What is the ISO rating of the HD100 sensor...(Using a light meter)
 

I want to use a light meter on a shoot, but what ISO do i set it so that it'll be accurate with the HD100?

The best way to work with a light meter with video is just use the meter to control lighting ratios. Hook up an accurate monitor to the camera and adjust things until it looks good.

I still use my incident light meter on a regular basis, but mostly to control ratios.
However, I do usually rate the camera at 320ASA for the scene file I typically use. 320ASA works for me because of the way I tend to underexpose the midtones and then bring them back up in post.
If you wanted a standard exposure without any post work with the gamma set to NORMAL, you might want to rate it closer to 200ASA.
You can also crank up the gamma to MAX for nighttime shooting and rate the sensitivity at 640ASA or higher.

Never thought about using a light meter with a Video Camera (but hey - what do I know)...perhaps once I get involved in lighting set ups/ratio's it might be worth investing (I don't suppose they are that expensive). Anything to make the scene that extra bit special is good in my book.
From various ventricles of information on the web it's certainly not straightforward subject (taking into account skin tones/use of zebra etc) and can be contentious (using one for exposure in video).
But that's whole other world I could do with sticking my head into.

In laypersons terms....in setting the ASA on this video camera are we referring to upping the gain? Or is there a setting within the menu which offers this function?

They're talking about what ASA to dial into the light meter to get proper exposure information.

ok - thanks Stephen.

Adam,

I know with my 100, with my lends, no ND filters in, no gain (black stretch), and shooting at my preferred sweet spot of F4, I need a minimum of 450-500 Lux to properly expose a picture, snapshot style. That is, there is enough light begin working with and control if possible to get a great picture.

So, like Stephan, when scouting a location, I use my Sekonic to check incident light levels; I also use it to check ratios when actually setting up the lighting for an indoor scene; then I really have a look at my field monitor (with a black photographers drape over it) and adjust to get the final look of the picture.

Mine is the simple way; Tim's use of ASA ratings for exposing the mid-tones etc with an eye towards what he can do in post with grading takes a little more time, knowledge and testing, but his footage shows the positive results of that extra work.

For my style of shooting, I find there are too many variables in video shooting to reley solely on the light meter. With film, the film itself had an ASA rating, and never changed, unless you change out the film stock. With video, we can change that rating with the plethora of menu and switch settings available to us in the camera. We almost need a look up table of ASA settings with the combination of settings possible in the camera. Why go to all that bother?

My 2 cents.

Gary
SaltAire Cinema Productions

I work in news, I don't so much scout a location as much as end up at a location and deal with what I got. =D News shooting is more about just getting enough light on the scene any way you can so you can bring a tape back to the studio and get it on the air.

I don't actually use a light meter for video, I'll dig it out when I'm shooting stills, since the immediate feedback isn't there (the histogram on the back of the camera sometimes isn't quite enough, even if it gets you close), but with video you get so much feedback in your viewfinder/off-camera monitor that you can really just eyeball it. It's all about what it looks like on screen no matter what your light meter tells you. Best example I can think of is if you're interviewing a black person. Trusting an incident meter reading in that scenario will net you a sea of darkness with a couple bright eyeballs in the middle, rather like a human Cheshire Cat (in that vein I've got a funny story about the time I was working as a spotlight operator and I painted my face black for a show, but that's a story for another time...)

A place I can see a meter coming in hugely handy is when you have to light a large area perfectly evenly. A large set or green screen comes to mind. You can make an area look perfectly even to the eye only to put it to tape and see people walking around hitting pools of darkness. It always comes up when I'm shooting a stage show because the lighting designer is lighting for eyeballs and not for me. The light meter is good so you don't keep running back and forth between the camera and your lighting grid.