Messages

I got a $30 hood loupe (I think from Cowboystudios) for LV use outside and I can't recommend it enough.

I don't think dual ISO is worth it shooting stuff like this. It usually doesn't matter if backgrounds or windows are blown out when the subject is people. Maybe if you're going to be shooting into a bright light like a sunset or something. Otherwise that additional DR isn't worth the trade off of not being able to preview photos and having to run them through cr2hdr.

I personally prefer DIGIC slightly sharper over focus peaking, the latter of which obscures the actual frame. Magic zoom is ok, but it gets in the way too. Zoom on half-shutter is better. In the case of moving people though you have to go with AF anyway though.

In my experience shooting posed individuals, manually focused, with 1.2/2.5 brackets, I kept almost none of the 1.2s. But these are 3/4 shots or closer at 85mm. I know 1.2 is much better for full body portraits at 85mm or farther back.

how many frames are needed

1s, 8s

I've done the math. I'm getting two from you. Are my calculations off?

will be satisfactory for a significant amount of HDR captures

specifics, such as median noise reduction, 20+ EV or DR, or any other number of specific situations

Ok, if we're in agreement that "1s, 8s.  HDR captured [period]" is completely wrong in many if not most situations, then I guess the matter is settled.

Most people would use 1 EV brackets, simply because they don't know any better ... ... ...

That's not what you said or even related to it. Come on.

1s, 8s.  HDR captured.

Orly? And what would be the process to arrive at a satisfactory result with just these frames?

dropbox, wetransfer

Don't misunderstand me, when I say you don't care about that functionality, it's an entirely neutral observation of the fact that it doesn't seem to be in your interest.

Yes, I found out what happens when you delete .CR2 files with the file manager. But I was thinking of this more as a module. It wouldn't have to go against the grain so much if it relied on the user to delete files via the Canon interface and just updated a sidecar file accordingly. But that's not even really important as my current processing scripts already ignore missing files. Being able to add a frame to a post-script text would reduce the need for me to reshoot entire brackets sometimes.

I just got an idea: maybe it would be worthwhile to ask the user if the camera should shoot another frame after the last one was taken. That way you could set it to 6x2ev or whatever and after it shoots the last frame it displays the last frame and asks if you'd like to shoot another 2ev up. That would make things much easier for me.

Another neat feature (that will never happen because nobody other than me would use it) would be the ability to tag certain frames within that sidecar text. I'm working on processes that involve doing different things with certain frames other than just combining them in an HDR stack. Right now I do this just by identifying photos that aren't listed in any of the HDR_.txt files.

I was thinking about how much of a pain it is to delete the last bracket set I just made (along with accompanying HDR_txt), and it occurred to me that there should be a way to handle whole bracket sets as singular items.

I had asked for a way to rename files belonging to bracket sets, or put them in a folder, or something so I can have a way to automatically identify and process bracket sets later. Nobody seems to care about this functionality and attempts have never been stable. But one workaround I discovered was to parse the automatically generated post scripts. This really works well. Anyway, maybe it would make sense to have a module or something that identifies bracket sets using sidecar files like these. Then brackets could be listed, viewed, deleted, moved, prepared for processing, etc.

I'd really like to be able to add or delete a frame from a bracket set and have that change be reflected in a sidecar file and that will later be used for automatic processing.

(Incidentally, the generated HDR_.txt files always list files with a .jpg extension, even when shooting raw. This function is pretty antiquated and I'd guess I'm about the only one using it.)

It would be better to have it outside the camera...so that u can access it even when the camera is not around u

Why would you need it if you don't have the camera?

if you have it on ure smart phone then you can be prepared before the shoot...

Ah, so you can study without the camera. Why would you do that?

plus its also easier to go through it on the shoot when the camera is setup. just use the app on smart phone and setup ure camera...not need to go back and forth in the camera.

So you're holding the camera and your smart phone. And this is easier than pressing a key to get to in-camera help.

I guess this app makes sense when you want to study for a shoot without a camera, or when you're shooting with a tripod and you don't want to press a key on your camera to get to help but you are ok with operating your smart phone and then pressing keys on your camera to perform other operations.

If they're paying you, it is positively criminal not to tell them you have no idea what you're doing and to find someone else.

I have yet to get this to work for the same reasons. I use my vbscript every day though.

I use almost every nightly on the 5D2 and take hundreds of 8x2ev brackets. I have never experienced this behavior. Sounds like a slow CF card.

Yes, I use this all the time. I made a thread about it. It's much better wireless.

Yes. I think I did a full format last time this happened. I'm doing one now. I have another identical card so maybe I'll switch to that for a while.

Was not messing around with silent pics this time. I didn't lose any files, but this is really quite a bit disconcerting to see after a three hour shoot. Is there anything I should be doing to troubleshoot this or prevent it?

Perhaps we could get a whole sound scheme going for various events. Default ML config shall be the Windows XP login chime upon boot.

ML actually hijacks the Canon menu. I remember wondering where this ML format feature was for the longest time before I accidentally discovered it there.

I'm sure custom picture styles work normally, I'm just thinking that whatever is malfunctioning in my camera might be avoided if I don't use a custom picture style. It's not like I need that functionality anyway. Going to disable that and see if it goes away.

The first time this happened a few weeks ago I noticed that it consistently took two clicks on the front wheel to navigate to the next photo. It would just ignore the first click. That was weird.

I don't have a problem locating another photo editor to open my images. The problem is it really slows down the processing of hundreds of brackets when scripts crash and I have to manually process a set and then start over. I'd like to determine what the source of the problem is if possible.

I don't know if ML is the problem, but today I got two corrupt .CR2 files (5D2). They won't open in Photoshop. The error suggests that ACR doesn't know how to handle files from the camera that took the photo.

These two files were taken as part of bracket sets. Yesterday I shot maybe 400 frames and didn't have this problem. Today I only shot 160. Both shoots with the same nightly version. Actually, this happened once a few weeks ago too, with a different nightly.

Exiftool reveals:

Custom Picture Style File Name  : .╫█S!√⌐ε.▄úw╡µòzµΘk║.╨{╔l_¼░.┐¥w
Warning                         : Invalid AFMicroAdj data
User Comment                    : ╤ú≡φ .┐╦/ⁿ⌠ ô.₧vú┌[√w²■π.╙'÷g q/┘}²..ó.Vé╡Mⁿ▀:k~X σƒ∙ÿ4εß√l≈î▄ç{¥╙w÷<■p ╬ƒ≤..$»ß.ⁿ╒┐ïoW.ôö3T#╪%oGkç@î÷╤╢nyΩ²d⌡▀.2µ.├╥:c-_Uπd5f╝┌£1µ╞\Qs.j╠vÖq«¥φ╕â▐Xv╠╔¢+δç»═t╔n)╒Z.╓┼Y╔ΩΦö╞Tåzß&├α-F²óµàáì|▌è^√â.σ┌dlà⌐QM░X[.ì░■¥üòc¿· @åVü╒.@.ü┘¡╒░¢«ÿ⌡Gf╕å.Çⁿ.█▌0n.¥5C▀╢U¿ε¡ü&¿

The other data looks ok. I'm not using AF micro adjust, although I just realized I am using a custom picture style. Maybe that's it?

Here's one of them: http://we.tl/1s7vJqDvID

ML doesn't do anything to the top LCD display.

I'll tell you the answer if you try it yourself for ten seconds first. Let me know how it goes.

Your fonts are probably broken, re-copy all the files to your card and make sure you get all of them. I think 2.3 should be installed first, then the nightly over that.

I saw some mentions of TCC in the change logs. Does this mean there's module with script functionality somewhere?

Well, if you're going to revise your statement from "easy" to "challenging", I can get on board with that.

It appears you are some sort of nearly random text generator. Nevertheless, I did a quick scan of your comment for evidence that real estate photography is easy, but you seem to have forgot to include that.