intervalometer + Dead Battery = No photos written?

Started by TheCheatOSX, January 24, 2013, 03:45:32 PM

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TheCheatOSX

I've been using a normal wired remote and shooting a series of manual 30" star trail photos at night to stack later in software. Last night I thought I would give ML a try with the intervalometer settings instead.

Everything looked normal. I did a few test shots and all looked good so I let it rip. I checked it about every hour to make sure it was still running and the battery hadn't died yet. At the four and a half hour mark I was ready to call it a night and when I fetched the camera the battery was dead. I expected it would happen at some point as I had already shot the night before. I bagged the camera (600D) and brought it indoors overnight to let it come back up to temp.  This morning I pulled the card and there are only 2 photos on it! It looks like the first two test shots I left on there when I started.

I'm perplexed. Is this normal ML intervalometer behavior? Does it only write tot he card at the end when you stop it the intervalometer? This doesn't seem logical to me but I can't explain it otherwise. 

Thanks for any insight so I can prevent future disappointment.

I'm running ML v2.3 on a 600D.

a1ex

ML does not write itself the photos on the card, it just tells to Canon firmware to take a picture.

Can you reproduce the issue?

dexMilano

I did a startrail with ML and it was perfect.
You do not have to use the silent mode!

dex

scrax

The only thing that I could think that could cause this is that maybe Snap simulation was on?
I'm using ML2.3 for photography with:
EOS 600DML | EOS 400Dplus | EOS 5D MLbeta5- EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro  - EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM - EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM - 580EXII - OsX, PS, LR, RawTherapee, LightZone -no video experience-

tinyenormous

Hi, TheCheatOSX. I'm sorry to hear about your night. Did you hear the shutter firing when you checked up on it? When you say it was still running, what do you mean by that?

If AF was on, the mirror would probably have flipped, then it would search for focus and it probably would have not taken a picture. The mirror flipping could have sounded like the shutter was firing. For a multitude of reasons AF should be off for timelapses.

Also, after the shot count gets to 9999 it will make a new folder. Is there any chance that you looked in the old folder, or that your card was full?

I've definitely fired off test shots, configured the intervalometer, and then forgot to turn it on before hitting the trash can button to start the process. Also I've left it on the "select a properly exposed photo" screen when bramping for hours... I find myself to blame far more often than ML.

Sherbert

I have had this same issue with my 600D. Don't keep using the card until you get your pictures off it! The pictures 'are' there! What I had to to do was use a recovery software while reading the card with an SD reader and not through the camera. Personally the software I used was Recuva. The crazy part is you may need to do a quick format on the card first before the recovery software can actually find the missing pictures, it's really odd. On Recuva I set it to do a deep scan and search the entire card after a quick format. I tried using the software before formatting the card and it only found a few pictures from other times I had used the card. Personally this software is a must for anyone! I managed to find all the pictures from a timelapse I had taken (16 second shutter time with ML intervalometer set to take pics like crazy with no limit) but they were all named the same thing: My name. Kinda creepy I thought at first until I realized I had put my name in the copyright section of the camera. I really hope you haven't used this card since then and you can get those pictures back. I was just searching for an answer to this problem too since I took a timelapse last night with a fresh card and fresh ML install and it did it to me again. I actually haven't had time to try and recover the latest batch of pics but I will do so later today and check back here with my results. It's a huge hassle if I have to recover the pictures every time I want to do a timelapse!

halho

Using my 60D I get the same problem.
I was shooting 30s exposures last night using intervalometer set to 'take pics like crazy'.
It was combined with Silent Picture 'Simple'.
I could see on the screen that the camera was working, and the red led was blinking, although at the end of the session there were no photos on the card.
During the session I see filenames in the middle of the liveview counting up so it seems the ML have plans to save the images.

I just tested this at home making the camera take 100 normal shots with 1s between.  There are no pictures on the card.

Using intervalometer without Silent Picture works as a charm.
However the silent picture would make my shutter last a little longer...

wolf

@halho
Did you look for your picture with the camera connected to your computer or did you use a card reader?
Silent pics have a .422 as suffix and aren't displayed on your SD card when the camera is connect via USB.

halho

Hi wolf. No pictures on the card regardless of method to read them. Connected directly to camera, through card reader or by looking through images using the camera - No trace of the images.
However I can see in the middle of the screen that it states B:\DCIMsomething.422 when taking the pictures.

And fiddling around with different settings I now got the 'Err 80', so I don't think I will bother trying the Silent Picture any more.