Zone System

The most important thing about the zone system is that it forces you to think about the brightness range of your subject and about how you want to render the subject on film. This analysis is appropriate no matter what camera system you use. The "complete" zone system includes ways to adjust the contrast and tonal range of a subject by over or under exposing the film and then using pull or push development. For obvious reasons the contrast and tone adjustments can only be applied in a camera systems where the film can be changed at will. Normally you think of view cameras and detachable-back medium format cameras when you think of changing film at will, but the new APS film format allows mid-roll removal and replacement and there are some high-end SLR's coming out in APS format.

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