the color black and the ex1r question.

[William Graydon]

I want to be able to achieve the most crisp black color with least amount of noise I can from my ex1r regardless of the light situation (meaning both indoor and outdoor, artificial lighting and or natural)

I was hoping to receive some tips as to how to achieve this. Thanks.

[Perrone Ford]

Light for daylight balance and use enough light to force the use of an ND. Easy as can be.

[Marty Welk]

i dont think the OP provided enough info :-)
you want crisp black with no noise (dont we all) is that all you want?
nothing else in the picture?
does it need to stay within broadcast specs for black, which really is dark grey?
Do you need to see any details in the black?
can the picture or parts be blurry like having reduced the sharpening alogrythm?
will you need to be able to see stuff in the shadows?
are you talking superblack , black, NTSC black, or crunched into oblivion black :-)

sorta wouldnt it have been better to describe what your doing, and what your intended final output will be, as opposed to creating such an open question, with so many possible answers of which none may relate to your actual needs? :-)

[Olof Ekbergh]

When getting used to a new camera I always spend a few hrs trying different settings and shoot some out the studio windows and some with tungsten, fluorescent and our HMI's in the Studio. I also do some mixed lighting shots.

All this while monitoring on a professional ref monitor and scopes. I try warm cards and regular WB cards.

After a while you learn what will work. And you also get good at setting exposure. There are many different ways of doing this.

I have sometimes had good luck setting white point on a problem black fabric in a shot that is not really black but a little red, especially under tungsten lights. I sometimes use a white card and black fabric in the same frame way out of focus to white balance. But always look for good skin tones if you try this.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

The methodical approach Olof has described is essential when developing one's own best approach techniques with any new camera.

Regarding the OP's question on blacks:

It's always good to keep in mind that there is NO absolute optimum setting. An equilibrium point must be established between the highest latitude (extending blacks will inevitably introduce some noise; extending highs can bring about some blow-outs), and the cleanest, most punchy picture possible (crunching blacks will disguise noise along with detail, etc).

Add to it one's aesthetic preferences and artistic concepts of picture composition, and you will get an idea of how much trial and error it involves...