I have read ARRI’s fascinating white paper on dynamic range and how the Exposure Index allows us to choose which signal value is middle grey, which ultimately allows us to choose the distribution of the shadow below and highlights above middle grey.
I have also recently read that ARRI and many other cinema cameras, unlike in the old days, don’t apply any form of gain to the signal, but that the change in EI is more like a change in the appearance of the image. This would make sense to me because that explains how the camera is able to maintain a constant dynamic range across all the EI values. It would also explain why lower EI values lead to more SNR, simply because we would then need to expose the sensor less (more shot noise).
However, I cannot verify the credibility of the source and wanted to ask if the “no gain” “it’s just a look” thing is true and if so, if someone could give a more in-depth explanation?
Thank you for your time