After 30 sec exposure on bulb my Nikon d60 has 20 second wait before it will let me take another picture. Why?

30 seconds, or when you put it om B (Bulb) press the shutter release button to start exposure and wait as long as you want. Then again press the shutter release button to stop exposure. You need to track time yourself.

When you want to use the time exposure with your remote control, you need to be in the M mode (Manual) then you can select time Bulb. One step farther then 30 seconds. Then you can press the ML-L3 to start and again after some time to stop the exposure.

You should only have to press the button twice to take a picture. In the BULB setting, the first press opens the shutter and the second press closes the shutter. With the long exposure NR turned on, it doubles the picture taking time. If you take a one-minute exposure, for example, the remote will be ignored for a minute after the second press.

Try turning off the long exposure NR just to see whether two presses do the job. If it doesn't, please feel free to reply to this post and provide any additional information you can.

For really long exposures (longer than 30 seconds) you need to set the camera to the Manual exposure mode and set the shutter speed to bulb. This keeps the shutter open as long as you hold down the shutter release button. Since this is inconvenient, a much easier way is with the remote.

Press the [info] button to bring up the shooting information display. Press the [i] button to put the cursor into the display. Use the cursor keys to move to the release mode (fifth item from the top along the right edge) and press the OK button. The Quick-response remote mode (marked with an icon of the remote control) fires the shutter when you press the button on the remote. the Delayed remote mode (marked with the remote and "2s") gives you two seconds to hide the remote behind your back when taking self-portraits.

In either of the remote modes, when the shutter speed is set to bulb the shutter opens when you press the button on the remote and stays open until you press the button again (or the camera battery dies). This way you can press the button, go and do something else for a while, then come back and press the button again.

Information on the release modes is in the "Release Mode" section of the manual (page 65 in my copy). Information on using the remote control is in the "Self-Timer and Remote Modes" section of the manual (page 67 in my copy).

The camera and basically telling you that the shutter speed has dropped below 1/30 of a second. Any speed below this requires the use of a tripos. In "P" mode the shutter speed can drop as low as 30 seconds and the F-stop aperture will be the lowest your lens will allow. So to me it's operating correctly. Be aware that if you make a photo when the camera is in Live mode when "LO" is on the screen the picture could take several second to complete.

The "--" is the equivalent of the bulb setting with the remote control. The first press of the button opens the shutter and starts the exposure. Another press of the button closes the shutter and ends the exposure. This is so you don't have to hold the button down and risk a bird flying through the beam (and to conserve battery power).

With the same exposure settings, you should get the same result. When using Bulb in Manual mode, you also need to be sure you have set the lens aperture to the largest opening (lowest number). And don't forget to set ISO to 1600. Since the D80 has shutter speeds as long as 30" (minutes) I recommend you use them instead of Bulb, unless you need longer.

The blue areas are heat noise from long exposure -- other electronic components near the sensor are generating heat from the constant current flow. Be sure you check your Shooting Menu settings to set Long Exposure NR to ON and also High ISO NR to HIGH.

Hi, You can get into "Bulb" mode only when you increase the exposure more than 20 or 30 secs.
Try increasing the exposure by turn the wheel (towards left extreme) in manual mode. You should the Bulb mode now.
hope it works ... cheers

very nice :) happy shooting

Usually tele lenses need longer exposure,and mirror lenses need more than normal lenses.Try with 1sec, half sec,( 2 in the speed dial, not 2" ) or quarter sec (4 in the speed dial) exposures.

One more thing, you need good sturdy stands to hold cameras.