Re: Got My Three EA50's!
 

I use the 50 and vg 20 interchangeably. It took some time to get used to the size of the 50 but once that was done, that issue simply went away. The sleeper in the system is the DZ as it really leverages every lens I use. That alone is a game changer. Terrific camera without question. Only thine really needed is the ability to adjust the Gain/ISO as per the 10 and 20.

Re: Got My Three EA50's!
 

That all makes sense to me Ron.

Noa, how do you see anything with zebras set to 100? I can understand you taking a look at it that way in rehearsals but not shooting that way? I often run zebras at 80%, sometimes 90% it depends on the contrast of the light.

The $5.00 light meter for i-pad, i-phone during rehearsals can give you a very good idea of just how much of a F-Stop change there is when there are dramatic scene changes (i have Mac stuff and PC stuff, I prefer PC stuff). That way you can prepare for those "blow out" moments.

Lighting directors for theater and especially AV LDs set levels for the human eye. If they don't have any broadcast experience they could not care less about contrast ratios. The same look they are trying to achieve can often be done within reasonable contrast ranges but it takes more time and care. Talking to the LD in advance to let him know recording will be taking place might help a lot.

Ron, as a theater guy what experience have you had with lighting directors?

Steve

Re: Got My Three EA50's!
 

How do you mean? If I want to expose right I hardly get any zebra's in the frame. If they might interfere with setting my focus I turn them of by pressing the assigned button on the side. After a while I can pretty much set the exposure by feeling, like I have to do on my dslr's all the time, but if there are zebra's available I don't have to guess.

Re: Got My Three EA50's!
 

Video is a retirement hobby for me so I shoot in a range of theatres with professional as well as amateur groups. For the professional its mainly dance and I know them as its every year and they know that video is not too happy with pink/red mixed lights that may look good but sends the video cameras out of focus and leads to lots of work for me afterwards. Also does nothing for the costumes the parents have payed lots of money for !!! For the amateur groups I sometimes point out hot spots that are easy for them to see on the video monitor and they correct. The biggest recent change is lighting with a mix of LED outdoor temp, tungsten and spots different indoor temps, so setting a WB once doesn't work. I have taken to leaving my full stage camera ( unattended XR500) on auto WB and setting the others fixed indoor preset and just correct as needed.

Ron Evans