XD HD exposure

[2000lux]

Recently I did a shoot with the Sony 350 in HD. I had the zebras set at 70 IRE like I usually do. However, when I looked at the shot on the monitor, it looked hot. We were already rolling so I just treated the zebras like they were set for 80 IRE. I talked to another shooter who uses the camera regularly who's noticed the same thing. Next time I'll set them for 60 IRE and use them like I usually do. Has any one else had this problem? Is it just this specific camera, or does it cary over to all HD or XD cameras?

[Canonman]

Recently I did a shoot with the Sony 350 in HD. I had the zebras set at 70 IRE like I usually do. However, when I looked at the shot on the monitor, it looked hot. We were already rolling so I just treated the zebras like they were set for 80 IRE. I talked to another shooter who uses the camera regularly who's noticed the same thing. Next time I'll set them for 60 IRE and use them like I usually do. Has any one else had this problem? Is it just this specific camera, or does it cary over to all HD or XD cameras?

My first question is which zebras were you looking at? There are two zebras on the camera. Zebra 2 is fixed at 100 IRE and above, with Zebra 1 adjustable from 20 to 107 IRE. Those 2 can be displayed individually, or both at the same time (as well as off). Zebra 1 is the diagonal, with Zebra 2 being a polka dot pattern.

I will say that when I first got the camera, I tended to overexpose a bit and blow some stuff out. I found that the default settings for iris gain worked well in that I could press the momentary button for auto iris and what it liked, worked out pretty well. You can override that up or down a full stop by pressing and turning the encoder knob.

cm

[2000lux]

It was Zebra 1, I turned off the second set so I'm sure I was only looking at the 70 IRE zebras that I set. The exposure was only about a stop too high.

I remembered that one of the instructors at the Varicamp workshop said that caucasian flesh peaks at ~68 IRE. Working in SD I was told it was ~80. At first I thought the guy at the workshop had mispoke but in retrospect, I'm wondering if he was talking about HD in general? I've also heard several DPs say they tend to underexpose around a stop "to be safe." Hrmmn.

I often use the auto iris too to get a baseline setting, and then switch over to manual to fine tune it, and so it doesn't get fooled by bright lights.

[Run&Gun]

70-75 is usually too high for fleshtones(white). And who ever told you 80% for skintones in SD was high! I worked on a series(HD) where skintones were in the 45-55 range. I'll have to double check, but they were what most people would consider too low. I was told the story of how 75% became the "standard" for fleshtones, and let's just say, it was less than scientific, if true. I shoot for skintones under 70%.

[Shootblue]

Zebra is set based off of IRE levels. Black being 7.5, White being 100. If you look at the tonality and relative brightness of things, 70 is about right for caucasians. (We are about seventy percent as bright as white, similiar to sidewalks, etc that commonly exude zebra)

It's like I tell all those who bring to me a confusion about zebra...you have to ignore all the colors and look at things in their relative brightness...Only then will you able to understand how zebra works in practice and when zebra should be on an object.

[Max Girth]

The camera, when set up right, has a lot more latitude than say a D600 or whatever you may be used to.

My method, previous to owning the 350 was to set zebras at 100, and roll iris until I only had tiny parts of the frame burning out to white. Most of the time this would yield me skintones in a good place, anywhere from 50 to 75ish. On the odd occasion where this gave me crappy skin levels, I would throw that method out and just move to putting my skintones around 65 or 70.

Using that method on the 350 though made everyhting overexposed...since the camera hold highlights so much better, using the highlights as a judge for my exposure just doesn't work like it used to.

In the end, I still use the same method, but I have the benefit now of having seen a ton of my shooting on a proper HD monitor and now know what the same method does for me. The lesson is that many times, my highlights don't have to be burning out at all to get proper exposure.

Make sense?

[Max Girth]

One more thing on IRE levels for skintones...

Since I come from a film background, I prefer to keep skintones probably almost a stop lower than somebody who was taught 75 or 80 is the place to be. This means mine are more around 60 IRE usually, if I'm lighting and have control over the situation.

If you took a lot of telecined film and looked at skin levels on a scope, you'd see them a lot lower than 75.

[eb]

Recently I did a shoot with the Sony 350 in HD. I had the zebras set at 70 IRE like I usually do. However, when I looked at the shot on the monitor, it looked hot. We were already rolling so I just treated the zebras like they were set for 80 IRE. I talked to another shooter who uses the camera regularly who's noticed the same thing. Next time I'll set them for 60 IRE and use them like I usually do. Has any one else had this problem? Is it just this specific camera, or does it cary over to all HD or XD cameras?

We use the 350 on staff here, but not shootin in HD. We have noticed the video blow outs are more frequent. (Others have had problems with this.) Anything hot...the video blows out ugly. Obviously, the solution would be not to ride the iris too high and make it happen. Yet...in some cases, video gets hot. It just seems the 350 Sonys are unforgiving....flaring out..blooming out...the hot spots.

We are also noticing white balances are odd. I'll start another thread for advice on that.

[SimonW]

Also note that the default settings for Standard gamma on the XD HD give a very hard clip. The knee and knee slope needs to be adjusted, or one of the Cinegamma settings used instead.

[Max Girth]

We use the 350 on staff here, but not shootin in HD. We have noticed the video blow outs are more frequent. (Others have had problems with this.) Anything hot...the video blows out ugly. Obviously, the solution would be not to ride the iris too high and make it happen. Yet...in some cases, video gets hot. It just seems the 350 Sonys are unforgiving....flaring out..blooming out...the hot spots.


Simon is right. You need to get gamma, knee, and black gamma setup right.

The camera has a ton of latitude, but it's not that way out of the box.