Bad Day Out

Well we all have had bad days photographing.

Since I'm reasonably good at fireworks, I thought I would try a new location. This time I didn't forget anything or get there too late to get a good spot. I spent 3 hours telling people where the fireworks would be coming from and "no I'm not a professional photographer".

I have User Custom 3 for fireworks (Manual, f8, ISO 100, 6 seconds), being the last position on the switch it's the easiest to check in the dark. I then adjust the shutter speed for the type of fireworks display (Rapid Fire or Slow). Even though it's been 3 years since I last shot fireworks I was very confidant it would all go well.

Just as the fireworks started the Hahnel Remote Shutter Release stopped working (even though I had tested it hours before). Testing it this morning its dead.

The second thing that went wrong was that I was unable to review the images while it's shooting. I know this was a feature on my old 350D I used it all the time. I don't seem to be able to get the 7D to do the same thing. It's highly likely that I set something wrong on the 7D, but I cannot get the display to come up unless I release the shutter. Does anybody know if this is possible?

The end result for the 10 minute fireworks display and one of the best I've seen, I have less than 80 shots. Half of the shots I did take were rubbish and It looks like I may less than 10 keepers.:(

Sorry for the Dummy Spit.... and Happy New Year:D

;-). I would NEVER leave the IS on when shooting water/ice falls from a tripod.

Just enough blur to ruin every shot.

Which hähnel remote? I have the Giga T Pro II, and it 'died' on Tuesday (I last used less than a month ago). The transmitter appeared to be functioning (display working), I had put a fresh LR2 battery in the receiver at the last use. It fired the shutter as a wired remote (plugging the cable directly into the transmitter), just not wirelessly. Turned out replacing the CR2032 battery in the transmitter was needed – apparently it can have sufficient power to do everything except send a wireless signal. For location shooting, that means bringing an eyeglass screwdriver along with a spare battery (or just changing it out beforehand).

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Originally Posted by Kayaker72

;-). I would NEVER leave the IS on when shooting water/ice falls from a tripod.

Just enough blur to ruin every shot.

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LOL, I guess there's one advantage to use non-IS lenses!

Dave

10 minutes in total darkness with an equipment malfunction will test your skills.

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Originally Posted by Raid

The second thing that went wrong was that I was unable to review the images while it's shooting. I know this was a feature on my old 350D I used it all the time. I don't seem to be able to get the 7D to do the same thing. It's highly likely that I set something wrong on the 7D, but I cannot get the display to come up unless I release the shutter. Does anybody know if this is possible?

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I've been using PocketWizard MultiMaxes (with one Plus3 thrown in) to trigger remotes, and my 1D3 and 7D often become my remote(s). The 1D3 is reasonably predictable: with the pre-release cable connected between PW and camera, if the Tx PW has the zone selected, the 1D3 considers itself "busy" and ignores its human other than simple things like aperture (little wheel), ISO (big wheel), focus point selection (joystick) and perhaps live view (can't remember if this is available). The 7D becomes somewhat possessed: if the cable is connected to the Rx PW, the 7D ignores its human pretty much completely. I've monkeyed with it a bit, but not nearly enough to understand what's going on. Regardless, I think this is the same as what you were seeing, so perhaps it's just a "7D thing". :(

My remote horror stories:

I started out with a wired Canon RS-80N3 remote, but it does not have a timer and I found myself wanting more than 30 sec exposures far to often at night. I was timing with my watch, which actually works pretty good. The accuracy was OK since a 1/3 stop is 20 sec for a 1 minute exposure. But it was a pain at night. So I got a wired (or tethered if you wish) intervalometer (Canon TC-80N3 remote timer). This worked well and never failed until I set up the tripod in 5 feet of water with the camera about a foot above the surface of the water. With this set up I would hang the remote on the ball mount so it would be suspended above the water, or I would tie a knot in the cord so it hung above the water. After doing this several times I got cocky and managed to drop it in the water... felt really stupid. That toasted that remote.

Now I have a wireless Vello Shutterboss intervalometer. It is great not being tied to the camera. This is quit handy, and I am less likely to accidentally drop it in the water (it can stay in my pocket). The problem is it locks up to often (activates the shutter and gets stuck in that mode). You can cycle the power on the camera to close the shutter, but the remote does not clear. Turning the transmitter on and off still does not clear it. The only way to get it to operate again is to pull the batteries from the hand held trigger device and then put them back in. Unfortunately, this happens to often, and usually at night. A couple of times the transmitter changed channels on me for no apparent reason (now the trigger would not work). However, I still have my back up plan: My original wired remote and my watch.:)

I understand your frustration.

Pat

Pat, that's too bad about the lockup with the Vello unit. I considered that along with the hähnel, went with the latter for the smaller size of the transmitter (can be concealed in my hand if I'm in the shot, but still bigger than the little Canon RC1 that doesn't work with the 1-series). No problems with the hähnel (the battery issue was obviously a wetware problem), it works reliably. The only annoyances are related to auto-off timeouts – the transmitter shuts off after only 1 minute (adjustable), and the receiver doesn't seem to time out at all (meaning the battery dies in storage, and it's an LR2 not a 'standard' battery).

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Originally Posted by neuroanatomist

Pat, that's too bad about the lockup with the Vello unit. I considered that along with the hähnel, went with the latter for the smaller size of the transmitter (can be concealed in my hand if I'm in the shot, but still bigger than the little Canon RC1 that doesn't work with the 1-series). No problems with the hähnel (the battery issue was obviously a wetware problem), it works reliably. The only annoyances are related to auto-off timeouts – the transmitter shuts off after only 1 minute (adjustable), and the receiver doesn't seem to time out at all (meaning the battery dies in storage, and it's an LR2 not a 'standard' battery).

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I had the hahnel in my cart and was about to order it, but at the last minute I changed my mind and switched to the Vello. Live and learn.

As for the battery on the hahnel, I am notorious for not turning things off. An auto-off seems like a good idea. It saves the battery on my camera a lot.

Thanks for the infomation. I will have to look into it again.

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Originally Posted by conropl

I had the hahnel in my cart and was about to order it, but at the last minute I changed my mind and switched to the Vello. Live and learn.

As for the battery on the hahnel, I am notorious for not turning things off. An auto-off seems like a good idea. It saves the battery on my camera a lot.

Thanks for the infomation. I will have to look into it again.

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Auto off is a great idea. But for me, 60 seconds is too fast. For example, if it takes a couple of minutes to pose kids for a portrait, I can't just push the transmitter button and snap. 3-5 minutes would be better, ideally it would be user selectable, you can program so many other things... Conversely, the receiver doesn't seem to shut itself off ever, so if you forget you may find the battery dead next time.

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Originally Posted by neuroanatomist

Auto off is a great idea. But for me, 60 seconds is too fast. For example, if it takes a couple of minutes to pose kids for a portrait, I can't just push the transmitter button and snap. 3-5 minutes would be better, ideally it would be user selectable, you can program so many other things... Conversely, the receiver doesn't seem to shut itself off ever, so if you forget you may find the battery dead next time.

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Agreed. I was talking about the reciever having an auto-shut off since the battery on the Vello reciever is the one that is a pain to change out. That is the good part of the Vello - the transmitter will turn off, but a quick bump of the shutter button and it is back on. The reciever has a longer shut off (something like 5-10 minutes).

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Originally Posted by neuroanatomist

Which hähnel remote? .

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The HRC 280, and there are no smarts in it. It seems to permanently have the camera shutter in Half Press.

I spent most of today trying to get the shot image to be displayed while continuously shooting, but still no luck.

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Originally Posted by Raid

The HRC 280, and there are no smarts in it. It seems to permanently have the camera shutter in Half Press.

I spent most of today trying to get the shot image to be displayed while continuously shooting, but still no luck.

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I have done a series of shots for time laps with both the Canon and Vello intervalometers and they both would display the shot and shot data between shots (assuming there was sufficient time between shots). I have done it on a 7D and 1DX. I always go in and shut off the preview so it would not wear down the battery.

I just tried it on my 7D to make sure I remembered correctly, and it works perfectly. I set it at a 10 second interval and it would take a shot, show a preview for 4 seconds (preview is set to 4 seconds), and then switch to back panel display of the shot settings before taking the next shot.

I assume you do not have preview turned off as one of the stored Cx functions that you are using. I do not know what is going on for you; but I do not think it is a 7D thing... may be a compatibility issue with your remote.

Pat

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Originally Posted by conropl

I do not think it is a 7D thing... may be a compatibility issue with your remote.

Pat

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Conropl

Thanks for doing the testing, I understand that an Intervalometer always looks like a single button press while a wired remote needs the continuous shooting to be on to get it to work. So this is the reason why one displays the preview and the other doesn't.

Managed to get a Giga Pro II, (took forever to arrive) and tried it out over the weekend. So far I'm impressed, certainly has a lot of options to explore so with some more fireworks events coming up should be interesting to see what I do produce.

Thanks everybody for your advice.