X100t shutter speed dial won't rotate to B

[joejdf]

Hey Everyone,

I recently purchased an x100t off eBay and love the camera. However, the shutter speed dial on mine won't rotate to  B - bulb. It will only go so far as T, limiting my maximum exposure time to 30 seconds. Is there another trick to getting the dial to B, or is my camera broken? Thanks for reading and to anyone who might know the answer!

- Joe

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Edited May 6, 2016 by joejdf

[addicted2light]

My guess is that it is broken, sorry.

 

To be safe, just try moving the aperture on another value other than "A" (I don't have the camera anymore, and I don't recall any locking mechanism of the dial linked to the aperture, but you never know...)

[joejdf]

Thanks, but unfortunately that didn't work. I suppose my next question is if anyone knows of approved FujiFilm repair shops. My guess is that the camera is not under warranty. Thanks!

[addicted2light]

Sorry to hear that.

 

I don't know what you shoot, but you could circumvent the need of having to sent the camera out for a repair using the continuous advance + a cable shutter release + a stacking program or Photoshop*

 

*load the images in layers, align them, and then change the opacity following the formula "opacity = 100 / position of the image in the stack", i.e. first image in a 10 images stack from the bottom gets an opacity of 100 (100 / 1), second image gets 50 (100 / 2), third image gets 33 (100 / 3) etc.

 

Basically you'd merge then a series of 30s exposures, with the same effect (or almost the same effect, depending on the subject and the amount of stacked images) of a cumulative longer exposure (10 images of 30s each = a single 300s image), and with the added benefit of less / no long exposure noise and less noise (noise is random, so it gets cancelled out when merging the images this way, as well as subjects that'll move between exposures)

[joejdf]

Thank you! Honestly that's a bit more advanced than I typically go in Photoshop, but good to know. I do have a cable shutter release, and was looking on the camera for where that might be inserted, hoping that it would override the bulb setting. I found the microphone/remote release connector but the jack didn't fit. Do you know what the proper size is? If if I acquire it, would that enable me to take longer exposures - or would the dial still need to be in the bulb position for that.

Thanks!

[addicted2light]

You'll need an "old school" threaded cable release, that screws into the shutter button.

 

Something like this one:

 

40" 100cm Camera Shutter Control Cable Mechanical Locking Release Remote Cord

 

Good news is that these are super cheap.

 

Bad news is that unfortunately one of these will do nothing to overcome the 30s limit, hence my suggestion of using stacking in Photoshop or in some other, more "automatized" software.

[joejdf]

Thanks so much! And thanks for your tutorial on meshing together the various exposures. I'll definitely go that route before a repair. Definitely appreciate it!

[addicted2light]

You're welcome!

 

Btw, if you have the "Extended" or the cloud version of Photoshop you can as well use the (I think is called) "median" script to accomplish the same in a more automated and faster manner.