[micromacro]

The number of 2000 images in multiply exposure bugs my mind
I wonder in what cases and for what result someone may need to compose 2000 images together using multiply exposure?
I usually play with no more than 3, but I don't use that feature often.

What the biggest number of images did you use so far with K-1?
And the most interesting, did someone actually tried all 2000 shoots in multiply exposure mode?

[BrianR]

My goodness, 2000 is an awesome limit.

I've used the k5iis' pretty meagre 9 exposures to fake a single longer exposure. Looking at the K-1's manual, this should work with 'average mode'.

Another "my goodness", I see there's a "Bright" mode for the k-1 whose description looks like blending layers with "Lighten" mode in Photoshop? If so, I'd love to have that as an in-camera option, terrific for fireflies or star trails.

[micromacro]

2000 is impesive number, and I wonder now when practically to use it?

It started when I told the Nikon guy that my camera has multiply exposure up to 2000 shoots. He told, it's impossible, you must be mistaken. Nope.
Ok, he said, it may be a number of 2000, but in reality can it work? Shoot it all. Nope, I'm not going to waste my time, shutter and battery life for proving something. If it's in the menu, it does work (thinking, then you buy your own K-1 and do it )
And now I'm thinking that I have no idea in what cases someone will need 2000 images to compose in one?

[jbinpg]

I think one answer would be star trails, and possibly in bright mode rather than average. Bright mode may avoid the blow out of the background.

[BrianR]

If "bright" mode works as I think it should, fireflies (and star trails as mentioned). Totally fireflies. I've combined 200 or more 30 second exposures a few times in post. Being able to have a camera spit out one raw image that combined this giant pile of data would be glorious and I'd eagerly run the battery into the ground shooting 800-900 frames overnight. Having an upper limit that's 'infinite' in practical use would be awesome.

Also think moving water in 'average' mode. If conditions are such that you can only hit, say, 1/10 second exposure, then with 2000 frames you could simulate a 200 second exposure which can blur the heck out of ocean waves. This isn't quite a substitute for a super ND filter as it introduces gaps in-between the exposures, but for something like moving water it can work well (at least at the limited extent my camera can handle).

[MJKoski]

I have done some star trails with the Bright mode. It is just about made for it. But watch out it also combines all kinds of noise artifacts together.

I took one multiexposure with 1000 images in average mode but it was ruined by magenta cast unfortunately. But yes, it was very smooth. I hope they fix that magenta bug.

And watch out for battery!! The whole stack will be gone when battery dies. They should make a failsafe function which saves the stack when battery enters critical level.

[micromacro]

If "bright" mode works as I think it should, fireflies (and star trails as mentioned). Totally fireflies.

It's a great idea. Googled fireflies in Florida. Hope to plan the trip to Blue Spring state park in March-April
Brian, can you show your fireflies pictures?

[BrianR]

It's a great idea. Googled fireflies in Florida. Hope to plan the trip to Blue Spring state park in March-April
Brian, can you show your fireflies pictures?

Sure! My basic plan is f/2.8, iso3200 or so to get the exposure for the firelies, I often end up upping the exposure in post a bit, so bumping that up a smidge wouldn't hurt.. The exposure length is as long as I can get away with while keeping the background dark enough to not compete with the fireflies. Too long and the background ends up brighter than the fireflies as you soak up too much ambient. Stacking in lighten mode maintains the brightness of the background, while letting each firefly show in the final frame.

f/3.5, iso3200, 30 second exposures, 10-17mm fisheye @ 10mm. 226 combined via StarStax Lighten mode. Gaps in star trails from clouds, light on grass from my house (I'm lucky to have fireflies in my 'yard'):



f/2.8, iso3200, 8 to 15 second exposures, DFA100mm macro, 83 exposures combined via StarStax Lighten mode. The sun was setting while the full moon was rising (the moon is lighting the field in the distance), so the varying exposure length kept the ambient balanced and let me use longer exposures as time went on so I had less files to combine.



f/3.5, iso3200, 30 second exposures, 10-17mm fisheye @ 10mm. 16 combined via StarStax Lighten mode. A 'flaw' in doing this in camera is you can't pick and choose which frames to use. Here, a firefly landed on the lens and wandered around. I thought it may bugger things up, but it was kinda cool so I kept it. There's a good deal of randomness with this anyway, so I'm inclined to submit to the chaos and use all the frames I get in any case:

[micromacro]

Thank you, Brian. It looks like 16 images is not enough
Now I want to find fireflies

[zapp]

Some computer nerd put a limit of 2000 in the program and now people really think about why and go for it... funny world.