[Radiance-general] Digital Camera recommendations?

[Paul LaBerge]

Hello,
After the previous camera questions in early January I did some  
checking to find out just what my Nikon 990 could do as well as other  
camera options.
By using the manual setting on the 990, and a remote release for  
steadiness, it is possible to take 14 bracketed photographs in 1 EV  
step increments from 1/1000 to 8 seconds. The technique is to set the  
camera to manual exposure and use the “command dial” to step through  
the shutter speeds alternating with firing the camera with the remote  
release.
An alternative is to use the built-in auto bracketing feature and  
exposure compensation to take two series of 5 bracketed photos in 1/3  
EV steps, one where compensation is set to +2 EV and one where  
compensation is set to -2 EV. This produces a smaller overall range and  
in smaller steps.
The 990 is designed for interchangeable lenses, one of which is a  
fisheye with an angular view of 183°. I assume that this would provide  
the same information as the mirror ball, but I’ve not read up nor tried  
that technique.
_____________________
A company called Harbortronics makes a device, a Digisnap, that can  
control the 990, as well as many other cameras. I exchanged several  
messages with Mark Roberts to find out if the Digisnap could provide  
auto bracket control beyond +or- one frame and specifically if it could  
do so while varying the shutter speed only.

“It is 'possible' to add that capability to the firmware, but frankly  
without a lot of incentive, it's not going to happen.”
 
Mark Roberts
Chief Engineer
Harbortronics LLC
(253) 858-7769 (Phone)
(253) 858-9517 (Fax)
Mark at Harbortronics.com
www.Harbortronics.com

This would mean hacking the firmware of the camera, something I’m  
reluctant to experiment with.
I’ve not tried this device. A friend who has says its clunky, but works.
Harbortronics makes a wide variety of camera controllers for an array  
of different actions.
_____________________
I also checked with a Nikon Technical Representative, Scott Frier, at  
the recent MacWorld show in San Francisco. The Nikon D2H and D2X can  
auto bracket up to 9 frames at up to 1 EV steps. That’s one in the  
middle and 4 over exposed and 4 under exposed. I also asked about how  
the data is stored, since Greg (thank you) had mentioned that the new  
cameras are incorporating their own, as opposed to Photosphere, image  
processing to adjust the over and under exposed areas of a picture. It  
seems that if the image is stored in raw format that there are no  
software exposure adjustments in the file. The file is broken into two  
parts: one folder contains the 0 and 1 data, the other contains a set  
of instructions to be applied to the aforementioned.

The D2H and D2X are professional cameras in every sense of the word.  
The good news is, thanks to the D2H now being superseded by the D2X, it  
only costs $2000.00. I didn’t ask about the D2X. If someone already has  
Nikon lenses, this might be a path to HDRI photography.

Maybe there is someone who can rewrite the Digisnap or the camera  
firmware??

By the way Greg, Scott was very intrigued with what Photosphere does.  
He may be getting in contact with you.

Paul LaBerge
________________________________________________________________________ 
_________________

On Mar 9, 2005, at 8:50 AM, Greg Ward wrote:

> Hi Rob,
>
> There is no perfect camera for capturing HDR sequences.  The main  
> things you need to be able to control are the white balance, ASA,  
> aperture and speed, and an autobracketing mode that can cover +/-2  
> f-stops or more is ideal.
>
> The thing you want to avoid is a camera that does weird processing on  
> the images, and this is often difficult to determine until you get it.  
>  I believe the Olympus C series and the Canon G series are pretty safe  
> in the price range you're after.  I've owned an Olympus C-3030,  
> C-3040, and C-4040.  I'm sticking with the last one, as the newer in  
> the C line add megapixels and features but nothing I'm interested in.   
> Generally, the more megapixels you have in a small camera, the more  
> noise you're going to see.  The current race to 10 MPixels in a  
> consumer-grade camera is lunacy in my opinion.  Who wants to blow up  
> an image to 20x30 inches?  Even if you do blow up an image to that  
> size once every year or so, you're paying for the privilege with image  
> files that are 3-5 times larger than you would need otherwise.  (End  
> rant.)
>
> My main problem with the C-4040, which you can't even get anymore, is  
> purple fringing caused by the lens at the edges of high contrast,  
> wide-angle shots.  It also has a very occassional knack of painting  
> white, blown-out areas blue.  This must have been an ill-considered  
> feature some Olympus engineer came up with it for making washed-out  
> skies look more natural, and it sometimes backfires.  I've only had a  
> few images this happened to in the thousands and thousands I've shot,  
> but another fellow with the same camera (but different firmware) has  
> seen it more often with his.
>
> -Greg
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