Had a similar issue with my Lumix G85 and G9 I always got underexposed images; if I loaded a 5Dmk4 raw it looked perfect (flat as a raw should be, but exposed correctly). I ended up setting presets for the G85 and G9 in the black and white point. Seems the settings changed/dropped at some point, as a few years ago they looked perfect, then after one update I had dark images with a crap ton of magenta in my highlights. Once I loaded a previous file with associated xmp I could see what was different and saved those as a preset. I ended up fighting with my files for a year before I worked out what had changed heh.
Also, I’d like my camera to behave more predictably. As I said earlier, with less contrasty and / or less saturated themes in the frame, roughly I can compensate my exposure as far as almost +2 stops.
And then, my settings are completely wrong and I end up with terribly blown areas, as if the camera suddenly started to behave properly as soon as something bright entered the frame (and my +2 EV destroyed its this-time-proper metering).
Well, I get it that a manufacturer makes a camera for a broad audience, not everyone pays attention to ETTR, well-thought usage and so on. For most people it should work out of the box.
“… they suck in a predictable way”
LOL!
That’s the best, concise definition of the scene referred workflow so far (at least to me…)
predictable being manageable, repeatable, in summary, productive, and you start getting the idea.
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Hi Todd,
You’re right.
When I started looking at DT’s histogram, I thought about the one displayed just after the first import in lightroom not the following modified by module actions.
Sorry for my previous wrong statement 
I kind of gave up on that, regardless of the camera. I usually use set up aperture and shutter speed in the Manual mode, using the exposure metering as a guideline, being aware of the fact that minor changes in the scene could affect it, so I calibrate to significant highlights with a bit of safety margin (usually -1/3 EV). With of course manual ISO. (I usually shoot outdoors, if you are doing carefully composed studio shots that’s a different issue).
Some cameras are better at exposure metering, some are worse, but none are foolproof. Remember: it is just an algorithm balancing trade-offs. And with recent sensors (last 5-6 years), you can recover a lot of detail from the underexposed shadows.
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It may, of course, depend on ones camera but I find the meter on my camera (a Fujifilm) is very precise in relating the exposure segment of the viewfinder to the all important ‘mid-gray’.
I set my ISO and f.stop while allow the camera to correctly select the shutter speed to match the mid-gray. Beyond that I only use the ‘compensation’ to avoid sensor saturation. Filmic will read the compensation and then build a curve that correctly matches the scene.
I have found that the Manual mode, where the user thinks that they can judge exposure better than the camera system, brings unpredictable/erratic results.
When I process my images with dt (using this system) I find it very rare that the basic exposure is incorrect or needs adjustment.
Those are related to the sensor’s characteristics; I would not recommend using them as aesthetic controls. They may actually vary from picture to picture, at least on my Lumix LX7 they do.
I am aware, but I process thousands of images per event, so if it’s closer then great. It also means teh highlights module doesnt have a crap ton of magenta showing unless I pull it down to 0.74 - yet another module that says “you shouldn’t need to touch this” heh. I didn’t, until 3.0 from memory, when it all went to shit.
If you report the issue, and provide samples, then darktable’s constants for the camera can be updated, and you won’t have to apply the hack anymore.
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BTW:
yes, I know. I guess at the time I felt like I’d be annoying as for the longest time I didn’t know why my images were hard to wrestle into something reasonable, and only worked out what the actual fault was by loading some raws with xmp from pre-3.0 that had the correct black/white points. I only found that around the time I sold my lumix gear. Yes, I should have reported it, however my original post was highlighting what the issue could be for this person with their D810 in hope it might help them, not to educate myself on what my fault was and the process to lodge a bug.
Also, it’s not a hack: I just saved that as part of the style I start with, which I saved from a revious version xmp - literally the settings that came in darktable back then. No biggie. I’ll dig out the settings when I have time and lodge them.
I understand you were trying to help, and I appreciate it. I also had to resort to manually setting the black point for a while, while I was waiting for the fix of issue 10008. I just wanted to emphasise that while such tricks are sometimes necessary to work around bugs, it’s best if the bugs are reported and a fix is developed.
The Lumix black points should now be correct, I think. I also recall some highlight issues when Lumix cameras were used in extended(?) ISO modes, below 200. But I understand those are no longer relevant for you.
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