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Author Topic: Merrills: is there any solution to 30 second minimum shutter speed limitation?  (Read 3285 times)

nandadevieast

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Hi,
I have been shooting with a DP2M for last few months and I love it.
Many, rather most see it as a landscape camera for the obvious reasons...the colors, the tack sharp detail at 100% (wow), the rendering and also the speed :)
One thing that a landscape photographer absolutely needs is the reasonable long exposure ability. Merrill's go to 30 seconds (or is it 1 minute?)..
Most nature shots I have seen here and elsewhere have been taken in decent light...so what do you do when you want to do longer than possible exposures on a tripod? Is there a work around?
Here are some of my pictures shot with the normal Merrill:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agnihot/sets/72157631967146383/
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NancyP

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I can't think of many situations other than starlight and Big Stopper-at-dawn that would need more than 30 sec at ISO 400 and f/2.8.
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Deardorff

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Early and late light. ND filter shooting at other times for motion blur or to smooth out waves, blowing grass, etc. Interior shots in buildings of various sorts.

Some of us use long exposures regularly. The need for smaller f/stops for depth of field and long exposures due to light conditions or creative images at times call for longer exposures.

Aurora photos and moonlight/starlight images often require longer exposures.
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NancyP

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IN THEORY: Photo merging. Do as the astrophotography people do, take multiple exposures on tripod, plus some "darks" (lens cap on), convert to tif, shove your photos into a planetary imaging program (which might collapse due to size of files, depending on the program), merge, output, do final finishing in your favorite general editor (Ps or other). I have not tried this with the DP2M files because I don't do big-stopper-at-dawn shots. I am a beginner at astrolandscape and wide-field astrophotography, and I am learning with Canon 60D and 6D files at ISO 1600 and 3200. Canon DSLRs are the default DSLRs in astrophotography, it is somewhat easier to work with "known quantities". By the way, if you want monochrome output, push that DPxM ISO up to 1600 and work the blue channel.
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Alan Smallbone

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Actually there seems to be solution to get around the 30 second or whatever the limit is on the DP Merrill cameras. It is using the Promote Control, their new beta version of the firmware gives you a lot of control over the camera, including auto bracketing, etc.

https://support.promotesystems.com/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=30

I don't have the camera but I have a Promote Control so I noticed this in an email they sent me.

Alan
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Alan Smallbone
Orange County, CA

K.C.

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Actually there seems to be solution to get around the 30 second or whatever the limit is on the DP Merrill cameras. It is using the Promote Control,...



+ Preliminary support for Sigma SD1/SD1 Merrill cameras. Not DPXMs.
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NancyP

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Interesting, nonetheless. Maybe Sigma or Promote will make a "programmable bulb" feature in a firmware update. I am modestly embarrassed to say that I shoot consumer-grade Canon, but have yet to try Magic Lantern. ML has some goodies for still photographers. Ah, well, yet another learning project.
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Alan Smallbone

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Doh I just saw the Merrill and figured it was the same, sorry about that.

Nancy the Magic Lantern is well worth it, some really great features like ETTR built in! You should try it out, simple to install and well worth it.

Alan
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Alan Smallbone
Orange County, CA

Misirlou

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I am modestly embarrassed to say that I shoot consumer-grade Canon, but have yet to try Magic Lantern. ML has some goodies for still photographers.

I've never sold very much that I shot with "pro" cameras, but I sell plenty of prints that came from my Canon 20D or 40D (too old for ML). Go figure.

I'm trying to decide right now between upgrading to a 6D, or getting one or more Merrills. The logical part of me says the 6D is more flexible, but my intuition tells me I could make a lot of money selling DP2 and DP3 shots. I do a lot of dark interior shots, so this 30 sec max shutter could be an issue.

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