[hadi]

i think i'm the only one having this issue as i did a search and came up empty...

a few weeks ago i went out for star trails for the first time. the results came out awesome, though random...

seeing a pic of 'star stream', i thought that was used to make a picture of star trail. that wasn't the case, as that just recorded a video instead. (whats the difference between the star stream vs interval movie record setting?)

then i tried 'interval composite' and achieved the result i wanted. great.

i tried experimenting with this and i'm not getting the camera to function the way i want it to.
ive read the instruction manual, and that isn't of much help as its telling me what the camera CAN do, but not how...

so the issue i'm having is that if i set the camera to 30 second shutter speed, and i set 30 shots (15 minutes), with a 2 second between each picture, the camera starts taking pictures, and after 2 to 3 shots, it shows a message saying 'interval composite complete' or something of that nature...i was expecting 30 shots, why is it giving me 2 or 3 (randomly changes) and then stops taking pictures...sometimes it doesn't even say that its done shooting, it just stops taking pictures...

now, i experimented with different settings, and i cant seem to recreate that shooting from the first day, even if i have the exact same settings.

now, the only thing i can possibly think of in what i'm doing wrong is reading the timing wrong. when it shows 00:00:00, i'm assuming its hours, minutes, seconds. initially when i had it set for 45 second interval between the shots, i noticed a huge 'zipper' pattern in the pics, as the camera wasn't taking any pics between that interval, and the stars would move ever so slightly. so i reduced that to 2 seconds (minimum setting), and thats when the issue starts occurring... it just stops taking pictures after 2 or 3 pics at ANY shutter speed between 10-30 seconds. its fine with lesser speed.

i then increased the interval delay to 10 seconds, and same issue. and the interval is NOT 10 seconds. it seems to be about 4 seconds. and after 2 or 3 pics, the camera would either display that its done shooting, or it would just stop taking pics.

i increased the shutter to 21 seconds, and this time, its about a 9 second delay between pics and it seems to be doing the trick. but this is also causing the 'zipper' pattern, and it wont take the desired shots i had set the camera for. if i set it for 30 shots (15 minutes), it will only take, maybe 20 pics, and then either show the display that shooting is done...or it will just stop taking pics...


what gives?

[jbinpg]

Hi, Hadi. The K-1 has a new option that may help in your case. If you go to Menu C->2->13 and change that to "2" Standby Interval, then the exposure begins after the standby interval you have selected between shots which is what most people want. Try it out next time you are set up.

[Adam]

seeing a pic of 'star stream', i thought that was used to make a picture of star trail. that wasn't the case, as that just recorded a video instead. (whats the difference between the star stream vs interval movie record setting?)

Star stream stacks images, whereas interval movie just merges frames into a video file sequentially.

jbinpg answered the bigger question, though. You can also just add the exposure to the interval time to get the result you want.

[hadi]

I tried the starstream again, and i still see it making a video. It is stacking all the pics and leading it to the end result, but still a video. Where as the interval movie seems more like a time-lapse?

And i tried what was suggested above, and though it shrank the timing between shots, im still limited by 2 to 3 shots

:s

[biz-engineer]

And i tried what was suggested above, and though it shrank the timing between shots, im still limited by 2 to 3 shots

@ Hadi, I figured I had the same problem as you describe. And I found why. So, if you are still interested I share here my findings.

1) For start trail photo in multiexposures, you have to use the drive mode INT + Composite.
2) Interval time must be 1 second + exposure time. For example, if exposure time is 25 second, interval must be 26 seconds or more
3) Bug: Interval time must be smaller than 30 seconds, software bug if the interval time is 31 second or more , the camera will take one, two or three shots and the interval shooting will stop with a message "interval composite complete".

If I set the K1 drive mode to interval composite with 26 seconds interval , shutter speed = 25 seconds, and 32 shots, the camera will take 32 shots and stack them according to the setting chosen (Additive, Average, or Bright).

So, it work but there is a bug... The condition for interval stacking to work is: interval time > 30 second, and interval time > shutter time.

[bernieadkins]

Glad I found your post and explanation as to reason interval composite would not work. Looked everywhere and Ricoh/Pentax customer service is less than stellar. I set the camera as you indicated with interval time 1 second greater than shutter speed and works perfectly. Tried multiple different times/speeds/frames and no problems.

Thank you for posting and explaining how to work around the "bug".

[biz-engineer]

Thank you for posting

You're welcome

[leekil]

Can bugs be reported to Ricoh?

[stevebrot]

Can bugs be reported to Ricoh?

Yes, you can contact customer service for your region's distributor. This is a good idea in general if you are having trouble with your camera.

FWIW, the OP's difficulties on this thread do not constitute a bug or "issue". What is described is normal behavior* and is documented in the user manual, though maybe not as well as they might be.

Addendum: Adam has added a "sticky" to the K-1 sub-forum where users can report K-1 bugs/issues. Posts there should be a clear case of QC lapse or clear failure to operate to specification. One should not post just because a feature is missing or it works differently than on brand-x or another Pentax model.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/190-pentax-k-1/319873-post-k-1-bugs-issue...ack-ricoh.html


Steve

* Interval shooting is not particularly straightforward, regardless of brand or method used. A certain amount of planning is required and when the camera offers multiple options things get confusing very quickly.

[jimr-pdx]

I suspect if you turn off long-exposure NR the time between exposures can be lowered to a few seconds. That allows for hot pixels to build up on the image though, so it has its own risks.

[Craigbob]

Is there a way to take multiminute Interval composites? For example I wan the individual subexposures to be in the 5-10 min range and then combined into the composite image. Can I do that in Bulb mode?

Also what's the difference between Bright, average and additive? I'm on FW 1.4 if that matters.

[photoptimist]

Is there a way to take multiminute Interval composites? For example I wan the individual subexposures to be in the 5-10 min range and then combined into the composite image. Can I do that in Bulb mode?

Also what's the difference between Bright, average and additive? I'm on FW 1.4 if that matters.

I don't think interval composite works in bulb mode because it needs to have a preset shutter time. But composite mode can be used to synthesize longer exposures. For example, if you have a scene that needs 5 minutes of exposure just to reach decent brightness, you could use 30 exposures of 10 seconds each in interval composite additive mode to get almost the same image as one 5-minute exposure.

Here's what the modes do:

Bright: picks the brightest pixels from each image which is great for stars, meteors, and other streaks of light but very strange if a person in dark pants and a white shirt walks across the scene (you get a floating torso with no legs). I'd also avoid "bright" mode with high ISO because the composite will pick the noisiest sample of each pixel.

Average: averages the scene together which works well for turning moving things into ghosts (e.g., doing time-lapse waterfalls in daylight without an ND filter) but one has to be careful of with over-exposed areas (e.g., bright blobs of water) which turn into very noticeable gray blobs if the number of exposures is low (less than 10). Averaging does work well at high ISO because it averages down the noise.

Additive: sums all the images together which can work well for stars and other streaks of light on a very dark background although it really needs a scene that is very underexposed in each individual picture otherwise the composite scene will saturate and clip. Additive mode will clip highlights if any of the individual pictures have clipped highlights.

Interval composite is really cool but it does take a bit of thought and experimentation to get the exact right parameters to achieve the creative results that you want.

[CWard44]

Thanks everyone for posting and how to get around the issue of the camera not taking all the photos I thought I had programmed in for interval shooting. I tried star trails for the first time with my Pentax K1 last week and it was a disaster. I see from previous posts that others have been having the same problem with the camera shutting off after a few shots, not what we thought we had programmed in. I will use the settings suggested here in the forum my next time out which should be later this week if the weather cooperates. Thank you for posting and helping me.

[stevebrot]

Thank you for posting and helping me.

It is always a pleasure. Thanks for letting us know this was helpful.


Steve

[geoffiths]

This is not a bug. The manual on pg 62 in the Memo explains it. If you set the int time to 2 sec say, and then the exposure to 10 sec for 10 shots the camera will take only 2 photographs. When you push the shutter it starts the exposure and the intervals seem to run contiguously. To get the results you want the int. has to be set for exposure time + 1, in this case 11 sec. You can change the behaviour of the timer in the menu C2-13 and select option 2-Standby Interval, I think this should be the default mode. Now the camera will do what you expect it to do, take an exposure, run the int., take an exposure, run the int. etc. until the sequence is complete.