Cannot Change Exposure Time

[andromeda365]

Greetings,

 

First let me say to the creators, excellent job on Backyard Nikon it is a great piece of software thanks for all your hard work!

 

I'm having a rather annoying problem (I suppose all problems are annoying to the person having them).  BN can recognize my D5200 just fine however I seem to have some limitations when taking exposures.  It seems I can't change the time within the software only on the camera itself.  

For example:  I can turn on my camera, set the exposure time to say 30 seconds, just for example.  Then connect to BN and I can see right away in the Camera Information Center that I'm set to 30 second exposure.  If I then click on the imaging tab and start an image capture for say 10 seconds (or anything other than 30 seconds) when I click capture it takes a 30 second exposure.  

Has anyone else had this issue?

Thank you for your help!

[MrWellsy66]

I'm using a 5200 with no problems at all. Set in manual and bulb mode. i never set any exposure time on my camera i only use BYN for exposure iso etc.

[krphotogs]

I am not sure if this is related but I had a similar issue on my D500. I use my camera for sports, and lock down the settings (aperture and ss) so I do not bump the dials by mistake. I had both locked and could not figure out why BYN would not change the settings ( taking some sun shots ) until I looked at the camera and saw the 'L' beside aperture and ss. Once off, it worked great! Duh.....

kevin

[admin]

56 minutes ago, krphotogs said:

I am not sure if this is related but I had a similar issue on my D500. I use my camera for sports, and lock down the settings (aperture and ss) so I do not bump the dials by mistake. I had both locked and could not figure out why BYN would not change the settings ( taking some sun shots ) until I looked at the camera and saw the 'L' beside aperture and ss. Once off, it worked great! Duh.....

kevin

Umm, interesting.  Thanks for sharing.

[admin]

Is your camera dial set to "M"?

[andromeda365]

Yes it is set to 'M' for manual.  Just to calrify BYN can take exposures but only for a fix amount of time.  Whatever setting is specified on my camera using the wheel in the upper right.  If i turn the wheel to 10 seconds I can take a 10 second exposure using BYN.  If I turn it to 30 seconds I can take a 30 second exposure using BYN.  But if I trun it to 30 seconds and try to take a 10 second exposure (just for example) it sill takes a 30 second exposure.

So its like BYN is locked to whatever settings I have set on the camera.

[andromeda365]

Also,

This is only true for exposure time.  I can change the ISO to whatever I want using BYN.

[admin]

Go to Settings -> Advance Settings and delete the cache.  Then try again.  Keep us posted.

[andromeda365]

No change.

I closed BYN, shut off camera.  Opened BYN, cleared the cache in advanced settings, saved, applied, connected camera same behavior.  shutter speed defaults to whatever is set on the camera regardless of what I specified. in BYN

[admin]

Send the log file.

 

[andromeda365]

7 minutes ago, admin said:

Send the log file.

 

Sent, and thanks!

[admin]

Thanks for the log files.

This is odd, I see a 10 second image being taken but BYN tries to take a BULB image.  The take bulb image fails because the shutter value is set to 10 and not BULB.  

Please download the latest 2.0.7  and try again, you are using 2.0.1. 

 

2017-09-06 12:37:58,247 [CameraTakePictureOnMessageRecieved] DEBUG - TAKE PICTURE ::: Shutter(MANUAL) Cable(CameraUSB) Av(--) Duration(10.0) Iso(1600) Quality(JPEG Fine) Mirror(0) SaveTo(PC)
2017-09-06 12:37:58,840 [CameraTakePictureOnMessageRecieved] DEBUG - Device Busy trying to start BULB sequence
2017-09-06 12:37:59,012 [CameraTakePictureOnMessageRecieved] ERROR - [kNkMAIDResult_NotSupported] (kNkMAIDCommand_CapSet, 33042, kNkMAIDDataType_EnumPtr, 128837592)
2017-09-06 12:37:59,028 [CameraTakePictureOnMessageRecieved] ERROR -    at BinaryRivers.Camera.Nikon.Wrapper.NikonTaskQueue.Invoke(Delegate d, Object[] args)
   at BinaryRivers.Camera.Nikon.Wrapper.NikonBase.Set(eNkMAIDCapability cap, Object value)
   at BinaryRivers.Camera.Nikon.Wrapper.NikonDevice.StartBulbCapture()
   at BinaryRivers.Camera.Nikon.CameraModel.<>c__DisplayClass25_0.<DoTakePictureBulb>b__0()
 

 

[astroman133]

Are you using the most recent release of BYN (as of this post the latest release is BYN 2.0.7).

If I understand what you are saying, you can select any time value from the Shutter dropdown (on the Imaging screen) but BYN is apparently unable to download that exposure value to the camera. Is that correct?

[andromeda365]

Hi guys,

I just upgraded to 2.0.7.  Unfortunately the behavior is the same.

BYN displays the exposure time which my camera is set to under the "Camera Information Center (D5200)" section.  Again I can change these values using the exposure wheel on my camera.  But it the "Capture Plan Center" section if I try to specify a shutter speed differently then what my camera is set to and click "Start Capture" it will simply take the exposure but use the length that the camera is set to rather then what I manually typed under the "Shutter" Section.

 

So full example:

1.)  Turn on camera and connect to BYN:  Works no problem!

2.)  On my camera adjust the exposure wheel until it says 30 seconds and ISO 800

3.)  I can see this change reflected in BYN under the "Camera Information Center (D5200)" section.

4.)  In the "Capture Plan Center" I select 1 exposure and set the Shutter to 10

5.)  Click "Start Capture"

6.)  BYN takes a 30 second exposure not a 10 second one.

 

Maybe this is intended to be this way and I'm doing something wrong?

[admin]

Send me the 2.0.7 log file please.

[admin]

Oh, and did this ever worked with your camera?  I see you've been using BYN for over a year now.

[admin]

One more thing.  Your are using the Nikon2015 SDK files in BYN, please try the other option (Nikon), it's newer.

[astroman133]

Thanks for the clarification.

It seems as though you are using BYN as intended. I would review the settings in the camera's menus to see if there is some obvious setting that could be preventing the camera from accepting BYN's exposure value. I would also expect that the log file will be revealing.

Also, I would say that there is a subtle, but distinct difference between selecting a Shutter value of 30 seconds and selecting a Shutter value of BULB and a Duration of 30 seconds. In the former case the exposure is controlled by the camera. In the latter case BYN opens the shutter and then BYN closes the shutter 30 seconds later. I only say this because you said that you set the camera to shoot a 30 second exposure, but the quoted section of the log file refers to an error trying to start a BULB sequence.

I'll admit that I am not an expert at interpreting the BYN log file, but the lines that Guylain bolded do seem contradictory.

Are you testing with an autofocus lens on the camera? Is the lens switched to Manual Focus? If not, try without a lens or with the lens in Manual Focus mode.

 

[andromeda365]

I am testing with no lens, just a T-adapter and a lens cap.  I have tried both the 2015 driver and the newer one, there is no difference.  The 30 second bulb attempt in the log was from me trouble shooting and trying different things.  I will send the log file from 2.0.7.

[andromeda365]

21 minutes ago, admin said:

Send me the 2.0.7 log file please.

Sent.

[andromeda365]

OK so perhaps I"m doing this wrong.  So you set your 5200 to bulb mode and then in BYN you also set that to bulb mode and simply control the amount of exposure time in the duration input.  Is that correct?

[admin]

Can you please provide a print screen of your image capture plan just before you press start.

[andromeda365]

Solved.

So I feel the solution was 2-fold.

 

1.  I stopped messing with manual times and simply put the camera in bulb mode as well as BYN.  I can now take exposures at whatever time I want as expected.

2.  I reset my camera to default settings by holding down the Menu + Info button at the same time until the screen flashed.

 

Regardless of which of those two things did the trick I am back in business and just in time for my first dark sky trip this weekend!

 

Thanks everyone!!!

[MrWellsy66]

Here's mine with my lens attached to camera

[astroman133]

5 hours ago, andromeda365 said:

OK so perhaps I"m doing this wrong.  So you set your 5200 to bulb mode and then in BYN you also set that to bulb mode and simply control the amount of exposure time in the duration input.  Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct. Unless you want to take sub-second exposures. The minimum duration for BULB exposures is 1 second. In that case, you choose the exposure time that you want from the Shutter dropdown. BYN should then tell the camera to take a picture with that exposure.

As long as the camera is in Manual mode BYN should be able to override the shutter speed selection in the camera. This was not happening for you previously. Did your camera reset fix it?