I'm looking to get a new slr and one of the things I'll be shooting A LOT of is HDR. My preference would be to get a canon 40d since it is in my price range and is a quality camera, but it only has + -3 stops. Other cameras (such as the more expensive nikon d300) have + -5 stops. Will I ever really use the extra two stops on each end or will -3 to +3 be sufficient for pro-quality hdr images?
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Exposure range for HDR
- Thread starter Frosteh
- Start date
Brian D. Schneider
Forum Pro
Actually the 40d is + - 2 stops. You can get more bu using exposure compensation
along with AEB.
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Brian Schneider
I would go for the highest range you can get on the condition that you don't shortcut anything else to get it. You can set to manual and set up any bracket range you want to try. The automated bracketing is just for convenience anyway.
oop to late, times up, can't go into detail.
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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without necessarily accepting it. -Aristotle
...oh, and I see by the lack of responses that I am right yet again.
oop to late, times up, can't go into detail.
--
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without necessarily accepting it. -Aristotle
...oh, and I see by the lack of responses that I am right yet again.
iMac therefore iAm
Veteran Member
Yep... set AEB to + - 2 stops, then dial in + - 2 stops EC and you have range of -4 - +4 on the 40D
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Brian Schneider
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The the D80 and the D90 has 3 frame 5 stop auto-bracketing.
bill hansen
Forum Pro
Your 3 frames should be plenty. I think you'll find that you rarely need + or - 4 stops, but you can get them using the exposure compensation technique mentioned above.
One of my friends has a new Nikon DSLR which allows 7 frames at various exposures. I don't know what model it is, and I've never seen the results (he doesn't do HDRs, but blends his exposures manually).
One of my friends has a new Nikon DSLR which allows 7 frames at various exposures. I don't know what model it is, and I've never seen the results (he doesn't do HDRs, but blends his exposures manually).
wmsson
Senior Member
3 stops at each end may or may not be enough to do effective HDR but that is the range for exposure bracketing and also is the most/under or overexposure that will be indicated in the viewfinder. You can do better than that with the 40D.
Assuming you will be using a tripod for your HDR, why not just take each shot manually using M? Then you could get as many extra stops as you will ever need at each end by changing the shutter speed. Is it really that difficult turn a dial each time you take a shot? And you need only do that after you have got your -3 and +3 shots and want to do a further shot at each end. The alternative is to spend more money than you want to on a camera. To prevent having to sometimes turn a dial? Well, it's your money, your choice of convenience.
Assuming you will be using a tripod for your HDR, why not just take each shot manually using M? Then you could get as many extra stops as you will ever need at each end by changing the shutter speed. Is it really that difficult turn a dial each time you take a shot? And you need only do that after you have got your -3 and +3 shots and want to do a further shot at each end. The alternative is to spend more money than you want to on a camera. To prevent having to sometimes turn a dial? Well, it's your money, your choice of convenience.
shawn finger
Senior Member
I read that Nikons will do 7 bracketed shots (some even 9) but I think it's limited to 1 stop, not 2 like the Canon 40D. I have a 40D and do HDR from time to time, expecially HDR Pano's is what I really like to do. I picked up a Promote Remote and the extra shutter cable. This saves me a ton of time, the only bad thing is it's about $300 but it was totally worth it to me. I wish Canon would just release a firmware update to allow us to do 7 bracketed shots instead of limiting us to 3. Here's a link to the Promote remote if you want to check it out: http://www.promotesystems.com/products/Promote-Control.html
I'm not planning on using AEB anyway since it only will allow to 2 stops on any canon (at least that I know of). Manual will allow me to get all stops in the picture, so turning a dial is quite acceptable.
What is the formula (or technique, if you will) to getting extra stops with shutter speed? I usually just do sports photography which is high speed and I've never really had to learn how to use shutter speed to control exposure. I know longer shutter will expose more, and vise versa, but how do i make sure i only go in increments of "x" stops?
Brian D. Schneider
Forum Pro
M is ok if nothing moves between exposures. But if there is any movement AEB high speed burst is much better.
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Brian Schneider
Hot Shoe
Senior Member
1 stop MORE light is half the current shutter speed. 1 stop LESS light is twice the current shutter speed. For example 1 stop more light from 1/60th sec. is 1/30th sec. 1 stop less light from 1/60th sec. would be 1/125th sec (since you can't select 1/120th).
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Jem
Have sensor, will travel.
Leonard Migliore
Forum Pro
My D300 will do 9 shots with auto bracketing but the maximum difference is one stop. It's hardly worth using the "odd" bracketed shots; just combine the 5 that are 2 stops different. It does seem funny to me that the maximum change is 1 stop; how hard can it be to increase that?
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Leonard Migliore
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