Exposures over a second - timing?

[Steve Baggett]

I will offer 4 technical solutions: (1) Take a second mortgage and buy the Linhof Prontor Professional timer #022502 ($640 at B&H). (2) Find an old, used Autoknips timer 1/2-30 seconds mechanical shutter release. I found one for $30 on ebay. (Previous poster alluded to this device. Beautiful little German-crafted gizmos.) (3) Digital countdown timer from Radio Shack ($20). They are also sold in kitchen supply retailers. (4) "One-Mississippi, Two-Mississippi", ...

[Bill Glickman]

This question keeps poping up...and all of us are looking for an inexpensive solution for long exposure. I agree that a simple count will get you close enough, but it sure would be nice to have a simple timer similar to the prontor but not be worth more than our cameras. A great solution, which I never took the time to build, is to have a Canon EOS remote control with timer and battery self contained which would control a solenoid working the cable release. It would cost under $100 and would be ideal for even longer exposures, I think up to 5 + minutes. If someone goes through the trouble of locating the right solenoid and perfects this, maybe they will be kind enough to share it with the list....

[Joseph Dickerson]

Gavin,

Any of the above will work. If you opt for counting the seconds don?t use the old one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi. You?ll get much better photos by counting one-Ansel Adams, two-Ansel Adams.......

Joe Dickers

[Doug Paramore]

Note to Joe: One Ansel Adams...two Ansel Adams...works better with the old thick emulsion films. You get better results with modern films by using one John Sexton...two John Sexton...

Regards,

[Pete Andrews]

Or, for automatic reciprocity compensation: One elephant, two big elephants, 3 giant elephants, 4 enormous elephants, 5 extremely big elephants, 6 extremely giant ..... etc.

[chris jordan]

i don't believe how unsophisticated you guys are. jeez. counting "one elephant..." could result in gross errors. don't you know that the right way to do it is count "one one-thousand, two one-thousand, etc....???"

HA!!!!

~chris jordan (Seattle)

[David A. Goldfarb]

Using a cheap quartz metronome set to 120 (2 beats per second--then subdivide to 4 or more beats per second in your head) for exposures in this range can be quite accurate. Musicians require precision on the order of thousandths of a second.

Ansel Adams used a metronome in the darkroom to time dodging and burning exposures before they were commonly built into enlarging timers.

[neil poulsen]

Pete Andrews' method of "One elephant, two big elephants, 3 giant elephants, etc." has the advantage that it takes care of reciprosity at the same time that it takes care of exposure. Very nice.

[Jim Dainis]

Set the shutter for one second and make three exposures. Tell everyone not to move. Seriously, with the failure of the law of reciprocity, if my meter indicated 3 seconds, I would give it about 10 seconds for black and white film. At these exposure times, being off a bie isn't going to hurt, it may even help.

[Walt Cleveland]

Doug Paramore - Very good (!) inside joke.