Hi David,
The maximum exposure possible on the camera is 30 seconds on manual or shutter priority modes. There are not a lot of situations where you need a 30 second exposure though.
I'm not sure whether you are saying 8 seconds is the maximum setting you have found, or whether 8 seconds is the longest you have ever tried??
I have done some night photography of stars just as an experiment, and you can use the 30 second exposure in that kind of a situation (interesting results). Other than that, you might want a long exposure to capture traffic headlight/taillight trails with a high F stop. There are a few situations where this is useful, but not too many.
Be aware that the F-7x7 uses noise reduction on any exposure of 2.5 seconds or greater, meaning that whatever your shutter speed is, the shot will take double that time to capture and record (30 seconds = 1 minute to capture and process). So if you are wanting shots in quick succession, noise reduction can be a disadvantage. Noise reduction works by exposing the CCD for x number of seconds, then when the screen says "processing" it closes the shutter, but keeps the CCD exposed for the same number of seconds again, to calulate the electronic noise which it is currently being exposed to. It then subtracts this electronic noise from the image it has just captured.
Does this answer your question?
Andrew |
