HDR Bracketing- Exceeding 30" Time Limit on Canon 60D

[john2014]

Hi, I'm shooting at night and I need some of my +EV exposures to exceed the 30 second limit of my Canon 60D when using 0 + ++

I discovered when I was testing the auto bracketing mode that some of my exposures were all 30" (I'm using Av and don't want to use ISO shifting) I'm guessing for some reason that the 30 second limitation on my 60D has created a ceiling. So the exposures that should have been 60 sec and 120 sec ended up all being only 30 sec.

As a work around I have been using the Bulb mode which, with Magic Lantern's help, allows me to do exposures longer than 30 seconds. But I have to do each one manually.

I'd really like to be able to use 0 + ++ for multiple exposures that exceed 30"

Is there a way to do this using Magic Lantern that I have not discovered yet?

Thanks!

[a1ex]

Use M mode.

[john2014]

Thanks for the reply!

I tried it with M and it worked but that just  raises another question:

I had been avoiding using M for bracketing because when I tried M last night the ISO settings would jump all over the place (even with it set to OFF under HDR bracketing) and the user Guide reflects this:

In M mode, this function does shutter and/or ISO bracketing. In the other modes it does exposure compensation bracketing.

But that was last night. Just now when I tried it the exposure stayed locked on 160 ISO. I'm not sure what I'm doing differently? Or maybe I should ask what do I need to do to use M mode making sure the ISO stays locked and only the shutter changes?

Thanks again!

[Walter Schulz]

Do you talk about Advanced Bracketing (photography) or HDR video?

[john2014]

Do you talk about Advanced Bracketing (photography) or HDR video?

I'm talking about photography.

I've the term "Advanced Bracketing" in a few places but I'm not sure exactly to what people are referring. In a tutorial someone said to turn on "advanced features" you press the trash can to enter ML then "menu" to enter Advanced Features. When I do that all I really see is the wording turning from blue to red. I'm not seeing and additional features.

I'd like to understand advanced features more - but as I've said, I've heard it mentioned a lot, but no real info on how to take advantage of it.

[a1ex]

Install a recent nightly build. These tutorials about "advanced features" with MENU key are 2 years old.

[john2014]

The Nightly Build page says it is not for First Time installers and that it is not stable.

I'm a first time installer and I'm already having major instability issues with the stable version. For example: I just tried to do 1 set of 9 exposures. After the first set the camera would not stop shooting. It immediately shot 9 more, then 9 more, etc. I finally had do a death-off to stop it. 

I have not entered any other mode other than the "shoot" mode. So I'm not sure why suddenly it's trying to take HDR movies.

[a1ex]

Stable means a few hundred of testers sat down and tried every single thing for around one month (I can lookup the feedback forms if you want). After that, there no major issues found by the next 200000 guys who downloaded it, but that doesn't guarantee it's 100% bug free.

Nightly means nobody checks every single build in the same way (we simply no longer have the time to do it), but properly reported bugs are usually solved quickly.

[john2014]

Are saying that the ISO shifting, the fact it wont stop shooting 9 shot brackets and other glitches I'm having from the 2.3 release might be fixed in the nightly builds?

[Walter Schulz]

I have not entered any other mode other than the "shoot" mode. So I'm not sure why suddenly it's trying to take HDR movies.

Well, Intervalometer is there, too. You're sure you haven't accidentally used this one together with Advanced Bracketing?

Ciao
Walter

[a1ex]

Are saying that the ISO shifting, the fact it wont stop shooting 9 shot brackets and other glitches I'm having from the 2.3 release might be fixed in the nightly builds?

I'm not aware of any bug regarding ISO shifting or bracketing re-trigger. More likely, you forgot ISO on Auto or you also enabled some other option like intervalometer, motion detection or who knows what else.

Again, http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html

[john2014]

Well, Intervalometer is there, too. You're sure you haven't accidentally used this one together with Advanced Bracketing?

It's right under it. I've been double checking all the setting in shoot before I shoot to make sure everything I'm doing is correct. But thanks for asking me if I was aware of that - sometimes it is something simple like that. Especially with a new user like me.

Which is why I have asked how you shoot in M mode without the ISO shifting. I had it set to OFF and it was still shifting. The wording in the user guide makes me think it must always be ON because it says M mode uses exposure shifting and/or ISO shifting. Which makes me wonder why it's not shifting now (which is what I want - I'd just like to know why)

Motion detection and other settings are not in "shoot" mode. Which I have not strayed from.

What did stop the continues shooting issue of 9 shot brackets was forcing the power off while it was shooting - removing the battery - putting it back in. After that it stopped shooting more than 9 shots sets. I didn't change any setting to fix that.

Before I rush to file a bug report I would like to understand how the system is supposed to be set to make sure I have all the settings correct. I might be making a simple user error.

[a1ex]

It should work the way you set it (ISO shifting OFF => it will not touch ISO). Simple as that.

At the same time, Canon code feels free to change ISO according to what you have set in Canon menu. That's why you need to know very well how Canon firmware works without ML.

About twisting the meaning of the words from the user guide: I'm not a native English speaker, so feel free to re-write it. Ideally you should not just copy the help text from the menu, like others tried to do; the user guide should be more like a short introduction/overview, and the description for every single setting should stay in the menu IMO.

[john2014]

It should work the way you set it (ISO shifting OFF => it will not touch ISO). Simple as that.

Thanks. It has been working today in M mode without ISO shifting. But if it does ISO shift again I will double check to make sure ISO is set to off. And if it does shift in OFF mode I'll report a bug.

Once I've been using the functions for a little while I'll get a feel for what should be happening and what is unusual.

I am quite happy to be shooting 9 shot brackets automatically now. Thanks to Magic Lantern!