Seeing an HD image on set is wonderful for me. And judging from how I’m lighting and exposing, the dynamic range is pretty decent actually, better than the F900 but not as good as film. But how it burns out is much more graceful and less artifacty than most HD cameras look when something clips. The live 720P debayered image does have some noise and pattern problems that’s not in the recordings. And looking at the RAW files, which have a somewhat flat and murky look before color-correction, the impression I get is that the camera really isn’t faster than 320 ASA; in other words, the sensor seems to like more exposure as long as you don’t go nuts with the clipping at the other end. It’s a little like film in that respect; giving the recording more shadow information helps lift low-end detail out of that murky noisy bottom. So I go back & forth everyday in regards to exposure. I use my light meter for a base reading and then adjust the f-stop based on the highlights, but I keep questioning whether to go up or down a little to either protect highlights or pull up the shadow detail above the noise floor. The AC’s are getting used to me changing my mind on the final f-stop by one-third of a stop all the time.
~ David Mullen ASC
http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/index.php?showtopic=31211&st=0
