AEB in low light at small apertures

[rookieshooter]

I have this weird problem with my camera -- I even sent it to Nikon to "fix" it but now realize it occurs regardless. Here's what happens. At very low light, if I try to do a 5-shot bracket at f/16 for example, in low light it will only do 3 or 4 of the bracketed shots.

If I lower the aperture to f/4 it will complete all 5 shots.

Some times if its *really* low light, it will take one shot and not any more in the bracket.

Does anyone know what causes this?

I have a D700 btw. Thanks.

[pathfinder]

You can't have a shutter speed longer than 30 seconds without going to bulb.

[rookieshooter]

You can't have a shutter speed longer than 30 seconds without going to bulb.

Interesting, so the camera calculates the time then cancels the operation basically. Good to know, thanks.

[pathfinder]

You will just have to shoot your brackets by hand, when one of the needed shutter speeds will be longer than 30 secs, using the bulb setting, a remote shutter release, and a good tripod.

You can then capture the bracketed frames needed for your hdr image. You were already shooting with a tripod, weren't you?

[rookieshooter]

Yes, I always shoot with a tripod. Thanks!

[bmoreshooter]

If you are shooting on aperture priority and your shutter speed is set at f16 there would only be one more stop below that (f22) on your lens, so it would only be able to shoot one stop under and one over.

[rookieshooter]

bmoreshooter -- in aperture priority the aperture doesn't change, just the shutter speed.

[pathfinder]

WHether you shoot in Av, or Manual, AEB auto exposure bracketing alters the shutter speed, not the aperture. The aperture will be varied only in Tv - shutter preferred mode.

You REALLY do not want the aperture to vary, as your depth of field will vary with different apertures, and your HDR software will have more difficulty merging your frames because the depth of field of the different exposures will not allow the images to align as well.