Only way to properly interpret the dynamic range of the camera. Because EL Zone works off of interpretation of stop values of light. As read by the sensor. It’s a true spot meter basically. * calibrated to that specific camera * - in other words, without feeding it the proper color pipeline, its not properly calibrated, therefore will not be giving accurate readings of the light.
The light meter and EL zone (or any other in camera light metering system like waveforms, false colour, spot meters) don't measure the same thing. The light meter measures incident light (light falling on a subject) and the EL zone measures reflected light. This will lead to discrepancies based on the skin tones of the subject. Darker skin is less reflective than light skin so EL zone can overshoot by 1-2 stops on lighter skinned people with the same level of incident light. That being said, the reflected light is what is needed for proper exposure, not incident light.
@@JustinPhillip yep, you're exposing for the camera, so it makes more sense to know how your camera perceives light reflected off the subject rather than the amount of light falling on the subject.
I bought a smallHD specifically for this reason. Found a used Focus 5, updated the firmware as soon as I opened the box, never turning back. It’s amazing.
Light meters are really useful for a pre-light on a recce. Gives you some idea of what you may need, etc. But yes, the EL zone system is the way forward. Only discovered it when i got my SmallHD 702 about a year ago. Fantastic. Thanks Justin. Love your work. PLease keep 'em coming.
Am i right in thinking you used the incident on your light meter? that would be the reason for the inconsistency, your skin is showing more on the EL as it's taking in your reflectivity rather than the light falling on you!
@Ry_Gordon great point, how are you loading your profiles? I’m new to using my meter for video… and have been going back and forth on EL Zone but want to get better at the meter.
except a light meter works without having to have the camera on set,so while your crew are prepping the camera and DoP monitors you can be lighting the set with your gaffer and his crew, this saves time and money.
I found that half to 1 stop difference too...between the ELZone/Sekonic and even the Gioscope...so which to trust?! In the end I took all 3 into a account. (Will be nice to get an EL Zone DResolve plug in too at some point)
As always, great videos about problems that constantly subtly swirl in your head. but I believe that I simply do not have the skills to work so quickly on the fly with this assistant in the monitor.
Hi Justin! Love your channel! Can the EL Zone system be used with Blackmagic cameras? I researched it but I didn’t see anything saying if could or not.
Would have to see if Blackmagic raw was an option within the color pipeline. If its not included now, it is in discussion with most major camera manufacturers
@@JustinPhillip I hope they do. I’m still a beginner moving into the intermediate stage of film making. I’ve begun growing out of my present gear. It hems me up almost every time I do a shoot….so now I’m figuring out what I’m going to get next. Most of which will just be the same thing I have now but decent quality, like a good pair of stick. A Small HD monitor is in my future as well.
Hey Justin, I run a Ninja v on Sony. They recently have a paid upgrade for EL Zone , had any experience with using this compared to smallHD? Thanks for the in depth content, cheers.
nice video. question, so im on the canon c70 (HDMI) and I dont have the option for the 3G setting. I got the EL zone to work, just wanna make sure it's correct that way? Do you know? Thanks
All the time. Camera is exporting Log image. You can monitor what the Lut is doing directly through the monitor with other exposure tools. But EL Zone needs log image to interpret stops of light correctly for that particular sensor
This is also how I monitor and set my exposure when lighting up a scene. Way more convenient than a light meter, being able to see the whole scene at once and not having to move around taking measurements (which is a real PITA.. let’s be honest). Although, my EL Zone is actually a False Color LUT specifically designed for my camera sensor, that shows every stop of luminance in the image (even half-stops around middle grey). Sadly, I can’t see the chart on screen like on the SmallHD, but I do have a smartphone wallpaper as a reference! The advantage is that I can also use it directly in my camera (when not using an external monitor).
@@caseyandtim The one I currently use is made by Nick Driftwood and is made for Lumix S cameras and there’s a free version, but I guess you could create one yourself online using something like LUTCalc, since there is a False Color option.. but i’m not sure if you can set as many colors to cover to full dynamic range of the camera.
How are you able to bring a BTS shooter on all of your jobs to shoot content for your channel and Patreon content? How are your clients okay with that? I can only shoot BTS on really small jobs. Most of the big jobs I work on I sign NDA agreements and could not share any of it on youtube. Do you purchase the rights to show this stuff or get the production to sign off on it?
shown AFTER the project is released. But yes, approval from productions. Im not shooting any big commercials for apple, so no big issues there. The majority of my content is narrative, and i always wait for the project to come out because then we can compare the ligthing BTs with the finished product
Hi, thank you for an informative video, but...I wouldn't say that the EL zone monitor is quite the substitution for a lightmeter. More like the welcome addition, instead of the false colour. I work/worked beside the eng/efp in a studio environment where you work with a multiple cameras, often controlled from a control room. Not mentioning the fact that you'd prelight the set before the cameraman (and sometimes even the cameras) would be brought. In that scenario EL doesn't help. Similar is with the outside shooting where the set up is done couple of hours before the rest of the crew arrives... In those situations, besides the experience, the lightmeter is THE helper.
Great thing to show for users for sure. But you are misrepresenting something massively. The reason why the SmallHD is "more accurate" is because the LOG-format you put in is adjusted for. 18% grey is not the same for all cameras, and placing Zone 5 is different depending on the system. So the sekonic is system agnostic and more tailored for the original Zone system made for film. While this is literally tailored made for your camera. The main thing I loved with the EI system for small HD is that you actually learn how much dynamic range your footage have pretty quickly.
No, we aren't. If the colorspace doesn't exist in the monitor it doesn't work the same. Its exactly like loading in the ND into the meter rather, not "better calibrated". It is sort of important, because adjusting that setting in on your lightmeter would get you EXACTLY the same result. @@JustinPhillip
@JustinPhillip I'm just getting started with lighting and your videos are very helpful. My budget does not allow for the tools you recommended in this video. What tools (budget conscious) would you suggest for those who are learning like myself?
Thanks for all of your works ! The major problem with the ELzone is when you have to overexpose the middle gray of your camera to avoid noise in the shadows, like for example with the slog3. Sony say to put your middle gray to 41% and el zone are on point, but when we do that, we have noise in the shadow area, so we have to over expose it like for exemple 41% to 55% to avoid noise in shadows am I right ? When I do that el zone are useless for mastering the contrast ratio. maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. do you have an opinion on that? Cheers from France
@@JustinPhillip Yes he does :-/ I have a A7sIII and if I want the best quality shadows I have to raise the middle gray to around 55% so with el zone it’s really hard to keep a good contrast ratio. I find a good solution to solve my problem on this RU-vid creator ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iXrR0CMFNZY.htmlsi=9CzTUeYFFp8-_6Uz but it’s not as good as Elzone inside Smallhd monitor. Let me explain, To solve this problem I increased the middle gray from 41% to 55% on my shot and I added a global correction with the offset wheels before this slog3 Elzone LUT to lower it from 55% to 41% to avoid noise in shadows. After that I created a new ELZONE Lut with this correction inside (+1-1.7) and it works proper on set so you can overexpose your LOG but the ELzone LUT looks normal. If you have any other advice, I'm all ears.
Hello. I have a sigma fp camera. I would like to know if you learned how to turn off the aperture repeater when using the sigma fp in photo mode? I have a 24 2.0 lens that doesn't turn off the aperture repeater. As a consequence, the aperture opening is always open until I press the shutter release. And I would like to turn it off.
That is really cool, complicated, but cool. However, don't the light meter and EL Zone server different functions? Does the EL Zone show the light temperature?
They do serve a different purpose, but color temperature has nothing to do with it. Lightmeter measures incident light and is good for the primary set up or measuring the ambient levels at the location... The closest to false colour or EL is the spotmeter, but unlike the spotmeter EL gives you the whole picture (pardon the pun). The downside is that you need to have your camera with you. They (lightmeter and EL enabled monitor) compliment each other perfectly and on smaller scale shootings, you can easily use only EL, since camera cares only for reflected light (and light shining into it - ie. practicables and led walls)
Being sort of a dinosaur, I use the term "lightmeter" for incident meters and spotmeter for... well spot meters... You can have (as I do - seconic l858) those that combine both functions but i would not recommend setting the light with only spotmeter 😁. As a matter of fact, most of the time, when setting the lights, I use my seconic l478 which is an incident light meter only.
Hi. My question is, if the EL System functions as a 100% spot meter (Every pixel at the sensor is a spot meter at 18% mid gray) or is the spot meter as traditional placed in the center of the camera?
Ps. So basically. Every pixel = 18 % gray and every stop which is more or less from this 18% gray is shown by the colors (‘green/ red etc..) at the complete dynamic range of the sensor? Is this for all camera’s? These are is my last questions 😊.
