EX1 Gain Setting and ND.
 

Hi there oh wise ones! I come to you again with questions!!

At what gain settings, for normal light conditions, (indoors, outside, outside sunny) are you guys using? I have read that some people have the low gain setting down to -3. Just wondered what the general consensus is?

Also I shot some stuff in bright sunlight and found it very hard to focus properly resulting in soft looking rushes. I used ND 1 but will ND 2 solve this focussing issue? Should ND 2 be used in full sunlight? I dare say it should!!!

One more thing. How have people got their LCD screens calibrated to help with exposure?

Again many thanks for your help!

For exterior shooting I use -3db and a permanent Tiffin ND9 in a Format matte box that for sunny days means adding the EX1 ND1 to give an exposure of f5.6. For lower light conditions I take out the EX1 ND1. I always try to shoot at around f4 - 5.6. The rest of the set up is as per the suggestions of the Vortex DVD. The results cut in well with HDCam footage when a colourist has done his work on a completed project.

Like Bruce, I use -3db for most outdoor shooting and then use ND1 or ND2 to keep the aperture in the f5.6 to f4 range. If your aperture is stopped down more than f8 you will start to get picture softening due to diffraction. Stopped down past f11 and the pictures will be noticeably soft.

Take a look at my video on aperture and diffraction:
YouTube - Aperture, Depth of Field and Diffraction. How to Guide.

As mentioned by Bruce and Alister, you MUST use the built-in ND filters (or lens filters) to keep the iris larger than f/5.6 and preferably f/4 to lf/2.8. The picture will look soft if you don't.

However, to answer your other question, there is no way to calibrate the LCD to allow you to set exposure accurately. There are just too many variables.

For more than 30 years Zebra has been the proper way to set exposure on video cameras, and the EX cameras don't change that. Learn to use the Zebra control and you'll hit the right exposure nearly 100% of the time with very little effort. Just like setting white balance, some shooting techniques never change.

As I explain on my training DVDs and filed guides, I only use Zebra 1 (set at 95%) but that is only effective if you have simliar PP settings and know what to look for when setting the exposure. The best zebra setting for YOU might be different.

However, one of my pet peeves is the factory-default zebras set at 70%. In my opinion, that is a totally useless value unless you assume that everyone has the same flesh tones and all you ever shoot is head shots.

Agreed! While I do use a zebra at 60 when working with cinegammas and interviews, you do still have to judge for yourself whether the person has a lighter or darker skin tone and adjust accordingly. A 95% zebra is a good one to use as it tells you when you are getting close to peak white. If you are using Cinegamma's 1,3 or 4 at 0db you might want to use the zebra a little higher at 98% as the cinegammas can go up to 109% before clipping.

While your soft focus probably resulted from a pin hole aperture it may have been because you were focusing using the bare LCD. You didn't say how you were testing focus (such as using expanded focus and peaking) but the bare LCD isn't big enough for visual focusing. You need a hood and loupe to magnify the image.

does that mean Cine Gamma 2 clips at 100%. FYI: to those who might be unaware, -3db gain looses a 1/2 stop of dynamic range/latitude.

btw, Alister, I enjoyed your presentation at NAB this year. those are some amazing/extreme conditions you work in. you must not be married or your wife has serious ulcers. i just watched it on-line along with Jeff Cree and Juan Martinez's videos. Sony Business Solutions & Systems - Featured

At 0db cinegamma 1,3 and 4 reach 109% while cinegamma 2 stays legal at 100%. However it should be noted that at -3db all the cinegammas get reduced in level, so 1,3 and 4 reach 104% while cinegamma 2 only gets to 94%.

I am married with a very understanding wife and daughter. We were hoping to go on a family storm chasing trip to chase the Arizona monsoon storms, but at the moment that's on hold due to the financial situation.

Thanks Alister. i appreciate your input.

I'm curious what the many variables are that prevent it.

Depends what you're shooting. Zebra is fine for run and gun to avoid clipping or to have an element hit a certain IRE level rather than a clip warning. Aside from that, Zebra is limited because it doesn't indicate latitude. Your eye will, albeit bound by the limits of the display. In reference to your question I don't know what others are or are not doing but the EX LCD like any other monitor or viewfinder, color or black and white, LCD or CRT... doesn't matter, can be calibrated and should be when practical. Bars generators in all cameras are not just for the editors and preroll. Now, run and gun with constantly varying ambient light conditions -- you can't calibrate it accurately unless you eliminate ambient light with that sock loupe thingamajig on there. Otherwise try to hit a ball park in that situation. Generally, that is 0/0/0 with EX. I'm going to say this setting is not ideal. Absolutely the EX LCD can be adjusted to be off calibration, which is more reason to check it in your shooting environment.

Her's a nice disclaimer -- for good and proper exposure you want to use a larger external monitor! That said, if working under non-varying conditions, flick on the EX bars.... set contrast at 0 (I assume 0 to be factory 50%), set brightness until you can hardly see middle and right grey chips in bottom row in that 3 chip cluster or as I am fond of calling it plugeness goodness. With EX LCD, by "hardly" I mean you're borderline questioning the reliability of the information being interpreted by your visual cortex. Your blacks are set. Note viewing angle will change brightness, it's an LCD.

Now increase contrast until the pretty bottom white chip in the middle stops becoming brighter, then bring down contrast slowly till that white just begins to turn grey, now nudge it upwards again till this white it is not getting whiter. Now stop the fun! This is your sweet spot in contrast. This is as scientific as this setting gets before you go overboard and take out a monitor analyzer, which won't fit on a small LCD anyhow. Black & white mode will help you here because our eyes see contrast much easier without color.

If you want to set chroma you'll need a blue viewing filter, like one used by DPs when we do blue screen chroma key lighting. Looking through it, increase chroma until cyan, magenta and blue blend with the grey bar (that's your 75% white running across) which they sit on.

Your EX1 LCD is now calibrated.

A little ditty -- NTSC TVs deliver color to the eye a bit differently, not much, than HD TV sets. Most of our colleagues do not care. But if you want to get into it find out about your final output and adjust calibration accordingly if you wish... now I am tired... long day... going to sleep. Sorry for the all the wackiness.

i'm unsure of what you're considering as the 3 chip cluster. the pluge on my EX1 has 5 thin vertical strips unlike 3 on most cameras that i've used. by middle and right grey, are you referring to the very far right grey square chip on the bottom row? and for contrast, "the pretty bottom white chip" is A) the squarish chip just to the left of the pluge on the bottom row or B) the thin white horizontal chip found just below the color bars in the lower middle part of the screen?

thanks.

As an old film guy, I can attest to the importance of getting your exposure correctly in the video world.

The film was MUCH MORE forgiving, and the latitude much wider.

With video, both analogue and digital, shooting your original footage with the correct exposure is absolutely essential. Take Doug Jensen's advice is my suggestion.

...and to think they pay film guys(ASC members for example) more money then video guys. what a shame.

The difference in latitude between a properly set up EX and modern film stock isn't that great, maybe a couple of stops at the most. The bigger difference is in the way they handle overexposure and the fact that 8 bit video is restricted to 256 shades of grey while film has in effect unlimited levels.

Hi Max,

Besides all the limitations of the camera's LCD that you list in your own post, the camera's LCD brightness/contrast controls are just not good enough for precisely judging color or exposure.

In fact, I would NEVER use ANY monitor to set exposure, let alone a 3" LCD on the camera.

That is what Zebras are for, and I disagree with your comment that Zebra is only good for run and gun shooting. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unless you're going to drag around a waveform monitor with you, Zebra is the next best thing - and have been for decades.

You're right, Zebra doesn't show latitude, but so what? My latitude is already set with my PP settings. All I need to do when I'm out in the field is make sure the exposure is correct and the rest of the picture will fall into place. If you want to see latitude then use Zebra in combination with the histogram, but I'd never judge exposure by the picture on the LCD.

FYI, in my opinion, playing with the PP settings out in the field to affect latitude would be kind of like EQ'ing your audio out in the field. Would you do that? Nope. You just make sure the levels are correct and usually that will be good enough. You can always fine-tune things in post when necessary. Same thing with exposure. Choose the right PP settings, and then all you have do is hit the right exposure - which is very easy to do with zebra.

That's just my opinion, but other people have their own way of doing things.

Doug,
speaking of PPs, have you adjusted yours since the release of your dvd: "Mastering the Sony EX1"? if so, could you let us know what you like for bright/contrasty exteriors, flat/overcast daylight exteriors, daylight interiors, etc.?

thanks in advance.

-Mike

I still use the same PP for the EX1 and EX3 that I outline in my training DVDs and Field Guides 95% of the time. The only exception is that sometimes I reduce the detail to -10, if I'm shooting something like fall leaves or moving grass with lots of fine lines. But to be honest, by the time my project is edited down to a standard-def DVD, the difference between having detail at 0 or -10 is pretty negligible.

Other than changing the detail occassionally, it is one PP all the time.

Also, I should mention that I rarely shoot outdoors without a .6 ND grad filter and circular polarizer in my matte box. Sometimes on indoor interviews I've been tempted to use a Tiffen Soft F/X 1 or 2, but usually I opt just to shoot interviews clean.

great. thanks.

Hello Doug,
Without knowing specifics from testing I'd nevertheless tend to agree that the camera's LCD is not an accurate exposure tool. Be that as it may I'd never use Zebra, waveform, histogram or meters without a final look at the LCD. It is still a tool and like all tools should be calibrated when possible. Any exposure toolset is designed to satisfy a final judgement by the human eye. As much a proponent as I am for these tools, in the end you have to look at the picture. As much as I've argued against the myth of WYSIWIG video since the days of 1", I have to say a calibrated (insert "Broadcast" here) monitor is essential to judging exposure. True, ideally not on its own. Good tip on the Histogram - a fantastic feature in the EX. I love PPs but trusting that they will make everything fall into place across different exposure zones is just not how I work in certain conditions when I know I have a scalpel with lighting and filtration vs. the paint roller of PPs. But that's what makes learning wonderful, different ways of doing things.



Hello Michael,
Strip number 2 and 4 from either left or right are 0 IRE and basically to be ignored for calibration purposes. Unlike SMPTE split field, HD pluge inserts lovely superblack in between the pluge chips. I believe this is because when it came to HD standards SMPTE finally realized that once you go black you never go back.

Mid and right grey are chips 3 and 5 counting from pluge left. Here...

-2 ire | 0 ire | +2 ire | 0 ire | +4ire
.1......|.2.....|..3......|.4.....|..5....

I'm considering "the pretty bottom white chip" as "A" in your question. If "B" in your question is looking white that is a problem and your LCD is wack out of alignment. This bar should look grey. It lets you calibrate chroma.

Cheers buddies.

Much thanks to old age I neglected to bring up the obvious problem with Zebra as your sole guide to exposure. How are you going to pick up gamut errors just going by zebra let alone the separate concern of sheer chroma levels off the chart very well rendering your picture illegal. With a monitor at least you can back off when you know what to look for and go into the scene with lighting, your PPs, filters or iris and dial something in. Of course you may make your zebra reading inaccurate after the tweak but that's when you know zebra is not an accurate exposure tool in every situation just like no other single tool is.

Although I light with meters whenever I can, I won't summarily ignore the color densities and tonalities a calibrated monitor, be it the LCD or external, shows me when I'm done. Zebra can't give me that visual approximation nor can a blanket trust in PPs I presume. However, if I drink too much Gatorade during the shoot the PP will be of critical importance above and beyond all other exposure tools.

Cheers buddies.

Alister,
I'm going to be in Northern Michigan this summer along the 45th parallel and was wondering if you could share with us you PP and exposure settings that allowed you to capture the "Northern Lights"? thanks.

Where can you pick up one of these blue filters?

URL anyone?

Northern Lights & Green/Blue screen with Detail ON
 

also, considering your PP with the Detail Level set to -8 or -10, Crisp +20, Freq +30. would you use these settings for Blue/Green screen work? most shooters i know have recommended turning Detail OFF, but your settings seem to soften detail. what are your thoughts are Green/Blue screen work with Detail ON?

thanks Alister or anybody else who'd like to chime in.

Here you go, you can use this for any monitor without a blue gun in addition to blue screen work:

Tiffen | #5 Filter