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On the Canon T3 in manual mode, is there a time limit to be observed for holding the shutter open?

paulw43
Apprentice

I plan on using my Canon T3 camera to take astronomy photos.  Is there a time limit that I should observe for holding the shutter open in manual mode.  I don't want to damage the camera.

3 REPLIES 3

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

I suspose there is a upper limit.  The camera has a heat shut off if the mech gets too hot.  You will need a fully charged battery.  I have several friends that use Rebels to do astro-photography and I have not heard them say they shut off or were damaged.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

Here is the guy you need to ask Tom Kartinez  He knows everythign about astro-photograpky.  He is a nationaly published photographer.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

TCampbell
Elite
Elite

I'm wondering what you're wanting to do that requires long exposures.

 

When I do astro-imaging, the shutter will stay open for several minutes.  I have never hit a limit as to how long I can leave the shutter open... but there are reasons why I prefer not to leave the shutter open too long.  

 

For example, when I take images of the night sky, even though the sky is "dark" there is still the problem of light pollution.  After the shutter has been open long enough, everything starts to just look muddy because the black parts of the sky aren't so black.  It would be highly unusual for me to take an image longer than 10 minutes.

 

A common reason that people want to leave shutters open for a long time is to take star-trails or star-lapse shots.   But it turns out it works better to stack lots of shorter exposures (short being about 30 seconds each) because this is longe enough for stars to expose nicely but short enough to avoid collecting too much light from light pollution and turning the sky to mud.

 

This is why I said I'm wondering what you're wanting to do with long exposures... depending on your goal, there may be some other practical limits or issues and/or a different technique to achieve your desired result.

 

Long exposures will tend to drain the battery.  When I do astro-imaging, I use the Canon AC adapter. 

 

Tim Campbell
5D III, 5D IV, 60Da
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