Any hopes of more than 3 exposures in bracket for 7D or 5D2?

Hi All -

I am going to shoot some holiday lighting scenes and was hoping to get a little more dynamic range by shooting more exposures. I supposed I could Av mode and do exposure compensation manually but I really prefer to do an AEB of 5 frames, but I think the 7D and 5D2 only support 3. I've read about whacky modes of setting C1 and C2 up for different bracketing ranges but at that point I would almost rather manually shoot the exposures myself - only issue is the timing/ghosting that will occur.

Any ideas out there?

It's annoying, isn't it?

I've always done it by exposure compensation - ie, bring down by, say -2 stops, take the three bracketed exposures, then take it to +2 stops and take another three - you end up duplicating shots (depending on your exposure compensation and bracketing range settings), but it's the best workaround I have so far.

I'd love for a 5-bracket (or more) option, like they do on Ni... but Canon don't really seem to think it's important.

Has anyone tried Magic Lantern?

From their site: Release 0.1.6 has support for custom brackets. Eventually this will also be supported with the scripting interface and you will be able to write your own bracketing algorithm to vary shutter, ISO, aperture and focus. Scripts will be triggered via a menu item, IR remote or perhaps a USB remote.

I don't have the Magic Lantern option for my two cameras, but yes, I hear it has this ability, along with others...

I thought I just read it can do 9 images in a bracket for HDR.

Personally, I agree with Canon. I'm not sure if I've ever used the bracketing for anything but checking if it works.

But that's me. My important subjects tend to move, so I don't want to waste two out of three exposures when I try to track them.

I would say the quickest way to handle it, is by using the quick change button and Exposure Compensation.

apersson850 wrote in post #13606208
Personally, I agree with Canon. I'm not sure if I've ever used the bracketing for anything but checking if it works.

But that's me.

Indeed, everyone's needs are different. And if you don't need bracketing, you don't need to enable it. However, for some of the photography I do, including urban exploring where you are in very dark places with bits of exterior light flooding in, you need to capture multiple images to capture the dynamic range properly, and where I could just hold the shutter down and get the iamges I need without thinking, I have to do this multiple shoot adjust expsoreu comp, and then figure out in post what images to include and to leave out from the HDR workflow.

It's not a deal breaker, but more than 3 bracketed exposures would save me enough time in a day to get quite a few more setups in...

Get a Promote.

I've done up to 20 shots at 1/3 intervals

300 ish but Great features on this thing =)

You can use the custom function to set another of different exposures. So, if you want 9, set up 2 CFs to achieve your needs.

thallikar wrote in post #13609237
You can use the custom function to set another of different exposures. So, if you want 9, set up 2 CFs to achieve your needs.

There are no custom functions that do this.

Perhaps you mean, as was already suggested in this thread above, using the various camera C1/C2/C3 user modes to register/store differing amounts of exposure compensation - and yes, this is another workaround, albeit not an optimal one (actually manually changing exposure compensation is actually easier than this, for various reasons).

Or did you mean something else?

You could just wait for Magic Lantern Unified for your 5dmkii. It's gonna allow up to 9 shots with up to 3EV spacing afair.

I've tried the beta, which still had a few quirks, but I guess the public version will be released soon.

A5forfighting wrote in post #13608759
Get a Promote.

I've done up to 20 shots at 1/3 intervals

300 ish but Great features on this thing =)

Wow.. that's not a bad item at all.

http://www.promotesyst​ems.com/products/Promo​te-Control.html

You'll have to wait for the FW update from magic lantern to get this in the camera.

i have C1 set for -2.5 0 +2.5 and find it quick and adequate for 95% of my HDR needs
you can set the C2 for -4 0 +4 and than all you need is to change form c1 to c2 (other combos are possible to avoid dual 0 setting)
5 AEB would be nice but for me not a bi deal