My XL1s ISO's at DVinfo.net

Fabio Bettinelli · April 14th, 2006, 05:20 AM

I was so curios about using a light meter with my adorable XL1s, so I searched the web but I couldn't find anyone tested his XL1s in the way to obtain an ISO measurement. I found many articles (even on the precious Watchdog XL1s) but no one tells the main thing: a value of comparable ISO on the XL1s. So yesterday I took my Sekonic 358, one Kino Flo Diva 400 (5500K), one Kodak gray card 18%, my beautiful XL1s with 16x manual lens, and made the test. Simply I set the camera on shutter-priority (Tv) of 1/50 (I'm in PAL), 0 GAIN dB, and read the corrispondent aperture value (in my case was f1.6) in front of the gray card; then I put the light meter in front of the gray card to read the INCIDENT light with shutter priority of 1/50. I regulated the light meter ISO's until I found the equivalent aperture value of the XL1s (f1.6). The result? Same values of camera and light meter at ISO 320. That's it. Anyone did the test before? Opinions?

Dan Keaton · April 14th, 2006, 12:40 PM

Yes, I did the same type of test and came up with 320.

However, there seems to be some controversy about this subject.

An older thread on this subject is titled: Equivalent ISO for Canon XL1S.

Fabio Bettinelli · April 14th, 2006, 01:15 PM

Yes Dan you're right, there are many existing threads treating ISO's theme. I was a bit euphoric to post my "discoverings"...
I think the most important thing is to obtain a reasonable ISO value in order to get light values to compare in the set place. Obvious: I will never open camera's iris following just what the light meter says... I will even put an eye on zebras and to my Sony PVM 9L2...
Anyway: thanks for your reply Dan, bye from Italy...

Don Palomaki · April 14th, 2006, 04:41 PM

I've also obtained equivalent ISO speed reading on the order of 320 for the XL1 (at 0 db gain) using a standard gray card. However, given that the photometric curves for a CCD are different than film ...

Of course the video camera is really a light meter, sampling a ~720x480 (NTSC) matrix of the scene and capable of displaying the reading for each sample point (pixel) it on a display (the monitor) so you can adjust for proper exposure optimizing for the highlights and/or shadow details of interest in roughly realtime.

April 14th, 2006, 05:20 AM	#1
Fabio Bettinelli Tourist Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 4	My XL1s ISO's I was so curios about using a light meter with my adorable XL1s, so I searched the web but I couldn't find anyone tested his XL1s in the way to obtain an ISO measurement. I found many articles (even on the precious Watchdog XL1s) but no one tells the main thing: a value of comparable ISO on the XL1s. So yesterday I took my Sekonic 358, one Kino Flo Diva 400 (5500K), one Kodak gray card 18%, my beautiful XL1s with 16x manual lens, and made the test. Simply I set the camera on shutter-priority (Tv) of 1/50 (I'm in PAL), 0 GAIN dB, and read the corrispondent aperture value (in my case was f1.6) in front of the gray card; then I put the light meter in front of the gray card to read the INCIDENT light with shutter priority of 1/50. I regulated the light meter ISO's until I found the equivalent aperture value of the XL1s (f1.6). The result? Same values of camera and light meter at ISO 320. That's it. Anyone did the test before? Opinions?

April 14th, 2006, 12:40 PM	#2
Dan Keaton Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Augusta Georgia Posts: 5,421	Yes, I did the same type of test and came up with 320. However, there seems to be some controversy about this subject. An older thread on this subject is titled: Equivalent ISO for Canon XL1S. __________________ Dan Keaton Augusta Georgia

April 14th, 2006, 04:41 PM	#4
Don Palomaki Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Northern VA Posts: 4,487	I've also obtained equivalent ISO speed reading on the order of 320 for the XL1 (at 0 db gain) using a standard gray card. However, given that the photometric curves for a CCD are different than film ... Of course the video camera is really a light meter, sampling a ~720x480 (NTSC) matrix of the scene and capable of displaying the reading for each sample point (pixel) it on a display (the monitor) so you can adjust for proper exposure optimizing for the highlights and/or shadow details of interest in roughly realtime. __________________ dpalomaki@dspalomaki.com

April 14th, 2006, 01:15 PM	#3
Fabio Bettinelli Tourist Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 4	Yes Dan you're right, there are many existing threads treating ISO's theme. I was a bit euphoric to post my "discoverings"... I think the most important thing is to obtain a reasonable ISO value in order to get light values to compare in the set place. Obvious: I will never open camera's iris following just what the light meter says... I will even put an eye on zebras and to my Sony PVM 9L2... Anyway: thanks for your reply Dan, bye from Italy...