HDR & 50D - question ?

[slartibardfast]

i know some of the canons can be set to take more than 3 bracketed shots at a time. the question i have is can the 50D do this and if so how ?

Thanks

Andy

[soren.martensen]

Hi Andy,

Not 100% sure - but I think it can only bracketed 3 shots at a time.
Have a look at this review http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos50d/page11.asp.
It is set in the second menu - first item, use the arrow keys to set the difference. Hope this helps
Regards
Soren

[soren.martensen]

sorry forgot to mention - if you use the timer, it will take all three shots without you having to press the shutter button, or this is how it is on my 450D (presume this should be the same on your 50D). This is extremely handy for me as I have a old and shaky tripod and i don't have to touch the camera in between exposures.
All up i think it's a nice camera you have got.

[canonloader]

Only the 1D MkII and newer bodies can take more than three bracketted shots. So far. The 1D Classic has the option in User Functions, but I have tried it and it didn't work right.

[aymanmb]

have a look at this page and also at the comment at the end of the page

it will help you

http://jefflynchdev.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/canon-50d-auto-exposure-bracketing/

[slartibardfast]

thanks all for comments. i take a lot of HDR, but the possability of shake when adjusting the camera to take more than 3 is annoying. i was after any settings to have 9 at a time, but that hope of mine is not going to come true. i will have to use my new sturdy tripod to reduce any camera shake / movement whilst changing the menu setting between bursts will have to surfice

thanks again

Andy

[CameraBuff]

That's a great link aymanmb, thanks - i just have to figure how to do that with my 40D

[TheFloridaShooter]

http://www.hdrlabs.com/tools/autobracketing.html scroll down on this site.

The Shooter

[Serrator]

Andy,

Unfortunately the 50D will only do 3 bracketed shots at a time...but there are a few ways to simplify and lessen your camera touching impacts, go to this thread for some methods:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=602775

[slartibardfast]

Thanks for all the links, had a busy evening reading them all. i will have to try the +4 to -4 with the exposure adjustment method.

Andy

[canonloader]

Overall, the only time you really need to use AEB is when you have a scene with movement in it, such as a landscape with slowly moving clouds. And then, even if you could get more than three frames in high speed burst, it would still cause the alignment problem. You might get away with it for three shots, and they do shoot at 6+ frames a second, but if you could shoot 9 frames, then the movement of the clouds would certainly be noticable.

On the other hand, if movement and alignment is no problem and you have a tripod to work from, then use a remote and take as many frames as you want by adjusting shutter speed for each shot. You can then go far more than just +/- 4 stops.

[Serrator]

I would add a bit from canonloader's thoughts in that the "only time" when AEB is needed.

I use AEB when I the photographer wants to be included in the scene such as this type image:http://www.flickr.com/photos/serrator/1272677453/sizes/l/in/set-72157601660525826/

I also use AEB to help with portrait type imagery where gathering the exposures as quickly as possible to minimize your subjects movements is a premium...like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/serrator/2708483559/sizes/l/in/set-72157606340150948/

Another aspect to to HDR and or any other capturing is trying to catch a scene in-between movements or during a 'people free' time, such as at popular tourist sites. Using AEB will give you the quickest method for gathering these as well.

I have found that clouds do not usually pose any problems for multi-set AEB efforts. Of course this depends on many factors as mentioned in the previous thread, but in general since clouds have "non-defined edges or are amorphous", ghosting issues are less if not completely dismissed. Here some examples of a stitched pano I did using a 3fps XT doing a 3 exp x 3 & 5 image wide stitch with many clouds with no apparent ghosting in the clouds:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1304/1317038100_7fe0ee34dc_b.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1146/1099649923_ae467e4595_b.jpg
if you want to view this much larger go here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/serrator/1099649923/sizes/o/in/set-72157601660525826/

Lastly here is a recent image I took using two back to back AEB shots using my 40D (6 exposures). I normally only go with 3 for the most part but since this scene had the sun directly in the view I wanted to go with more range. I do not find any issues with the cloud movements...see for yourself:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3049/3088711096_578e6b535b_b.jpg

[r.morales]

Today I was reading the book "A short course --XTI" and it said something about the auto flash could go 4 stop in burst mode .
It didn't make much sense and I'll read a few more times before trying . Someone may have used it and can explain it .
I was not looking for HDR - just reading up on flash