best budget hdr ready camera.

handsomejackuk · Mar 7, 2013

having had my f600exr fuji for a few months, i am looking to get my next camera, and thinking of bridge camera next. any recommendations as to what is good bad etc.. i particarly want one that has lithium battery as they seem to last longer and cheaper to run... was looking at some nikons.. and ideally something that will do more than 3 exposure brackets, and custom firmware if possible...

any recommendations...??

Awiserbud · Mar 7, 2013

why does it have to have dedicated exposure bracket functions, If you are using a tripod and you are not clumsy when adjusting settings you should be able to take as many different exposures as you like with any DSLR.

handsomejackuk · Mar 7, 2013

it dont have to but i like the simplicity of aeb and just pressing the button... i did read that nikon seems to have more brackets up to 9... i have a tripod, but its always good to hand held fairly stead and press the button or self time it....

any suggestions...?

The Barbarian · Mar 13, 2013

I have that capacity on my Pentax K20d, but I hardly ever use it. I always want to tweak the process a bit. And if you shoot in raw, a decent imaging engine should put about 9 stops of data in the raw image, which can be broken out into jpegs of different exposure levels.

Light Guru · Mar 13, 2013

If you truly wand an "HDR ready" camera you would get one that HDR built in like many of the new DSLRs have.

You really DONT want to hand hold a camera for an HDR image ever. I know some people say you can but chances are one of the bracketed images will be enough off that it will cause problems aligning the image.

Ether way if your looking at getting a new camera step up to a DSLR so you can have better manual control over your images.

KmH · Mar 13, 2013

I don't know of any in-camera HDR function that actually makes HDR photographs. Most make pseudo-HDR photos.

Plus, making a top quality HDR image pretty much requires quite a bit of post process image editing, usually by using 2 or more image editing applications.

Light Guru · Mar 13, 2013

KmH said:
I don't know of any in-camera HDR function that actually makes HDR photographs. Most make pseudo-HDR photos.

Plus, making a top quality HDR image pretty much requires quite a bit of post process image editing, usually by using 2 or more image editing applications.

The new cameras are not doing pseudo HDR, they are actually taking 3 separate images and mugging them in camera.

You can then tone map the image later if you want.

IByte · Mar 13, 2013

Nikon D5000 has the HDR feature you're looking for.

The Barbarian · Mar 13, 2013

There's nothing wrong with taking HDR shots handheld:

The trick is to find something in the corner of the frame that will set the camera in both X and Y dimensions. Stay in one place, and the shots should be easy to line up. It does mean there are more things to go wrong, but it's a very doable practice.