Has anyone ever used filters (like those from Tiffen) to reduce contrast while shooting? Does it improve the image for grading afterwards ?

@hedrox you won't be disappointed. It may seem like a nuisance, but it will, over time, change the way you look at Cinematography. Whether it is a short or a long span is entirely dependent on how much time you put into it, and how quickly you grasp the concepts. But soon, the mysteries of how to get something to look a certain way will disappear, and you'll laugh when you think to yourself, "I used to look at this, and be baffled. And now it just seems so simple, I wish I had learned this sooner."

@shian thanks for the tip. would the noise / film grain be better at 200 or 400 than say 160 or 320? i can turn the auto power off but you are right the camera will mostly be off between setups.

So in your experience using 200 400 and 800 turning camera off and on is ok and doesn`t introduce unwanted noise?

I spoke to my gaffee about implementing a 4:1 ratio trying to expose the scene within + and - 2stops around the correct face exposure 18% gray. should be ok. though one scene is outside at night with camp fire so need to throw more light on the house in the background to bring up the shadows. Any advice on how to best shoot this scene. rather than night how about around dusk?

thanks in advance

@shian, thanks for the info and the enthusiasm.

Small correction: you keep saying "4-stop range," but what you're describing is a 5-stop range. It's your Zone V stop, plus and minus two stops. So it's Zones III,IV,V,VI & VII = 5 stops. I'm sure this is what you mean, because elsewhere you talk about a contrast ratio of 16:1. Contrast ratio = 2 to the power of the difference of f-stops, so a 5-stop range would be 2^(5-1) = 2^4 = 16:1

@shian The ISO bug won't happen when using Q.MENU for changing ISO.

Simply press Q.MENU button. Browse to ISO setting. Use up/down buttons to set the ISO. No more ISO bug. ISO320 is quite nice.

What the... That sucks...

@Meierhans yes. I like the grain the camera has at most ISO settings from 200-1600. But the one time I tried to shoot 640 (approached the correct way to bypass the bug) for an ultra clean look, it went to sleep, and it didn't occur to me that that might bring the BUG out, until of course I saw the footage, and was furious.

There are too many things I have to keep track of while shooting, and the ISO bug is just too much of a hassle to add to the list. If you can keep it straight in your head, and make sure to use the work around every time you change batteries, or the camera goes to sleep... by all means.... go for it. I'm perfectly happy to shoot 200, 400, 800 and 1600 and never have to worry about the bug.

@pundit like I stated, I'm the only one reporting this, so far, so it may just be my camera. But do some tests and see if it does it on your cam as well. It warrants further testing. As fas as I know, no one else has looked into it.

I'd LOVE to be able to do it manually.

duh, the uh... noise bug

I believe ISO bug and noise at custom white balance are two different storys (anyhow closely connected). What I do at work when I can run on V-Mount is to simply disable all the energy saving on the cam, so it keeps runningbuntil battery is changed (once or twice a day). When changing battery i always dial in the desired iso again.

I always use the manual setting to dial in the Kelvin number. But when I use the "sample and set" function it adds noise.

@AdR It's four stops I think?

-2 to -1 (III) : 1 stop
-1 to  0 (IV)  : 1 stop
 0 to  1 (V)   : 1 stop
 1 to  2 (VI)  : 1 stop

It's only 5 stops if you include 2 to 3 (VII), but Shian doesn't, he stops on the edge of it.