Bulb

Capture a timed long exposure from the camera

Bulb captures one long exposure from the connected camera body. Use it when the exposure time you need is longer than a normal shutter-speed value, or when you want the app to start and end the exposure after a fixed number of seconds.

The app shoot/status area reports Bulb progress. When the camera and file save have finished, the status changes to Bulb complete.

Page controls

  • Duration(secs) is the requested exposure duration. It accepts 5 through 1800 seconds.
  • Start begins the Bulb exposure.
  • Cancel requests cancellation of the active Bulb run.

The Duration(secs) value is saved with the current profile.

Before you start

Bulb can start when the camera is connected, the connection is not changing, the body supports capture, and no other workflow is running. If the normal Shoot command is not ready, Bulb is not ready either.

Check the Body controls before starting a run. Bulb uses the current camera settings, including ISO, aperture, image quality, body destination, and storage path.

Some bodies require the shutter speed to be set to Bulb on the physical body or body menu before pressing Start. Some body or provider combinations may not expose a usable remote Bulb path. If the body is not ready for Bulb, set Bulb on the camera body, wait for the camera to become ready, and try again.

Running Bulb

  1. Connect the camera.
  2. Set the camera exposure, image quality, destination, and Path options.
  3. For bodies that require it, set the camera body's shutter speed to Bulb.
  4. Open Workflows/Bulb.
  5. Set Duration(secs).
  6. Select Start.

The app starts the exposure, waits for the requested duration, then ends the exposure. If the camera is set to save more than one file per exposure, one Bulb run can produce multiple final files for the same capture.

Cancelling

Select Cancel when you want to end the active Bulb run before the requested duration has elapsed. Cancellation asks the camera to terminate the active exposure. After the camera ends the exposure, the app still waits for the capture transfer and final save work to finish before it is ready for the next command.

After cancellation, you can adjust Duration(secs) and start a new Bulb run when the camera is ready again.

Saving Bulb runs with Path

Bulb uses the same Path destination rules as normal still capture. If you want every Bulb run to land in a time-based folder, use a Path template with the group timestamp token.

For example:

c:\images\bulb\@GRP\@GCT4

Each Bulb run receives a fresh group timestamp when it starts. Use @UGRP instead when the run folder should use Coordinated Universal Time. Open the Path help page for the full token reference and more destination examples.

Capture safety

When Bulb saves to the computer, the app treats the save as a capture transaction. The app does not treat the capture as successful until the expected final Path output is saved and verified.

If a required save check or final Path copy fails, the app shows a capture failure, withholds successful capture completion, preserves any recovery files that are available, and cancels pending Bulb workflow commands.