l_d_allan wrote:

APP seems inconsistent about detecting bracketing.

I took a bracketed night pano of 15 exposures, using AEB (auto exposure bracketing). So there were 5 exposures at 0.5 sec, 5 at 2.0 sec, and 5 and 8.0.

APP didn't detect that this was bracketing. When I clicked on the small "B", it just indicated 0.0. When I clicked on the small "S", it broke it out into 1/2, 8, and 2. (and then BugSplat'ted during the rendering .... drat).

APP seems to be better at detecting bracketing during the day. Could this be a factor?

Here is a link to a .zip file with the 15 .jpg's, if that helps:
www.lynnallan.org/pictures/100305pm_Rud … 500-14.zip

This historic thread will reveal all about the current implemenation of 'stacks' (automatic detection of bracketing) - don't get too excited it's almost certainly not what you want to hear:
http://www.autopano.net/forum/t5133-bra … -in-stacks

In essence it turns out that this much touted feature (before it was introduced) will currently only work when bracketing is done using AEB.

IMO this is not a lot of use to most people, because the exposure range supported via AEB on the vast majority of cameras is inadeqaute for those pano scenes where bracketing would be most essential for exposure blending or HDR; and of no use at all to me because my D40 has no AEB functionality.

There has been considerable discussion on and off about adding new auto, semi-auto or manual means/capabilities/features to permit assignment of images to stacks but nothing yet seems to have come of it.

May be one day?

OTOH perhaps it has 'dropped off the radar'?

Last edited by mediavets (2010-03-07 09:59:44)

hankkarl wrote:

mediavets wrote:

In essence it turns out that this much touted feature (before it was introduced) will currently only work when bracketing is done using AEB.

You lucky Nikon guys!  Brackets doesn't work on Canon in M mode, even if you use AEB.

Isn't AEB in Manual mode a meaningless concept?

hankkarl wrote:

Well, the camera lets you do it.

And its not so meaningless.   It just means that you go 2 (or whatever) Ev over and under the speed you set.  One way I've used this is to figure out the darkest and brightest parts of a pano, set the shutter speed so that the best exposure for each falls within the 2 Ev (if possible) and shoot the whole pano at the same shutter speed. 

This is very necessary when shooting interiors with a WA lens, because the camera's meter is dumb.  If you select some sort of averaging mode, then it averages the light coming in from the window with the darkness of the corner.   So I'll meter on a section of the wall that's not in direct sunlight but not totally dark, check to make sure that the dark areas and inside light areas are less than 2 Ev away from that, and shoot a pano on M.   Then I have to go back and shoot for the correct outside exposure--and if there are clouds moving so that the light changes, I may just do that on M with AEB--I don't have a light meter to see the exact settings, and the ones I take before going inside may have changed.

So what is being altered between shots when you use AEB in manual mode?

l_d_allan wrote:

Using Av mode, I could get variations in shutter duration, which I usually don't want. But that seems to be what APP expects.

WRT 'what APP expects' I refer you to these posts:

http://www.autopano.net/forum/p36051-20 … -09#p36051

http://www.autopano.net/forum/p41613-20 … -19#p41613

I went outside and tried again with "M" mode and "Av" mode. APP detected the Av mode, and had the BKT. It didn't detect in "M" mode.

But it doesn't seem to make all that much difference for most panos. With both test panos (each 3 portrait mode with 3 different exposures), I believe I have to go into "Edit" mode and tell APP to use either the small "B" for bracket, or the small "S" for Speed. I still have to specify the %L.

In the simple test I did, there were only 3 images in the pano (and 3 exposures each at -2, 0, +2) for a total of 9 images per pano, and grand total of 18. The shutter speed with Av mode stayed at a consistent 1/10, 1/40, 1/160. I suppose I could have had problems with a wider pano where the brightness would have caused more shutter speeds.

But when I look at the resulting 6 rendered panos with CS4's Bridge preview, the 2 "sets" are definitely different.

Hmmmmmm .... I wonder if using the AF/On and/or * "hard-buttons" at the upper-right on the camera back would help? I'm ignorant about their usage (shame on me <g> ... but I mostly shoot panos with "M" mode ). See attachment.

My impression is that with Custom Functions and these hard-buttons, you can cause the subsequent exposures to be the same .... maybe. That might give you the equivalent of "M" mode with "Av" mode so APP would be happy? Perhaps?

Last edited by l_d_allan (2010-03-08 17:43:38)