Best CHDK camera and HDR burst mode bracketing with electronic shutter - General Chat - CHDK Forum

Best CHDK camera and HDR burst mode bracketing with electronic shutter

  • 4 Replies
  • 8065 Views
Advertisements
Hello guys, I am new to the chdk forum  :)
And I have a few questions.

What is the best camera for use with chdk? I would like to use it to shoot HDR's, focus stacking, Infra red, maybe even convert it to infra red. I'd like a small camera not one of those SLRwanabe cameras because I already have a Nikon d700 which has good bracketing but the mirror slaps like hell causing camera shake when shooting HDR. They say it fogs infrared pictures with it's infrared shutter calibration correction feature. And there's no hacks for any or the things I'd like to play with :( There's the Nikon SDK but it doesn't seem as flexible as canon SDK, especially the CHDK. Don't think I hate my D700  :P, absolutely love it! Just want a second camera to hack around with.
Cheep option with best CHDK support? (less than $200, the less the better)
Not so cheep camera with CHDK support and fast bracketing / continuous shooting? (but less than $500)

Idea I had in mind but can't do it with my SLR:
Is it possible to control the camera to shot just with the electronic shutter (sensor circuits not the electromechanical shutter)?
It would be great, for example: to shoot a bracketing range with very short delay between the shots like 1/1000 second or less. The camera would stop down to the selected aperture, open the mechanical shutter if any and then take the bracketing shots with as little delay between the shots as possible.
Shooting longer exposures with tiny delays should go a long way to making HDR images look much more natural... more motion blur instead of annoying ghosting artifacts would be preferable to me.
Less camera shake even if that's not really a big problem with compact cameras.
It doesn't seem unreasonable since some of the canon compacts shoot HD video even 1080p or something like 100fps with small resolutions.
« Last Edit: 31 / October / 2011, 10:49:09 by Mushin »

Re: Best CHDK camera and HDR burst mode bracketing with electronic shutter
« Reply #1 on: 31 / October / 2011, 09:23:55 »
What is the best camera for use with chdk?
Short answer is "any one that's supported by chdk".  If just you want a model # to buy, get a cheap A495 and play around with it.  Otherwise,  you will have to compare camera features & prices and make your own call.  It's like asking what the best car is to buy or the best color to paint your kitchen.


Quote
It would be great, for example: to shoot a bracketing range with very short delay between the shots like 1/1000 second or less.
I believe the limitation is the time to convert the sensor image to jpeg and store it on the SD card.  Video is done differently (low res) - the only solution would be multiple image buffers, something that has not been proven capable of being done with CHDK.

Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16

*

Offline Lebeau

  • ***
  • 187
Re: Best CHDK camera and HDR burst mode bracketing with electronic shutter
« Reply #2 on: 31 / October / 2011, 10:47:35 »
You addressed a wide range of applications. Let me talk about CHDK and HDR for a moment.

Canon PS and CHDK, at this moment, cannot do single HDR shot. But no real mechanical shutter (in my knowledge) since live view is continuous and shots transfert sensor data to memory as a snapshot.

They can do multi-exposure hdr, assisted by script (to control focus and ev) or not (stepped ev). You need a fast Powershot to save raw file, with minimal "f" for rapid exposure, and image stabilisation would be a plus.

I had A450, A580 and now I drive a A650is. I am used to HDR photography but my interests are toward panoramic HDR. I use Autopano to stitch HDR panoramas. Since you have a DSLR, I would submit this picture to your mind. Could you do this light equilibrium with a dslr ?

I made it with some A450 pictures, in Program mode, with the help of CHDK and ...

Concerning infrared, humm, I think CCD color filter (RGB) is filtering these wavelengths.

Re: Best CHDK camera and HDR burst mode bracketing with electronic shutter
« Reply #3 on: 31 / October / 2011, 13:39:31 »
Let me clarify a little more. I am well aware of how HDR works. Since I've been shooting for at least 8 years now. Mostly with my compact Olympus c5050Zoom and now for the last year and a half with the D700. Most of the time I don't shoot hdr, but sometimes it's really useful. It bothers me that Nikon, Canon and other Camera makers make little effort to satisfy the needs of people that like HDR and other HDR like processes like blending multiple exposures.
One must admit that the D700 is well ahead of most cameras in bracketing but it still has flaws, and like most of the cameras it's mostly just a matter of firmware programing. It's the little things like: ev steps limited to 1ev, 9exposure bracket limit, can't lock up the mirror while bracketing (not even in live view LOL), needing to switch two setting banks to load up setting that are best for shooting HDR, needing to hold the relese button to bracket a burst of shots adding to the shake...
shooting connected to a windows device?... camera control pro won't allow for custom bracketing... same situation as with the on camera operation, only benefit is that I don't touch the camera. can't even shoot multiple frames in Manual mode without the computer downloading every shot first. WTF?... This slows down the bracketing operation alot... you get custom exposures but at the expense of a large delay when the computer downloads.
I have a few options to streamline the HDR shooting.

1. buy a Promote
2. buy a small device capable of running windows and install nikon SDK and my own program to control the camera... best option for D700 possible
3. buy a separate canon compact and use CHDK to program it to do whatever I want

1.[flaws: probably can't set the settings of the camera to optimize for shooting HDR]
2.[flaws: maybe a bulky device, laptop is no option. I'd like to get one of those Viliv s5's. Also it might actualy be more expensive than getting a separate CHDK-able canon compact. Need some way to interface the separate shuter release cable with the windows device... like the Promote enables faster bracketing (basicly emulates a finger on the camera  :lol ]
3.[flaws: it might be slower, it's not D700 :P ]

In terms of compactness, if i get a really small windows device chances are that the canon camera will be still smaller and cheaper to get.
Are you guys getting my drift now? I asked what camera is best for CHDK because I thought that not all cameras support CHDK bracketing, focus stacking and other features that I might want.
Any sugestions for a fast bracketing small camera?

---------------------

About the electronic shutter... It's just a idea I got from reading some stuff on wikipedia about various senzor types. I guess that it might be possible that camera makers are now using senzors similar to a so called Frame transfer CCD since we can record HD video. (see wikipedia for detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge-coupled_device ) I doubt that the senzor itself groups the pixels (if a ccd is used. CMOS might be a diferent storry) Or does it? I'm interested to here from people that know a bit about how this stuff really works.

EDIT: now that I look at the picture more closely i see there's no chance they are using it in regular cameras :D

---------------------

Lebeau, im not quite clear on what you are aiming at. I might get it in a single shot with my D700 if I really pushed it but most likely with a lot more noise in the deep shadow areas.

Thanks for the replies so far guys, any more suggestions?
Post how you use CHDK for HDR and what you like / dislike about the CHDK method if you want. :)
« Last Edit: 31 / October / 2011, 14:12:15 by Mushin »



 

Related Topics


SimplePortal 2.3.6 © 2008-2014, SimplePortal