The dynamic range of a digital sensor and the way bit depth works means that the highlights *can be* forgiving, but only if you can successfully achieve getting the maximum number photons in the pixel wells without clipping. And that means learning your sensor. When you achieve that, and it can take significant testing, then you'll get very lovely highlights. And this is the only way to achieve the best shadow details, too. If you have 14bit RAWS, you'll get:
|-- Black <---> Shadows <---> Midtones -Highlights <---> White --|
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384
Because of the way tones are mapped to bits, you get the most tonality data in the highlights and the least tonality data in the blacks.
The zone system needs to be adapted to this. If you've got a scene with an dynamic range of 12 stops using a a good sensor with 14 stops of dynamic range, you'll want to exposure your middle gray at zone zone 7 instead of zone 5--ideally as high up the dynamic range without clipping the highlights. This will give you the most information on your sensor for when you post-process the image back down withe tones brought back to their appropriate zones along with applying a non-linear tone curve. When this can be achieved you'll get the best shadow detail possible for your camera and a lovely roll off in the highlights.
Also: unfortunately, Canon has been behind inf sensor dynamic range for going on ten years now.
Just my two cents.
I'm a young kid around here, only 34. Most of my friends just think my LF camera is pretty cool, but don't what to say beyond that.
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