bulb

I want to take a long exposure of the night sky with my Nikon D50. I
have a Sigma 28-300 lens. I am using the camera setting "M" and "MF"
and trying to set the shutter spped to "bulb" (as it indicates in the
manual) so that I can use my wireless remote. I do not seem to be able
to do this. Can anyone help please?
Nuala

nuala m wrote:

I want to take a long exposure of the night sky with my Nikon D50. I
have a Sigma 28-300 lens. I am using the camera setting "M" and "MF"
and trying to set the shutter spped to "bulb" (as it indicates in the
manual) so that I can use my wireless remote. I do not seem to be able
to do this. Can anyone help please?

You have to dig into the menu to make the remote available, you are
doing that right?

You need to be in Manual mode and I can't remember exactly when or why
but you'll occasionally get shutter readings all the way to 30 seconds,
then when you should get "bulb" you'll get "double hash" or something
similar. Try tripping the shutter by the remote, remember there are
settings for 10 sec delay, 2 sec delay and immediate fire, then you
should see the "bulb" reading. Don't forget to set the long exposure
toggle to keep the sensor from heating and producing excess noise.
Sorry I don't have the camera with me at the moment but when I get home
I'll run through it and see if there is anything else "odd". I've
found the D50 manual to have a few shortcomings when reaching the
extremes of the camera's capabilities. Download the D70s manual and
where the cameras have similar functions the D70s manual often explains
it in clearer terms.

Oh, and don't forget to tap the shutter button to engage the thumbwheel
for the shutter speed setting, the thumbwheel only stays engaged for
about 8 seconds or so before powering down.

You Nikon characters have it tough! With my Pentax I have to go
through all the trouble of setting my Mode dial to "B" and plugging in
my cable switch!

Thanks this is very helpful. I will try out your suggestions.
Nuala