I'm shooting in a slightly different/dynamic environment than I normally shoot.. This will be a multicam shoot outdoors starting around 1 hour before sundown and ending a few hours after sunset. I will be capturing a band performing on a lighted stage. I can assume there will be a certain amount of minimun stage lighting at all times plus added effect lights during the playing.

The other dynamic is I have is a brand new shooter...although the camera will be stationary with no focal length changes and will be locked down on a somewhat wide shot.

My question to those who are very experienced with NX5 behavior - to keep the camera operation as simple as possible, should I go with a locked iris and let the gain float (have -12 limt set) or locked the gain and let the iris float....I want to keep the pumping of brightness increase/decrease levels to a minimum as the added lights are lit during the performance.

I never ran the camera fully auto so I have no idea how they would react/look...so I really don't want to go that route...

If you don't want the picture to pump exposure wise (and you really don't) then you must lock down the iris, gain and shutter speed. Once you're at maximum aperture you can flick the gain increases into play, and it's best to have 'smooth slow gain' or whever it's called dialled in.

Remember the lens ramps a lot and don't use converter lenses or filters that all rob you of light.

tom.