Topic: Dragon Frame Exposure Issue

Dear Community,

we´re currently shooting a stop motion project where we are following a re-lighting approach with 4-5 different exposures, each exposure capturing the same image, but with different DMX controlled lights.

We are working with Dragonframe 4 and a Sony Alpha RII.

Here is our problem that we could not get rid off so far: If I set up let´s say 5 different exposures with the exact same camera settings (file format, shutter speed ....),the exposures are being captures more or less fast- one exposure after the next one.
If , however, I change even one exposure in the row in terms of shutter speed (let´s say I switch it from 1/4 to 1/30) or file format (instead of raw to .jpeg)that now has different camera/exposure settings then the rest of the pictures, the whole process takes exponentially longer. It seems that  the whole process of Dragonframe telling the Sony Alpha to change the shutter speed in the course of taking all the different exposures takes ages. There is a lot of brightness adjustments in the live preview window before the camera - eventually - after seconds and seconds finally captures the exposure.

It gets even worse if every exposure has different settings and Dragonframe has to communicate after every captured exposure new settings to the camera.
In theory that does not really makes sense to me, since the raw information communication between camera and software should be quite fast, since no big data is being transfer via the USB cable. And even the process of switching shutter speed f.e. manually at the camera is quite fast and should not take huge hardware power.

So for me the only error source can be dragonframe itself that takes quite some time for the communication with the camera.

Does any of you has experienced similar issues or might help us out?

I´m looking forward to all replies and thank you so much in advance :-)

Greetings from Germany - stay healthy!

LastLament

Re: Dragon Frame Exposure Issue

I recently started playing with shooting multiple exposures in Dragronframe and I haven't noticed this problem. I was using a Canon EOS R on the Linux version of Dragonframe. I know Dragonframe uses different SDKs for different camera manufactures and operating systems. If you could provide the settings used for the different as well as improvement time numbers for each exposure I'd be happy to test it also on my end. From previous experiences with DZED Systems they are quite responsive to emailing them with support questions.

Re: Dragon Frame Exposure Issue

I’m experiencing discrepancy in exposure settings in Dragon Frame 4. I’m using the compatible MacBook Pro OS 10.14.6 and the equally compatible Canon DSLR EOS 1100D. When I select an exposure it applies it and it looks fine in the Live View which is translated to my computer screen. However, when I export it – it’s totally over-exposed and washed out!
AND ALSO: In the Live View it sometimes changes the exposure setting on its own from one group of frames to another group of frames. It changes what I just put as the good exposure to an overexposure...without me touching anything.
AND ALSO: Even when the Live View exposure looks exactly like what I want in the timeline - when I export it as an mpg4 the exported mpg4 is in an overexposed condition.