From my own personal researching efforts, I think this is the only option Canon shooters have for programming Canon cameras to shoot greater than three exposures. The Promote does the job. I can configure the remote to fire off 20+ exposures on my Canon 5D Mark II. This is a huge plus for those wanting to do HDR photography. Not having to touch the camera (potential for moving the camera) during multiple exposures is a wonderful thing.
As for the actual remote, I expected a higher build quality for a $300 remote. The remote has an extreme plastic-y feeling to it and some might suggest that it has a fake knock-off feel to it. However, let me repeat myself, this camera does do what it claims to do. Also, given my propensity to over pack my camera gear and comparing it to the Canon TC-80N3, I found the Promote remote to be unnecessarily large. The Canon TC-80N3 provides a fair amount of functionality at 1/3 the size. But the Canon TC-80N3 doesn't do what the Promote can. And I understand and recognize that.
If you shoot a Canon 5D Mark II, you have to attach two separate wires/cords from the camera to the remote to get full functionality. This is a work flow killer in my opinion. Shooting in portrait mode with a L bracket on a ballhead does provide some challenges when you have to budget for two cords.
Also, if any of your "bracketed" exposures go beyond 30 seconds, there are additional programing steps involved. The shooter needs to switch to a "bulb" exposure. And you need to upgrade the firmware to enable 30+ seconds exposures.
And to conclude, the following comment is based on my experiences on shooting raw files with the Promote. To take 7+ shots with progressively long shutter times, a lot of the camera custom features (i.e. noise reduction) may need to be adjusted or turned off. If the camera needs to take more than a few moments to process the file (raw files from a 5DII are pretty darn big 25mg+), the Promote errors out. The remote, from what I can tell, doesn't adjust for the camera's need to process the image. The remote follows a strict timing sequence. If the camera needs more than what the Promote remote feels is a typical/adequate processing time, the bracketing sequence stops.
All these things are necessarily deal killers but I thought cyberspace would like to know. It took me a bit of time to figure all of this out. If you should buy one, please don't buy this product the day before a major shooting trip. These is a significant learning curve involved with this product. Oh, and the instruction manual is pretty sparse.
**********Update/Effective 8/01/11
I've owned this thing for a year now and I've really gotten the hang of it. I haven't gotten any "timed-out" issues anymore. Learning curve was steep on this one and I consider myself pretty good around electronics.
Here is my work flow for HDR photo taking on a Canon 5D Mark II(assuming camera is on a tripod). These steps are contrary to some of the written instructions for the Promote. Try it out, see if it works for you...
1. Insert plugs into both Promote and Camera
2. Power on Promote (Promote on before camera is vital in my experience.)
3. Power on Camera (Wait approx 20 seconds you won't be able to do much while the camera is syncing up with the Promote. You'll get a "Busy" comment if you try and do an exposure too soon.)
4. In Av mode, in Evaluative Mode/Matrix Metering Mode, dial in your Apeture (f/18 etc...), press the shutter button half way and see what the camera spits out for the shutter speed.
5. In the HDR mode on the Promote, dial in the Shutter speed you got from step 4, how many EV steps, and total amount of exposures.
6. Pop the camera in Manual mode, set the same Apeture you did in step 4 and fire off the Promote. There is no need to manually set the shutter speed here. The Promote will override whatever the last shutter speed setting may have been.
7. If exposure times exceed 30 seconds, the Promote will request that you reset the camera into Blub mode.
This is my work flow for the Promote. Just offering my own humble observations. Thanks. Good luck.
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