Hello all, I live in Namsom, its surrounded by mountains and every night we have storms now, sometimes as many as 4 on the go at the same time, fantastic sheet ligtning and earth strikes, I have an Olympus fe-180/x-745 digi camera, about 7 months old, ive read the manual back to front and looked on the website, but i cant find a way to hold the shutter open to capture these images, does anybody have ideas about how to do this?

Im going back to UK for a holiday next month, perhaps i should bring my old Yashica FX3, i know i can hold the shutter open with that!

Thanks in advance for any help, Lickey..

Lickey mate, I dont think that digital cameras work in the same way the old SLR film ones do. Now Im only just learning myself as I bought a Nikon D40 but I believe that you need to manually decrease the ISO settings and F stops. This will be the same as letting the shutter stay open on the old camera. As said mate I aint no David Bailey so somebody out there may be able to correct me but just have a play with the settings and see what you come up with. I got some cracking pics by using one of the pre set settings for capturing action shots. It takes around 7 shots for each press. I just kept pointing to where the storm was and pressing. Lots of pics of sky but a couple of good ones. Most of the pics I take recenly have me bike in them ha ha ha. Happy snapping mate.

Does the camera have a "bulb" setting? That is the one that will let you hold open the shutter as long as you want. Best to do this with a cable release otherwise your finger on the shutter will shake the image.

A quick check on the web would indicate that the Olympus does not have a bulb mode (the Nikon D40 does).

However, you can set the shutter speed up to 4 seconds. I have found that 2 seconds is about right for capturing lightning. Set the camera up on a tripod or firm surface; and then click away with a 2 second exposure during a storm. Some shots will just be black, but sometimes you will capture lightning. If you can set the ISO and aperture, then ISO 100 will keep the noise down and F8 should be about right.

The lightning shot on this link:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...51511&st=75

was shot at 2 seconds at F8 and ISO 200

Good luck!

Hi Dunc, ive just played with the cam and it seems the only way is Auto and flash disabled, it takes about 2/3 seconds to take a pic of the night sky, will check other modes,ie sport ect to see if it will continue clicking away, at the moment i cant see a way of changing the ISO settings, but will delve a bit more this afternoon, ah ha, bike pics!! my favorite is my ZZR1100 flat out, on a summer sunday summer morning at 6.30am, took a pic of the clocks, redlining in top gear showing 176mph on the speedo, A14 between Bury ST Edmunds and Newmarket,

Hughden, I did more searching other than the Olympus site and found some good info, as i told Dunc, will practise a bit more tomorrow, I looked at your pic on the link, Sureley this has to be an award winning pic! its clarity and the capture of natures forces at its best must be a prize winner! did you send it to BBC Weather site?

Thankyou both for your help, Lickey.

Have a Canon 400D here and it has a Bulb option to my relieve (just have it one week).

Just have to find a good spot where there is not too much artificial light.

Have a Canon 400D here and it has a Bulb option to my relieve (just have it one week).

Just have to find a good spot where there is not too much artificial light.

So does the Canon 40D.

Best to invest in a remote release and a good tripod

for this kind of photography to avoid any shake.

Hello all, I live in Namsom, its surrounded by mountains and every night we have storms now, sometimes as many as 4 on the go at the same time, fantastic sheet ligtning and earth strikes, I have an Olympus fe-180/x-745 digi camera, about 7 months old, ive read the manual back to front and looked on the website, but i cant find a way to hold the shutter open to capture these images, does anybody have ideas about how to do this?

Im going back to UK for a holiday next month, perhaps i should bring my old Yashica FX3, i know i can hold the shutter open with that!

Thanks in advance for any help, Lickey..

I know that the Canon DSLR's have a bulb setting and I would think the Nikons do also. For storm photography, ( I do alot of this myself) you will go broke trying it with a film camera. As the previous post said, buy a remote release and a tripod, open the shutter for 5-10 sec. at a time in the direction of the lightning and you will get some good shots. Focus on infinity then back off just a bit. It is also a good idea to check the focus after a few pics also just to make sure.