Cameras & Camcorders

[TechGirl]

Hi,

Whats the difference between the  bulb mode & the time mode in the manual setting on a nikon D60 DSLR?

I put the camera in the buld mode to able to shoot the fireworks but when i would change a setting  to be able to use my wireless remote it went from bulb to Time.

How can i use the bulb mode & still set it to the point where i can use my wireless remote? 

[Allan-BBY Community Connector · Accepted solution]

Hi TechGirl,
 
From reading through your manual I show that Time mode is the mode that is set when using the wireless remote for this camera (in my opinion Time mode is superior to Bulb mode).
 
In Bulb mode you have to hold the shutter button on your camera depressed the entire time you want the shutter to be open. In Time mode you press the shutter button on your wireless remote to open the shutter, and after the desired time you want to expose your image you press the shutter button on the remote a second time and it closes the shutter.
 
According to your manual to use Time mode properly you first set the camera to Bulb, then set the Release mode to Delayed remote or Quick-response remote, then press the shutter button on your remote to open the shutter, and lastly you should press the shutter button on your remote to close the shutter. The difference between Delayed remote and Quick-response remote is with Delayed remote the shutter won't open until after two seconds form the shutter button being pressed (mostly used for self portraits), while the shutter is immediately opened when you press the shutter button on your remote in Quick-response remote mode. Directions and explanations of all of this start on page 46 of your user manual.
 
Thanks for posting,
Allan
Community Connector
Best Buy® Corporate

[Entropy]

It looks like the difference between bulb mode and time mode is that with bulb mode, the shutter stays open while the shutter button is held.

In time mode, the shutter opens on the first press of the shutter button, and then closes on the second press.  So it's basically the same as bulb mode except instead of holding something down to keep the shutter open, you click once to open and once to close.

This is a pretty good solution for the fact that "pure" bulb mode and IR wireless remotes tend to be a pretty unreliable/unpredictable combination.