HDR mode - help please!

[Dairylander]

I'm in real estate and every shot has bright windows and dim interior corners in the same frame. I don't have time for post-production, so I'm not looking for any software suggestions. I simply want the automatic, in-camera bracketing of a camera with a great HDR mode. I'm not satisfied with the HDR results that my Canon produces. I'm willing to pay more for a good Sony to get as close as possible to real software exposure bracketing. I want a full-frame mirrorless camera.

Questions: Do Sony cameras take 3 images at once in HDR mode? How many seconds does it delay between shots? (My Canon takes 3 fast shots, but is then disabled for 10 full seconds after every HDR shot to stitch together the 3 images. It's brutal.) Does anyone have any examples of a dim interior with sunny windows? Which Sony would be best for this?

Or am I just expecting too much from an in-camera feature? Thanks so much everyone!

[Cameratose]

The short answer is HDR is only going to do so much. Blown out highlights are blown out highlights. The good news is that Sony underrates their sensors. Most people I know tend to overexpose a stop or so. You can pull an awful lot of detail out of what appears to be blown out highs.  

From another post:

As near as I can tell, the last camera (at least FF) that included HDR was the A7 III. The A7R III has it, so do the A9 and A9 II.

While I didn't check them all, the A7R IV, A7 IV, A7R V, A9 III, and A1 do not have in-camera HDR. They do have HLG, a single frame high dynamic setting, but it's only available in HEIF format. 

Without knowing which Canon you're using; there's a good chance that a newer camera of almost any brand would surpass it in dynamic range. However, I wouldn't plan on achieving the kind of results you're seeking without putting some effort into processing, unless you put some time into really learning the camera's abilities and limitations. 

 

[XKAES]

As mentioned, the features depend on the camera -- and I can't speak to Canon either.  On the a900 &a850, there are several DRO (Dynamic Range Optimization) settings -- None,  Auto, Advanced, and "manual".  (Different from HDR, DRO is an additional way of handling high contrast scenes with processing IN-CAMERA)  This provides an amazing ability to tone-down high contrast scenes -- but, just as with the Canon, the internal processing of the images slows things down.  How much?  It depends on how many images, the quality, and the amount of adjustment.  It can also be combined with bracketing.  You can read about it -- with examples, on line.  Search  for DRO, not HDR.

 

 

Edited April 5 by XKAES

[tadwil]

I wonder if you have seen this YouTube video by Gary Fong which was uploaded 10 years ago with an A7R camera:

There is a time lag after the shots are taken to generate an HDR image but possibly the time lag is shorter with newer cameras?  I didn't like the HDR images that I have seen before that had exaggerated exposure values but this one looks good to my eyes.