A quick test showing the delays caused by shooting HDR sequences using DSLR Remote Pro software compared to using a Canon TC-80N3 intervalometer on a Canon 7D camera. It also looks at the difference between writing the images to the computer hard drive or to a Lexar x300 CF card.
5 x 3 shot bracketted exposures (1/5, 1/10 and 1/20 seconds).
| Using DSLR Remote Pro | Large JPG | sRAW | mRAW | RAW | |
| Camera > HDD | |||||
| Start | 12:52:02 | 12:53:57 | 12:55:04 | 12:56:18 | |
| Finish | 12:52:48 | 12:54:43 | 12:55:53 | 12:57:21 | |
| Duration | 46 | 46 | 49 | 53 | secs |
| Average/set | 9.2 | 9.2 | 9.8 | 10.6 | secs |
| Camera > Lexar CF card x300 | |||||
| Start | 12:57:04 | 12:57:56 | 12:58:40 | 12:59:26 | |
| Finish | 12:57:24 | 12:58:18 | 12:59:04 | 12:59:54 | |
| Duration | 20 | 22 | 24 | 28 | secs |
| Average/set | 4 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 5.6 | secs |
| Using TC-80N3 using 1 second interval between sets | |||||
| Camera > Lexar CF card x300 | |||||
| Large JPG | sRAW | mRAW | RAW | ||
| Start | 14:04:30 | 14:05:00 | 14:05:26 | 14:05:56 | |
| Finish | 14:04:44 | 14:05:12 | 14:05:40 | 14:06:08 | |
| Duration | 15 | 12 | 14 | 12 | secs |
| Average/set | 3 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 2.4 | secs |
Using sRAW files from a Canon 7D the 32Gb card can hold approx 3390 images.
From the simple test using the TC-80N3 intervalometer is the method to use if you want to shoot HDR sequences as fast as possible. Using the TC-80N3 does limit a HDR sequence to 3 exposures i.e. -2, 0, +2 on Canon cameras, until Canon decide to give us more control. If DSLR Remote Pro is used the number of exposures per HDR sequence can be increased to 15 but there maybe problems with movement between exposures because of the longer time between saving each exposure.