[NeoSpudly]

Hello All,

I've been setting my camera up the past few clear nights trying to catch some meteorites, i've just been setting the camera to take 999 15 seconds shots and checking them the next day, i'm getting just shy of 600 shots on my newest battery. Does anyone have any tips on how to maybe spread out the shooting more, i don't have the camera in front of me right now but it is a KP and know there is the setting for time between interval, maybe increase the time between shots a lot to spread out the shots more? I don't want to buy a new intervalometer i just want to use the built in one for now if that is just a limitation of it so be it for now.

Thanks
Nick S.

[jon.partsch]

My suggestions would be to:

1. get an external battery or grip with second battery
2. set your intervalometer to only take 600 shots, because that's all your battery can accommodate
3. The only way I can think of to get more shots out of the battery you have is to turn off any functions that are not needed, such as autofocus, image preview after the shot, SR, slow speed noise reduction (use dark frames in post later), etc.

I don't see any advantage to "spreading out the shooting more" as you will still be limited by the battery, except for a possible slight reduction in noise by allowing the sensor to cool off a bit between shots.

[NeoSpudly]

My thinking for spreading out the shots more was that it's just a game of chance anyway to catch a meteorite in the frame, started shooting at about 11:30pm last time and battery was dead at about 1:30am, so i thought maybe if it was waiting longer between shots that the battery might last till earlier in the morning and the chance might increase to catch one in a shot.

Nick S.

[AstroDave]

started shooting at about 11:30pm last time and battery was dead at about 1:30am, so i thought maybe if it was waiting longer between shots that the battery might last till earlier in the morning and the chance might increase to catch one in a shot.

Set the camera to wait until ~1 AM to start. After midnight is the best time (in general) to catch meteors. That's when "dark" is most aligned with the direction that the Earth is going in its orbit - makes for maximum collision speed and brightest meteors. Of course, if you are looking at a meteor shower, the position of the radiant has a big influence, as well.

[jon.partsch]

My thinking for spreading out the shots more was that it's just a game of chance anyway to catch a meteorite in the frame, started shooting at about 11:30pm last time and battery was dead at about 1:30am, so i thought maybe if it was waiting longer between shots that the battery might last till earlier in the morning and the chance might increase to catch one in a shot.

Nick S.

If you are getting 600 exposures at 15 seconds each on a full battery, that means the sensor is exposed to the sky for 600 x 15 = 9,000 seconds, or 150 minutes, or 2 and a half hours. It makes no difference how the exposures are spaced out during the night, you have 150 minutes to catch a meteor any way you space it out. You are MUCH better off taking all your 600 shots back rather than spacing them out, but you need to do these things:

1. Go to Meteor Shower Calendar 2021-2022 - American Meteor Society and find when the meteor showers are occurring that will be visible at your location. Right now, you may be able to catch some of the Alpha Capricornids and the Perseids (one of the best showers of the year) is ramping up now, and will peak on Aug. 11th.

2. Aim your camera so that the radiant of the meteor shower will pass through the image frame during the 2.5 hours or so that your battery will last (you can also re-aim your camera part way through if you need to). I would think you would be virtually guaranteed to get some good shots this way.

[kypfer]

The thing to remember is the "interval" time is the actual exposure time PLUS any Noise Reduction you've got factored in, this will usually take as long as the initial exposure time PLUS an extra few seconds to write the data to the card. So, even with Noise Reduction both for ISO and slow shutter speed disabled, the best interval you're likely to get is 20 seconds if you're making 15 second exposures.
It might be worth while checking your images' details and see if the interval times are consistent or if some take 'longer' than others. If the latter, this would imply that your interval time is too short and that the camera is "skipping" some exposures. To resolve this, simply set the interval slightly longer, whilst retaining the same exposure time. If your total image count goes up you'll know where the problem lies
When you say your "newest battery", do you mean the camera runs the battery totally flat in 600 exposures? I would have thought this not unreasonable considering the quoted capacity is 420 images, see p130 in the manual, but if you're not using back screen or the metering one might expect a higher count, though whether this would go over 600 there's only one way to find out!
The only way around this is either the battery grip (expensive, unless you've other reason to need it) or the mains adaptor, not so expensive but you need a power source to plug it into … a car battery and inverter can be utilised here, if you happen to have one available

[NeoSpudly]

The thing to remember is the "interval" time is the actual exposure time PLUS any Noise Reduction you've got factored in, this will usually take as long as the initial exposure time PLUS an extra few seconds to write the data to the card. So, even with Noise Reduction both for ISO and slow shutter speed disabled, the best interval you're likely to get is 20 seconds if you're making 15 second exposures.
It might be worth while checking your images' details and see if the interval times are consistent or if some take 'longer' than others. If the latter, this would imply that your interval time is too short and that the camera is "skipping" some exposures. To resolve this, simply set the interval slightly longer, whilst retaining the same exposure time. If your total image count goes up you'll know where the problem lies
When you say your "newest battery", do you mean the camera runs the battery totally flat in 600 exposures? I would have thought this not unreasonable considering the quoted capacity is 420 images, see p130 in the manual, but if you're not using back screen or the metering one might expect a higher count, though whether this would go over 600 there's only one way to find out!
The only way around this is either the battery grip (expensive, unless you've other reason to need it) or the mains adaptor, not so expensive but you need a power source to plug it into … a car battery and inverter can be utilised here, if you happen to have one available

I've got 3 Pentax batteries from 2014,2019,2020 the newest one has the most pictures on it in the morning is all I mean the old one got 315ish I wanna a say.

[jon.partsch]

The thing to remember is the "interval" time is the actual exposure time PLUS any Noise Reduction you've got factored in, this will usually take as long as the initial exposure time PLUS an extra few seconds to write the data to the card. So, even with Noise Reduction both for ISO and slow shutter speed disabled, the best interval you're likely to get is 20 seconds if you're making 15 second exposures.

I have found that an additional 2 seconds is plenty adequate for writing RAW+Jpeg to card on my K1ii, so that would be a 17 second interval for a 15 second exposure.

...or the mains adaptor, not so expensive but you need a power source to plug it into … a car battery and inverter can be utilised here, if you happen to have one available

That is an excellent suggestion!

[MaineNative]

On my K-5, I found shooting with the aperture wide open conserved my battery. For instance, with a 14 mm f2.8 lens, if I set it to f4 to reduce coma, the battery has to hold the aperture closed for the whole exposure. If I shoot at f2.8, no energy is required to hold the aperture position. (I discovered this on a cold night doing Milky Way shots…)

[AstroDave]

so that would be a 17 second interval for a 15 second exposure.

Remember also: a "15 second" exposure is really a 16 second exposure (along with whatever overhead is necessary): Actual shutter speeds versus "standard" values - PentaxForums.com

[cometguy]

On my K-5, I found shooting with the aperture wide open conserved my battery. For instance, with a 14 mm f2.8 lens, if I set it to f4 to reduce coma, the battery has to hold the aperture closed for the whole exposure. If I shoot at f2.8, no energy is required to hold the aperture position. (I discovered this on a cold night doing Milky Way shots…)

Please explain how the battery is used to hold the aperture at f/4 in such a case... I presume that you're talking about lenses without aperture rings? But even still, in cameras with all-electronic aperture settings only (no mechanical aperture rings), you're saying that some large amount of battery power is needed to hold the aperture at any closed-down f/-stop?

[DeKay]

The thing to remember is the "interval" time is the actual exposure time PLUS any Noise Reduction you've got factored in, this will usually take as long as the initial exposure time PLUS an extra few seconds to write the data to the card. So, even with Noise Reduction both for ISO and slow shutter speed disabled, the best interval you're likely to get is 20 seconds if you're making 15 second exposures.
It might be worth while checking your images' details and see if the interval times are consistent or if some take 'longer' than others. If the latter, this would imply that your interval time is too short and that the camera is "skipping" some exposures. To resolve this, simply set the interval slightly longer, whilst retaining the same exposure time. If your total image count goes up you'll know where the problem lies

Forget all that, when doing multiple long exposure shooting it better to set C2 - 12. Interval Shooting Options to 2. Standby Interval.
Then setting Standby Interval to Minimum in the Interval shooting options.
Now it will take the next shot once the previous shot and all its processing has finished. This way you don't get any missed frames.

[kypfer]

Forget all that, when doing multiple long exposure shooting it better to set C2 - 12. Interval Shooting Options to 2. Standby Interval.
Then setting Standby Interval to Minimum in the Interval shooting options.
Now it will take the next shot once the previous shot and all its processing has finished. This way you don't get any missed frames.

Thanks for pointing that out, I'd missed that feature!
With the newer Pentax cameras having so many configurable options it's not difficult to miss the odd parameter when it's a feature I use rarely

---------- Post added 08-05-21 at 02:31 AM ----------

Please explain how the battery is used to hold the aperture at f/4 in such a case... I presume that you're talking about lenses without aperture rings? But even still, in cameras with all-electronic aperture settings only (no mechanical aperture rings), you're saying that some large amount of battery power is needed to hold the aperture at any closed-down f/-stop?

As I see it, the aperture defaults to wide open, even with the camera off so no power is applied.
When an exposure is being made "something" closes the aperture to the required level, holds it there, then re-opens it at the end.
These activities require power, which, on a modern camera, is supplied by the battery and not by a set of springs, cams and gears which are pre-loaded by the photographer's thumb via the film-wind lever.
So whether it's a "large" amount of power or not, it'll be a contributory factor and will add up over several hundred shots.
If one's got the interest, time and resources, it might be instructive to set up a camera with a fully charged battery and a "normal" KA or KAF lens set at say, f/8 on the camera body, and run a test to ascertain how many 15sec manual focus exposures can be made before the battery runs out, then, having recharged the battery, re-run the test with the lens set wide open … even possibly re-run the test again with a fully manual K or even M42 lens. All of these tests would obviously need to be run by the same person using the same camera and battery to have any relevance.

I use a lot of old manual K, KA and M42 lenses. I'd always put down any apparent increase in battery life (and it can be noticeable) to not having used the autofocus, but maybe the aperture activation is a contributory factor as well!
Not sure I'm THAT interested to run the tests myself, but I'd look forward to any results should anyone bother