C500: C500 MKII nailing exposure. Best practices.

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derbrocks09

Well-known member
I'm new to the Canon C line and will be shooting a feature on the C500 MKII in September.

What are the best practices for nailing exposure. I'm coming from the Red ecosystem. My understanding so far (in Clog 2 anyway) is to expose middle grey just under 40 on the histogram. Am I better off error-ing on the side of overexposing a tad or underexposing?

I'm also considering buying a light meter again. lol Any suggestions there? With Red it was pretty straight forward. Am i correct to assume that nailing exposure on the Canon is even more critical?

FWIW planning to shoot 6k CRL for the entire film.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated everyone.

Thanks in advance.
 
Since it'll be a feature, do your tests and design a LUT to get the look you like (and for monitoring) that'll force the exposure you want/need. There's a ton of latitude so you can get away with missing your exposure but you'll want to make sure your ratios are right (which is where the light meter and LUT will help). You can also use the false color in the camera to make sure you're exposed correctly, the camera has a built-in guide if you forget what all the colors mean.
 
False colour on my SWIT monitor nails it every time. If I don't have the monitor attached the WFM and zebras are the quickest solution. If you're shooting CRL it's definitely a good idea to lift your exposure a stop if you can avoid clipping.
 
When I tested the camera, 800 ISO on the camera matched 800 ISO on my meter perfectly (as did 400 and 1600 ISO). So I think you'll be perfectly safe to go by meter without having to calculate compensations.

The false colour is spot on too.
 
I should add, I started carrying my meter when I first got the C500 MKII. It was a useful comfort blanket to confirm exposure.
 
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