[Rnovo]

I do full 360° spherical panoramas using 5 brackets at 2EV spread for indoors work with my K5IIs and the DA 10-17mm fisheye. I get consistent excellent results so far via Photomatix. The more brackets the better and I've used up to 7 in extreme conditions. I'm looking at a K1 and I see that it has also 5 brackets but the manual says at 3EV...! On the manual I only count 5 brackets at 2.5EV max...how do they get 3EV? That is still exceptional and better than 2EV but,,, can anyone confirm the maximum spread one can achieve on the K!
I'm just curious to find out if that increased spread is good enough instead of going for 7 brackets, which would make the K1 the best for bracketed shots on the market...as far as I know...?

Thanks for anyone willing to test this for me!

[Adam]

On the K-1 it looks like you can do:
2-3 brackets at up to 5EV spread
5 brackets at up to 2EV spread

If you apply a negative exposure compensation you can hit the -2.5 from the center which may be OK since overexposing isn't good?

[DeadJohn]

TLDR version: I think maximum is 10 stop total spread.

This is all in Av mode and firmware 1.40:

With a 3 shot bracket I can get 5EV steps, for 11 stops total. -5|0|+5
That works with up to 3 stops of exposure compensation either way, maintaining 11 stops with -8|-3|+2 or -2|+3|+8
If you exceed 3 stops of exposure compensation, the maximum under- or over- exposure is capped at 8 and total spread decreases. Let's say you apply -5 exposure compensation. You'll get -8|-5|0 rather than -10|-5|0.

With a 5 shot bracket the maximum step is 2EV, reducing it to 9 stops total. -4|-2|0|+2|+4

[Rnovo]

Thanks for the 2 replies.
I'm looking at this screen shot attached, of the K1 review posted , it shows 5 brackets at 1.5EV, can it then be set to an EV spread of 2.5 or does it stop at 2EV like on the K5...? I'm a little confused about this 3 EV spread... or does it mean 3 EV is only applicable to 3 brackets? It looks like all we need is a firmware update to enable 2.5EV - using the whole range from -5 to +5 at 2.5EV, like this:

-5 / -2.5 / 0 /+2.5 / +5 which enables an 11 EV spread instead of the 9 available so far. That would eliminate the use those fancy gizmos or even the aisle of doubling the brackets like I have been doing like this: #1: -4 / -2 / 0 /+2 / +5 and then #2: -2 /0 / +2 / +4 / +6 and getting rid of one set of -2 / 0 /+2 which gives you 7 brackets.

So, the rear wheel still only goes to 2EV maximum and not to 2.5EV.

Thanks again.

Attached Images

 

[DeadJohn]

...can it then be set to an EV spread of 2.5 or does it stop at 2EV...

Maximum is 2EV steps when taking a bracket of 5 shots.

[Rnovo]

Thanks, so nothing is changed except the fact that the K1 sensor is more sensitive - apparently - which makes it capable of capturing a wider dynamics range.

Thanks for your help.