Long Exposures - Bulb mode without holding down shutter button?

[peanutismint]

I'm trying to take some long exposures of stars with my Canon EOS 550D - I've managed to find and use the 'bulb mode' where the shutter stays open as long as you keep the button depressed, but obviously this introduces more movement to the camera and as such is not really the best method for long exposures.

I can of course buy a cheap remote shutter, but I'm just wondering if there's maybe a feature or setting I'm missing that turns the shutter release in bulb mode from 'momentary' to 'latch', that is to say instead of holding down the shutter release button for the duration of the shot, I'd be able to press it once at the start and then once at the end to close the shutter?

I guess I'd still be better off buying a cheap remote as pressing the button to close the shutter could still introduce some camera shake, but any ideas for now until i can get out to a camera shop??

 

[peanutismint]

Or for the time being you could use the inbuilt timer. Set it for 5secs and voila no shake

Sorry, could you explain a bit more about this method? If you're just meaning I could set the self-timer, I don't think it'd work in bulb mode, as you have to keep holding the shutter (that's the whole point of this) but I could be wrong... In any case, I'd still introduce shake on the 'way out', so to speak...

Or do what they did 100 years ago and just cover up the lens with a cap or cloth, considering you're shooting in the dark there should be no other light leaking in, also remember put the eye cap on just in case.

That's not a bad idea - but again, without being able to manually 'latch-open' the shutter, I'm still gonna have to keep my finger on the button the whole time....

 

[peanutismint]

Hahah that sounds like a good kludge - I'll try it! Although I'll hopefully be popping into town sometime today so I may just go buy a remote....

Thanks for all the suggestions guys!

 

[peanutismint]

I finally managed to find a remote and it works like a charm - thanks for all the suggestions though!