I’m used to shooting Zebras thru and thru, it’s how I nail skin tones and everything else way back in broadcast and now on my C100 and until recently was using magic lantern on the 70d which had zebras. I’ve recently been using a monitor with the 80d, but the touch screen focus is lost with the monitor plugged in as the screen goes black. My question is how were people using the histogram in a run and gun environment to judge skin tone to 70-75%? Or should I just forget the focus and keep using my external monitor with zebras, where I know exposure and use something like the canon app to touch focus ...?
How to work without Zebras on the 80d?
- Thread starter Barry1908
- Start date
kinostadt
Member
I've shot a lot of video with an 80D. Usually it's as a second camera to a C100ii, when I'm able to use the C100ii's waveform monitor and zebras to help inform exposure settings on the 80D. But when I've shot on the 80D as the only camera for b-roll or gimbal shots, I've found it best to trust my eye and the exposure meter on its LCD screen. It's crucial to me to keep the touch screen auto focus tools. I'd rather do that than have to lose its touch screen monitor in order to use an external monitor. My logic is that I can always adjust the exposure slightly in color correction, but there's no fixing soft focus in post. Shooting video with a camera like the 80D comes with lots of compromises and work arounds, and I've determined that I'm not willing to compromise its touch screen functions. I experimented with the Canon app for touch focus, but I found it too laggy and unreliable. I've never found the histogram to be a super helpful tool. I can tell if I'm over exposing with my experienced eye and the camera's exposure meter.
Run&Gun
Veteran
If you have a good monitor or VF, zebra’s really aren’t necessary. I’ve been shooting well over 20 years and I rarely ever use zebras on any of my cameras or monitors anymore. They just get in the way. And skin tones shouldn’t be that high to begin with. If skin is at 70%-75%, you’re losing detail. When I shoot interviews, skin tones are in the 50’s-60’s.
Eric Coughlin
Veteran
It will cost you $4750 to shoot zebras, about the cost to upgrade from an 80D to a camera that has zebras.
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-deba...hunt-exotic-african-animals-just-go-to-texas/
Thanks for your perspective , the reason I learned to trust them was when I was working in London, different camera and different formats daily and all the viewfinders were different so I learned to trust zebra. I actually agree with the slightly lower 60-65 ire, which I probably get anyway on Caucasian skin as I dial in a bit of zebra and then back it right off.. was
Agree about the focus being higher priority, and the histogram is pretty useless to me as you still can’t see where skin tones are , only clipping data which is great for Raw stills, not so much for 8 bit h264 video. Ive actually found the camera connect app to be as fast as an hdmi cable, I was definitely surprised as it pretty much had zero lag!
Ha! I assure you no animals were harmed in the making of any video I’ve filmed with my 80D. I don’t know if you ever used magic lantern but the tools were extremely valuable and the software ran faultlessly for me for 3 years. A crop sensor mirorless from canon is likely in my future as a bcam to my c100, but the prices of used c100s now make me think I should just spring for another, of course when I go to 4k I’ll likely be back in the same position as I can’t afford 2 c200’s etc but maybe I’ll have to jump to the EVA or bmd, regardless no animals will be harmed !
kinostadt
Member
Based on your post, I tried the Canon Connect app again with my 80D. It worked better this time than it did when I first tried it a few years ago. Less lag. I think that might be because I now have a new iPhone, which seems to handle the app better than I previous iPhone. I'll try out my phone as a touch monitor on my 80D gimbal rig soon.
That's great to hear, I hope it does continue to work as mine and you can use it as a reliable tool.