Red 320 iso?

[Marcus Hagwall]

Okey, Im new to this so I have a question. I'v been told that RED is rated as 320 ISO and if I change the iso setting up or down, this won't affect the RAW file... The changed iso will only follow the RAW file as metadata and then simulate the higher or lower sensitivity digitally with some softwear... Is this correct? I mean that the sensitivity dosen't really change, it's still 320 but some kind of "gain" or digital ND-filter make the image look brighter or darker.
So what I want to know is if it's better to use ND-filters instead of change the sensitivity?

/Marcus

[Jeff Kilgroe]

You are correct, the ISO setting in camera is just metadata applied to the RAW image. You can set it wherever you want, as a point of reference while shooting. Then completely change it in post. This is the way digital cameras and RAW work. All digital camera systems have an ideal ISO or sensitivity level. With ISO levels in digital camera systems, different levels are acieved by applying a gain multiplier, which can be either analog or digital in nature, to achieve different ISO values, whether the camera is RED, a DSLR, HDCAM, etc.. It's just that RED limits their ISO gain values to metadata and no analog gain is used. RED is about the only camera out there that actually doesn't bake-in the ISO setting, but rather lets the user play with it.

It is best to light (and ND if necessary) for ISO 320~500 with RED in most situations.

The sensor in RED is also natively color-balanced to about 5000K. Setting white balance in-camera is metadata too and works the same way - not baked in.

I find that 90% of the time, I leave my camera set at ISO 320, 5000K, RAW View; regardless of what I'm shooting.

[Marcus Hagwall]

Thanks alot! Great information about the white balance too!