Cagnes-sur-Mer ~ late afternoon sky ~ 2025
Working in a neo noir style.
Technically I've found that moving Zone 6 as Sony sensors record it and creating an input correction curve post-demosaic that lowers it to Zone 5 sets the kind of deep tones I'm looking for.
As a side note: Sony sensors are very very quiet in the shadow regions. There is so much usable information deep into the -EV range.
When "testers" and commenters across the internet make claims about dynamic range I see what they report to be 1 to 2 stops narrower dynamic range than what I see. The difference is that I rise the mid-tones in my Digital Zone System luminosity curves to match 0EV to Zone 5, which, it turns out, usefully raises the shadows down to 020202hex - where I take things to be pure black (I can't see any difference between 000000hex and 0202020hex on my displays).
My Sony A7 can record 14.5EV to 15EV of usable f-stop range. Yes. It's true. Same with an A6300 that I have. The A6000, NEX-7, NEX-5T, and A5000 all record just about 14EV dynamic range.
The A7RII I recently picked up looks like it's good for between 14EV and 14.5EV. This surprised me as I thought backside illumination might set a more solid base noise level. Perhaps it's all those pixels or the way they set the analog to digital converters?
In any event, I would really like to try a Sony A7S (original model) to see how it does. Anyone have one and have a few minutes to record some RAW data for me? Or loan me for 10 minutes so I could run my input correction curve calculations? These cameras are getting cheap enough that I might even be able to buy a used copy myself. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for one.
Cagnes-sur-Mer ~ late afternoon sky ~ 2025
Working in a neo noir style.
Technically I've found that moving Zone 6 as Sony sensors record it and creating an input correction curve post-demosaic that lowers it to Zone 5 sets the kind of deep tones I'm looking for.
As a side note: Sony sensors are very very quiet in the shadow regions. There is so much usable information deep into the -EV range.
When "testers" and commenters across the internet make claims about dynamic range I see what they report to be 1 to 2 stops narrower dynamic range than what I see. The difference is that I rise the mid-tones in my Digital Zone System luminosity curves to match 0EV to Zone 5, which, it turns out, usefully raises the shadows down to 020202hex - where I take things to be pure black (I can't see any difference between 000000hex and 0202020hex on my displays).
My Sony A7 can record 14.5EV to 15EV of usable f-stop range. Yes. It's true. Same with an A6300 that I have. The A6000, NEX-7, NEX-5T, and A5000 all record just about 14EV dynamic range.
The A7RII I recently picked up looks like it's good for between 14EV and 14.5EV. This surprised me as I thought backside illumination might set a more solid base noise level. Perhaps it's all those pixels or the way they set the analog to digital converters?
In any event, I would really like to try a Sony A7S (original model) to see how it does. Anyone have one and have a few minutes to record some RAW data for me? Or loan me for 10 minutes so I could run my input correction curve calculations? These cameras are getting cheap enough that I might even be able to buy a used copy myself. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for one.