Thanks once again Alacant! In the Options tab of the DSLR tab of the Ekos Configuration popup there is an option "Force bulb". When I disable that, the camera indeed takes very short exposures. As commented by Jasem, the image info for the CR2 images is wrong but the applied exposure times are correct. And indeed, the FITS headers contain the correct exposure times. Great, one more hurdle taken!


Clear skies, Wouter

As much as I love INDI KStars, I would not recommend using it for a solar eclipse session. Things happen fast and you can not get the best results with a single exposure time.
Automation is highly recommended and you can't really fix things on the spot. If they aren't working out, stop and watch, you will appreciate watching the spectacle more.
Try eclipse maestro and practice a few simulation sessions. Or get familiar with Magic lantern for a mostly automated process. Good luck!

Thanks again for the advise Ihoujin! It will be my first eclipse imaging session so indeed better to focus on making it a success rather than trying to do things manually.

So how exactly do you not use BULB?

Good question. I suppose you can manually turn off BLOB setting in the camera.

However, this is not necessary. The GPhoto driver checks if the exposure time is < 1 second, and for such exposures, it tries to find if the requested exposure is found within the exposure list (1/400, 1/800..etc) and so it will automatically switch to this exposure when it can. If it can't find any appropriate exposure time, it falls back to BULB.