With talks of consumers getting better cameras with better light sensitivity, I more commonly hear people say, “I don’t even need to light it.” I think thats the furthest thing from the truth to making films that people will actually want to watch.
Lighting can create depth, convey emotion, and make a shot a lot more interesting. If you are pursuing film as an artist, light would be your paint. If you think of lighting as just Exposing, you are missing out on how a scene is supposed to look in relation to your story. Lighting for different genres is vastly different.
Canon just released a camera (ME20F-SH) that can shoot up to 4 million ISO. Talk about not needing any light or just trying to come up with a camera that can properly expose in the dark. My first impressions are, “why would anyone ever have to shoot with such a high ISO?” I understand maybe filming wildlife but I think 4 million ISO is a bit much. If you are interested in reading more about this camera, you can find the press release here:
The Sony A7s is another camera that has really good low light capabitlies. It’s a great little camera. I would just encourage you not to rely heavily on the camera, and light a scene based on your stories, versus exposing that scene.
