PXW-Z150 low light issues - help?

[Paul Anderegg]

I don't think 35mm film and ISO was developed with gamma and knee in mind.

Paul

[Doug Jensen]

What difference does gamma and keen make? None. Either f/2.8 or f/4 or whatever, is the right exposure or it is not. And a light meter can tell you whether the exposure is correct or not if you know the sensitivy of the camera. How the camera treats certain tones within the image is entirely irrelevant to the overall exposure. A spot meter may even help with getting contrast ratios within certain tolerances, but that is not the same as setting the exposure. If you don't think a light meter can be used today, I think you should drop in at the ASC clubhouse in Hollywood and do a demonstration that shows all the top cinematographers why they are wrong.

If someone can't use a light meter to set exposure with modern video/cinema camera then they don't know how to use a light meter. A light meter is just as useful as it was 100 year ago, but what has changed is that we have even better tools today. A typewriter works every bit as good today as it did in 1950, but there's no reason to use one anymore because we have better tools at our disposal in 2018.

[Paul Anderegg]

I just meant that you can set an "ISO" and exposure in a Z90, change the PP, and you will see dramatic shifts in observable "apparent" exposure. I am still a bit baffled why anyone would want to even attempt to use a light meter set gain/ISO on a video camera...I mean, they invented viewfinders a few years ago if I remember correctly. :)

Paul

[Dave Sperling]

And lest we forget, the light meter that tells us what we're actually getting is also called the Waveform Monitor.
For a laugh, talk to someone at RED about the fact that they seem to have recently changed the 'meaning' of their ISO rating -- the same ISO setting on a current camera might produce a full stop brighter image than the same numeric ISO setting would have provided a couple of years back.

[Doug Jensen]

Exactly! They're all bogus numbers unless you take the time to rate the camera yourself for the exact paint (or LOG) settings you will be shooting with.