Highlight Tone Priority in the Canon 7D

Shooting video with the Canon 7D? And don’t know where to turn, when trying to figure out if you need Highlight Tone Priority on of off? Then I have your answer:

You’ll definitely want to leave the Highlight Tone Priority (sometimes called HTP) OFF in video modes. In stills mode, that’s your call. I found a lot of weird vertical stripes in the video image and other weird artifacts when HTP is on. These vertical stripes do not seem to be in the stills, only in the video.

If you are worried about the extended ISO range, the 7D still offers the extended range (from 100 to 12800 ASA) with HTP on or off.

None or all of this may be true for the 5D – so you’ll want to do tests with your Canon 5D to make sure. And I’ll be honest, I haven’t tested under the latest 7D firmware update yet. But, there’s more to this. If you’ve read up about what HTP does, you’ve found that it’s not perfect. It’s not extending any ranges. It’s more-or-less auto-adjusting the exposure and ISO of the image (within a limited area of exposure correction) so that the highlights aren’t overlit. In the process, it basically makes the shadows grainier.

So, in other words, HTP is not a good replacement for a cinematographer’s brain…

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