched to T.  I therefore tried the T setting, believing I had full manual control of the shutter opening and closing, but after 4 sec the shutter closed.  I ended up having to use a torch to light paint the foreground, but the results weren't great.  My last attempt was to use the Leica Fotos app to set a shutter speed of 30 seconds, but bizarrely the camera seemed to revert to auto focus despite being switched to manual focus.  None of those photos were anywhere near in focus despite a number of attempts.

Is there a limit on the shutter time once you select a high ISO such as ISO 6400.  I have successfully taken 30 second exposures on the Leica SL2 at ISO 1600.  The manual seems to imply there might be, but I couldn't find anything explicitly spelling it out.

Thanks

 

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[Driften]

Take a look at YouTube channel  mathphotographer where he demonstrates how the long exposure works and limits with the Q2. It is more limited then a SL2

[tombre]

Thanks that was helpful. At least I now know it wasn’t just my lack of familiarity with the camera.