Auto Exposure Bracketing with the Rebel XTi

While fiddling with my camera about a year ago I found the auto exposure bracketing feature on my Canon Digital Rebel XTi. I've been pretty satisfied with it so far, but I'm a little disappointed that it only does 3 frames. I know that the Nikon D200, for example, does up to 5 or 7 frames.

Does anyone know if it's expandable? If not, then do you know why it's only 3 frames? Is it because the burst mode is only 3fps?

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Originally Posted by neverhood311

Do you know why it's only 3 frames?

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Hi Justin,

It purely a marketing decision. If it did all the things that it's bigger brothers could do then nobody would buy it's bigger brothers.

If you have a proper tripod and you do the math, than switch to manual mode and do it yourself. You can do as many frames as you want to with as many stops exposure difference as you want. I find 3 frames enough most of the time (to be strictly honest, I barely do shots with more then three frames. For me three frames give satisfying results).

BTW I also shoot with the Rebel Xti (400d in my country)

Hi Justin - I would echo Jeroen's view about using the M mode. You do need a tripod, then set up the image using Av mode to get the "mid" exposure. Now switch to manual mode and set Av to what the Av mode reading told you. Now you are in a position to vary the Tv by as many stops as you wish either way. I've used this over 7 stops when experimenting with HDR, to see what happens (not generally an efficient way to do HDR). However, because you cannot change the Tv and shoot as quickly as an in-camera burst could do, the downside of the technique is that the lighting and/or weather conditions may change during your exposure run. Nevertheless, it's fun to try.

Cheers

David