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Author Topic: Canon Timer Remote Contr & HDR?  (Read 6683 times)

walter.sk

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Canon Timer Remote Contr & HDR?
« on: November 17, 2009, 08:34:37 pm »

I've never done long exposures (30 seconds and more) with my 1DmkII until the other night when I shot some sunset scenes in HDR.  I used aperture priority and a bracket of 5 pictures, 1 2/3 stops apart.  As the light levels dropped, of course, my exposures became longer until 30 seconds was reached on the 4th exposure of each sequence.  After several sequences I noticed that the 4th and 5th exposures in the bracket were both 30 seconds and it took a while for me to remember that 30 seconds was the longest exposure I could get without using the "Bulb" setting.

I have been using the RS80N3 remote switch, but never went beyond 30 seconds before.  Today I bought the TC80N3 thinking that I could use it to program a set of increasing exposure times and set the camera on bulb, but I can't figure out how to do that (or if it is possible with this remote timer switch.)

So far all I have come up with is setting the long exposure for, say 5" for the first shot, shooting, then setting the timer for 10", shooting, and repeating for 20", 40" and 60".  However, this seems like a really klunky way of doing an HDR sequence.

I had hoped to be able to set the timer up to accomplish an automatic sequence of shots but I'm not sure now that it will do this.  Am I incorrect in that assumption?  And if so, I would like to return this remote and find out if there is a more sophisticated timer that will let me run a long-exposure bracket of 5 shots>
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Hoang

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Canon Timer Remote Contr & HDR?
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2009, 08:53:53 pm »

I'm pretty sure the only choice you have is tethered shooting with software. However, I believe I saw a link a while ago about some sort of remote for DSLRs that can be programmable as much as a PC based software such as DSLR remote pro, but the unit was about 200-400 USD.
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walter.sk

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Canon Timer Remote Contr & HDR?
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2009, 10:17:40 am »

Quote from: Hoang
I'm pretty sure the only choice you have is tethered shooting with software. However, I believe I saw a link a while ago about some sort of remote for DSLRs that can be programmable as much as a PC based software such as DSLR remote pro, but the unit was about 200-400 USD.

I'll look for it, and $200 doesn't sound so bad in light of the fact that the Canon timer is $130.  

I tried using it today, and, fortunately, it remembers the shutter speed and it is easy enough to enter the speed for the next shot in the series, with the camera on Bulb.  What is missing is the ability to set the timer for anything less than 1 second, because in some sequences the timings range from above and below 1 second.
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Chris Pollock

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Canon Timer Remote Contr & HDR?
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2009, 06:09:07 pm »

You probably don't need to bracket in steps of 2/3 of a stop for HDR - I think 2 stop steps are normally considered adequate. With 2 stop steps you can get a 4 stop bracketing sequence using only the camera's AEB function, which is enough for a lot of scenes. Some scenes will need a wider bracketing range (or a greater than 30 second exposure as you mentioned), so the automatic remote would definitely be useful. I'd be interested if one is available.

The annoying thing is that such a device would be unnecessary if camera designers had a bit more imagination. There's no conceivable reason why the camera couldn't allow you to take a very long exposure automatically. It would only require a tiny change to the firmware, which would cost virtually nothing to do. Another small firmware change would allow you to specify an arbitrary bracketing range, with an arbitrary number of steps.

I use a 5D II, and I can understand that Canon may want to deliberately limit its capabilities to make the 1 series more appealing. I can't see any sane reason to limit their top of the line camera though. I can only put it down to lack of imagination, or extremey lazy firmware developers.
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Jonathan Wienke

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Canon Timer Remote Contr & HDR?
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2009, 07:03:28 pm »

You can get perfectly good HDR blends from exposures shot at 3-stop intervals. Using an interval <2 stops is overkill and a waste of time when exposures are long and the light is changing.
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Chris Pollock

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Canon Timer Remote Contr & HDR?
« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2009, 02:36:36 am »

A quick Google search turned up this: https://www.promotesystems.com/products/Promote-Control.html

It looks like the sort of thing that you're after, except that it doesn't support exposures greater than 30 seconds on some Canon cameras. I might buy one myself after doing a bit more research.
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walter.sk

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Canon Timer Remote Contr & HDR?
« Reply #6 on: November 21, 2009, 11:04:12 am »

Quote from: Chris Pollock
A quick Google search turned up this: https://www.promotesystems.com/products/Promote-Control.html

It looks like the sort of thing that you're after, except that it doesn't support exposures greater than 30 seconds on some Canon cameras. I might buy one myself after doing a bit more research.

Thanks for the link.  It really excited me, as it appears to do precisely what I want.  Unfortunately, my camera (the ancient 1DMkII) is one of the cameras that they say won't work in HDR mode with this gizmo.  Since I cannot afford to upgrade the camera and it is satisfactory for the rest of my shooting (although with noise-reduction software required after high ISO shots).  If I had a newer camera I would grab the new timer, as it seems to be just what the doctor ordered.

I can only hope that somebody will still come up with a way of doing what I need in some of my HDR shots.

As far as bracketing intervals go, I wrote that at night I use sequences that are 1 2/3 stops apart, not 2/3 stops apart.  I could use 2 stops, but I found that in areas with bright or specular highlights I get fewer of the little black areas in the midst of the highlights by the slightly smaller difference in bracketing.

My solution right now will be to up the ISO from 100 to 200 or more for those shots requiring shutter speeds over 30sec.  Thanks for all of the responses.
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Chris Pollock

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Canon Timer Remote Contr & HDR?
« Reply #7 on: November 21, 2009, 04:27:59 pm »

Quote from: walter.sk
As far as bracketing intervals go, I wrote that at night I use sequences that are 1 2/3 stops apart, not 2/3 stops apart.
Sorry, my mistake.
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Chris Pollock

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Canon Timer Remote Contr & HDR?
« Reply #8 on: November 21, 2009, 05:52:48 pm »

I just ordered a Promote Control from Adorama. It is expensive, but I don't think it's necessarily overpriced since it's a moderately complicated electronic device, and is probably manufactured on a small scale. I'll post a mini-review once I've had a chance to use it.
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