On a Canon 70d can you use exposure bracketing in manual mode?

Question

On a Canon 70d can you use exposure bracketing in manual mode? Or do you have to adjust each shot.

Answer 1

Building on user1118321's answer:

I checked the manuals for the following cameras to which I have access (in order from earliest to most recent release):

• EOS 5D Mark II
• EOS 50D
• EOS 7D
• EOS 5D Mark III
• EOS 7D Mark II

All of them are near identical to the 70D's manual with regard to AEB. The first four cameras on the list above were released before the 70D, the last was released after the 70D.

I checked each one of the camera's listed above to see if they allow AEB in M exposure mode. They all do. The option for Exposure compensation is greyed out when in M mode for the ones that do not allow 'Auto ISO' in M mode, but AEB can be set and used. I'd be extremely surprised if your 70D wasn't the same.

To take all three images with a single shutter press, set the camera's drive mode to High Speed Continuous or Low Speed Continuous mode and hold the shutter button down until all bracketed images have been taken. A wired cable release works very well for this. You can also use the self timer to take the entire series after a single press of the shutter button after a 2 second or 10 second interval.

If the camera is set to Single Shot, a separate shutter press will be required for each frame. The Exposure Lock symbol will blink in the viewfinder and on the top LCD panel to indicate exposure is locked at the selected intervals for the series.

Answer 2

According to page 115 of the user's manual, you should be able to. In the menus, under the 3rd camera tab, there should be an option named "Expo.comp./AEB" (for Exposure Compensation / Auto Exposure Balance). When you select it, you need to turn the wheel to set how far apart you want the exposures to be. Press select to lock it in.

When you take a picture next, it should take 3 exposures - standard, faster exposure, and longer exposure. It will continue to do that until you go back into the menu and reset it.

I believe this should work in manual mode because it does with their other cameras, and also because other sections in the user's manual point out which modes they work in if they don't support all modes. For example, on the previous page, "Setting Exposure Compensation" says:

Exposure compensation can be set in the P/Tv/Av shooting modes.

There's no such disclaimer on AEB which leads me to believe that it should work in all modes.

Answer 3

Just tried this on my 70D in Manual mode.
Goto to menu #3 and hit Expo.comp./AEB. Use the wheel or buttons to set how how far apart the stops are.
Goto Custom Functions menu C.Fn I: Exposure. Set Bracketing On, and then use upper arrows on screen to get to submenus to pick order in which order AEB adjusts, e.g. -1,0,+1 or 0,-1,+1, etc. Then go to next submenu & pick number of exposures - 3,5,7.
Exit the menu and set your drive mode to Single or High speed continuous. You'll see the top LCD show the Bracketing grid with multiple lines to indicate the different stops. Hold down shutter button and it will take the number of shots you set in menu. If you only single press, it takes 1 shot.
Note that there is also an option on the C.Fn menu to auto Cancel AEB when camera is turned off.