Some thoughts on auto-bracketing

[JimKasson]

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Anyway, I decided to play around with some handheld HDR today. I set the M240 up for sets of three images, two stops apart, and told it to expose all here automatically. I like this last option, which is missing on my D4 and D800E. When you’ve got the auto-expose mode selected, you press the shutter once, and the camera makes all the images in the set as fast as it can. It will do this if the motor is set to S, and it will also do it if the motor is set to C.

 

 

As far as I'm concerned, you don’t want to set the motor to C when you’re hand holding. Here’s why. You’ll get the images framed closer to the same way if you hold the shutter button down until the end of the sequence, rather than lifting it in the middle and disturbing your framing. However, when the camera is set to C, if you wait until after the last exposure in the set to release the shutter button, the camera will expose another set.

 

 

There are some limitations to the Leica bracketing system that don’t apply to the Nikon systems with which I am more familiar. You can’t choose the order in which the exposures are made. The steps can only be ½ shop, 1 stop, 2 stops, or 3 stops. You can’t bias the center value, except with the exposure compensation adjust. The choices for number of frames is 3 or 5. None of these impacts me in any important way.

 

 

Auto-bracketing is completely compatible with the self-timer, so you can leave your cable release at home if the camera is on a tripod.

 

 

After you set up auto bracketing, it will work as long as the camera is awake. Turning the camera off cancels it. I guess that’s OK, but I would prefer it to be sticky, perhaps with some indication that it’s engaged in the LED display. If the camera goes to sleep, that also cancels the bracketing. I don’t like that at all.

 

 

When you’re using auto-bracketing and setting the shutter manually, the shutter speed you pick is the middle one, although that’s not the speed of the first exposure. The order of exposures is fastest shutter speed first, working down to the slowest. But here’s something that’s passing strange; when you set the camera to A, the shutter speed displayed in the LED display is that of the first exposure, the fastest shutter speed of the whole series. Why the two modes work so differently is a mystery to me.

[01af]

The order of exposures is fastest shutter speed first, working down to the slowest. But here’s something that’s passing strange; when you set the camera to A, the shutter speed displayed in the LED display is that of the first exposure, the fastest shutter speed of the whole series.

If the camera showed the shutter speed for the regular exposure then you'd always have to calculate in the back of your head what the fastest shutter speed for the bracketing series is going to be, depending on the width and number of steps, in order not to exceed the camera's fastest-possible shutter speed of 1/4000 s. If the camera calculates, and displays, the fastest speed required for the whole series then it's easier for you. I think it makes sense.

[JimKasson]

If the camera showed the shutter speed for the regular exposure then you'd always have to calculate in the back of your head what the fastest shutter speed for the bracketing series is going to be, depending on the width and number of steps, in order not to exceed the camera's fastest-possible shutter speed of 1/4000 s. If the camera calculates, and displays, the fastest speed required for the whole series then it's easier for you. I think it makes sense.

 

I'm more worried about the slowest shutter speed most of the time. But, let's say you're right about the reasoning; wouldn't it also apply when you're setting the shutter speed manually?

 

Jim