Clarification on Interval Timer Setting for Canon R5 Mark II

XN_Stein said:

I would like to confirm if my understanding of the interval timer on the Canon R5 Mark II is correct.

I’m planning to take astrophotography shots with a 5-second exposure and would like a 2-second gap between each shot, shooting continuously (unlimited photos).

According to the manual, I need to set two parameters:

• Interval

• Number of shots

For the number of shots, I understand that setting it to 00 means “unlimited.”

However, I’m unsure about what to set for the interval. Should I enter 7 seconds or 2 seconds?

From my reading of the manual, it seems that the “interval” refers to the time between the start of one exposure and the start of the next, not the gap between exposures.

Click to expand...

XN_Stein said:

So, to achieve a 5 s exposure and a 2 s gap, the interval should be:

5 s (exposure) + 2 s (gap) = 7 s

Hence, I believe I should set the interval to 00:00:07.

Could you please confirm if this understanding is correct? Thank you.

Click to expand...

XN_Stein said:

I would like to confirm if my understanding of the interval timer on the Canon R5 Mark II is correct.

I’m planning to take astrophotography shots with a 5-second exposure and would like a 2-second gap between each shot, shooting continuously (unlimited photos).

According to the manual, I need to set two parameters:

• Interval

• Number of shots

For the number of shots, I understand that setting it to 00 means “unlimited.”

However, I’m unsure about what to set for the interval. Should I enter 7 seconds or 2 seconds?

From my reading of the manual, it seems that the “interval” refers to the time between the start of one exposure and the start of the next, not the gap between exposures.

Click to expand...

XN_Stein said:

So, to achieve a 5 s exposure and a 2 s gap, the interval should be:

5 s (exposure) + 2 s (gap) = 7 s

Hence, I believe I should set the interval to 00:00:07.

Could you please confirm if this understanding is correct? Thank you.

Click to expand...

Andy01 said:

XN_Stein said:

I would like to confirm if my understanding of the interval timer on the Canon R5 Mark II is correct.

I’m planning to take astrophotography shots with a 5-second exposure and would like a 2-second gap between each shot, shooting continuously (unlimited photos).

According to the manual, I need to set two parameters:

• Interval

• Number of shots

For the number of shots, I understand that setting it to 00 means “unlimited.”

However, I’m unsure about what to set for the interval. Should I enter 7 seconds or 2 seconds?

From my reading of the manual, it seems that the “interval” refers to the time between the start of one exposure and the start of the next, not the gap between exposures.

Click to expand...

I don't have R5 ii but every other Canon I have used with intervalometer (including current R8) works like that.

Andy01 said:

So, to achieve a 5 s exposure and a 2 s gap, the interval should be:

5 s (exposure) + 2 s (gap) = 7 s

Hence, I believe I should set the interval to 00:00:07.

Could you please confirm if this understanding is correct? Thank you.

Click to expand...

Correct.

Something to bear in mind as it tripped me (and others) up - for some odd reason, in spite of having fast burst speeds, large buffers and fast cards, the Canons I have used all seem to need at least a couple of seconds between shots when using the intervalometer.

For example, with my 6D ii if I tried to take 15 second exposures reliably, I needed to set the interval at 18 seconds. From memory 17 seconds worked for most but it sometimes "dropped" a frame. Using 16 seconds for a total of 10 shots often resulted in around 4-5 shots being taken, not the full 10.

For reasons I don't understand, the camera can take a burst of 20 shots in a couple of seconds, but needs at least 2 seconds between shots when using intervalometer :-O

And this had nothing to do with settings like LENR which were all turned off.

Click to expand...

Andy01 said:

XN_Stein said:

I would like to confirm if my understanding of the interval timer on the Canon R5 Mark II is correct.

I’m planning to take astrophotography shots with a 5-second exposure and would like a 2-second gap between each shot, shooting continuously (unlimited photos).

According to the manual, I need to set two parameters:

• Interval

• Number of shots

For the number of shots, I understand that setting it to 00 means “unlimited.”

However, I’m unsure about what to set for the interval. Should I enter 7 seconds or 2 seconds?

From my reading of the manual, it seems that the “interval” refers to the time between the start of one exposure and the start of the next, not the gap between exposures.

Click to expand...

I don't have R5 ii but every other Canon I have used with intervalometer (including current R8) works like that.

Andy01 said:

So, to achieve a 5 s exposure and a 2 s gap, the interval should be:

5 s (exposure) + 2 s (gap) = 7 s

Hence, I believe I should set the interval to 00:00:07.

Could you please confirm if this understanding is correct? Thank you.

Click to expand...

Correct.

Something to bear in mind as it tripped me (and others) up - for some odd reason, in spite of having fast burst speeds, large buffers and fast cards, the Canons I have used all seem to need at least a couple of seconds between shots when using the intervalometer.

For example, with my 6D ii if I tried to take 15 second exposures reliably, I needed to set the interval at 18 seconds. From memory 17 seconds worked for most but it sometimes "dropped" a frame. Using 16 seconds for a total of 10 shots often resulted in around 4-5 shots being taken, not the full 10.

For reasons I don't understand, the camera can take a burst of 20 shots in a couple of seconds, but needs at least 2 seconds between shots when using intervalometer :-O

And this had nothing to do with settings like LENR which were all turned off.

Click to expand...

John_Hoffman said:

I think the difference is in the first case you are just filling the buffer and then the buffer wires to the card. In the second case each image is being written to the card as it is taken; the camera sees it as a single shot.

Click to expand...

Andy01 said:

John_Hoffman said:

I think the difference is in the first case you are just filling the buffer and then the buffer wires to the card. In the second case each image is being written to the card as it is taken; the camera sees it as a single shot.

Click to expand...

Perhaps. But if I take a single shot normally, and go to press the shutter button again straight away I don't have to wait 2-3 seconds for the camera to be ready. This is because the camera has a buffer and AFAIK it always writes to buffer and then the buffer empties to the card, whether it be a single shot or a burst.

Also, with a fast UHS-II card the card can write around 6-7 RAW files per second (on my R8, not 6D ii), so a single shot should be written to card in a faction of a second.

I have not been able to find a logical explanation for the delay.

Click to expand...

Sittatunga said:

Perhaps I'm just too lazy to set up the interval timer, but I really don't see the advantage apart from doing time-lapse videos which need a significant delay between shots anyway.

Click to expand...