Silent Photography Mode on D850

Support for the Solar Eclipse Maestro photography software.

Silent Photography Mode on D850

Postby szigler511 » Sat Jun 15, 2019 11:50 am

I have been testing SEM V 1.9.0 with the D850 and it is working great. Thanks for the recent update!

I have a question about silent photography mode on the D850. I've been looking forward to using this feature on this camera because it eliminates the mechanical shutter for each exposure and eliminates potential vibrations. My plan is to include a LVPSTART command near the beginning of my script. It has been working well.

Here is my question. In the middle of the execution of a script, after the line with LVPSTART, I want to enter Live View window in SEM to check alignment and focus. So, while the script is loaded and active, I select "Live View" in the Camera menu of SEM. The Live View window opens, I adjust focus and alignment, and everything is fine. However, after I close the Live View window in SEM, the camera is no longer in silent photography mode for purposes of the active script. Reloading the script doesn't help because the time has already passed for the LVPSTART command.

Do you have any suggestions for the best way to reactivate silent photography mode in the script after it has been deactivated by the Live View window?

I hope all that makes sense. Let me know if something is not clear.

Thanks!
Steve
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Re: Silent Photography Mode on D850

Postby xjubier » Sat Jun 15, 2019 2:40 pm

szigler511 wrote:I have a question about silent photography mode on the D850. I've been looking forward to using this feature on this camera because it eliminates the mechanical shutter for each exposure and eliminates potential vibrations. My plan is to include a LVPSTART command near the beginning of my script. It has been working well.

Here is my question. In the middle of the execution of a script, after the line with LVPSTART, I want to enter Live View window in SEM to check alignment and focus. So, while the script is loaded and active, I select "Live View" in the Camera menu of SEM. The Live View window opens, I adjust focus and alignment, and everything is fine. However, after I close the Live View window in SEM, the camera is no longer in silent photography mode for purposes of the active script. Reloading the script doesn't help because the time has already passed for the LVPSTART command.

Do you have any suggestions for the best way to reactivate silent photography mode in the script after it has been deactivated by the Live View window?

You'd need to issue another LVPSTART after the end of the manual live view; however this is not convenient as how can you know in advance when you'll end the manual live view... one way to overcome this could be multiple LVPSTART but again not great.
One way to do it is to start the manual live view at certain scheduled times and have a voice prompt saying 'begin manual Lv' and and 'end manual Lv' and do a LVPSTOP just before the 'begin manual Lv' and LVPSTART just after 'end manual Lv'. Not necessarily great either but workable.

But now lets have a practical look at this issue. Two things: it's clear you don't want to do this operation during totality and that you're looking at doing it say a few minutes before; two there are two thing to take note about operating the silent photography mode, noise will start to build up after a long use, and it uses more battery.
So my recommendations are:
1) Use silent photography mode with LVPSTART/LVPSTOP only to cover the totality period, say C2-20s to C3+20s; this will both avoid noise build-up and get the best pictures.
2) During the two partial phases use regular mirror lock-up as there is ample time to do so. And that way you can more easily use manual Lv to check focus and alignment; plus who wants to check focus and alignment during totality, it's already too late.

PS: thanks for the donation; please let me know where you'll be by e-mail
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Re: Silent Photography Mode on D850

Postby szigler511 » Sun Jun 16, 2019 4:53 pm

Hi Xavier!

Thanks for the feedback.

I didn't realize that sensor noise accumulated during silent photography mode on the D850, so your suggestion to execute LVPSTART between C2-20 sec and C3+20 sec is a great idea. I'll be using TAKEBST and RAMPUP commands at this time. I can achieve 70 frames for Baily's Beads at C2 and another 70 frames at C3. That will be awesome. Also, during totality, I can capture six 13-frame bracketed sequences plus three 4-sec earthshine images. Plenty of content!

I'll add a mirror lock-up command to the remaining images during the partial phases. I'll loop the TAKEPC command for this purpose and manually enter live view as needed.

Thanks as always for the help!
Steve
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Re: Silent Photography Mode on D850

Postby davidsliski » Sun Jun 30, 2019 5:10 pm

Hi Xavier,

Is there a way to lock up the mirror using the LVP command without going into silent mode with the D850? Silent mode cuts my frame rate by at least 1/2 and I would prefer to shoot faster.

Thanks,

David Sliski
As part of Jay Pasachoff's eclipse team.
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Re: Silent Photography Mode on D850

Postby xjubier » Mon Jul 08, 2019 2:49 am

davidsliski wrote:Is there a way to lock up the mirror using the LVP command without going into silent mode with the D850? Silent mode cuts my frame rate by at least 1/2 and I would prefer to shoot faster.

Not with the current version. I didn't notice this D850 limitation myself, and have maybe overlooked it, so I'll have to investigate when back home.
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