Cine gamma settings in the EX1

[Mihai Nicolau]

Read through all this thread which is super informative but I was really searching to an answer to what the above poster asked . The same here when I change the cinegamma to the + side it seems to compress highlights even more, I don't get the midtone modification since nothing in the midtones seems to change.
This setting is mostly visible when I have something a tiny bit overexposed and then bringing the gamma into the + side starts compressing it and at high levels it starts looking bad, somewhat to solarizing and when I bring it into the - side it gets more and more overexposed but probably the steps are more stretched, i'm guessing the gammas start clipping earlier as in 100% instead of 109% .

[Alister Chapman]

The gamma gain control is a gain control. Consider 3 different points in your video signal. 2%, 40% and 80%.

If you double the gain what happens to those points? They become 4%, 80% and 160%. So you will see a massive difference at the bright end of the image but very little difference in the mid and even less at the dark end. That's why the gamma gain control always appears to have the biggest effect on highlights.

The + settings increase the gamma gain, so highlights will clip earlier. The - settings decrease gain, but as the cinegammas are already tailored to retain the maximum dynamic range a negative setting does nothing more than reduce the maximum recorded signal level. This can be useful if you want to prevent your levels going above 100%, but otherwise is of little real benefit.