This mode presents the levels of exposure on screen using color for different exposure levels displayed as contour areas of color on your image.

This is perhaps the simplest way to asses exposure over learning to read a waveform or guessing the picture displayed on the screen is representative of what is recorded as the monitor brightness will mess that up completely.

You can enable the Colorized Exposure / False Color when there is an input signal, by tapping on the Monitor Icon, as shown above and then by scrolling the monitoring options to the left select the False Color icon.

• tap on the monitor menu
• swipe the icons to the left
• tap on the FALSE COLOR icon, this is ATOMOS FALSE COLOR
• tap on the gear icon for the shelf menu
• tap on the EL ZONE to select this FALSE COLOR
• this is the EL ZONE SYSTEM exposure colors
• tap on ARRI
• this is ARRI FALSE COLOR
• to return to the regular image tap the FALSE COLOR icon

The three formats for False Color:

• ATOMOS False Color: Presents the image with color graduations based on the IRE scale, this makes it easy to compare the image to the signal displayed on a waveform monitor using the same scale.
• EL ZONE SYSTEM: presents the image with color graduations based on the camera exposure using f stops, it is based on the Ansel Adams Zone system and provides a great way to check the exposure. Learn more here [EL Zone System](https://www.elzonesystem.com/)TM
• ARRI FALSE COLOR: Presents the image with a minimal approach with color graduations to show the midpoint and the edges of the usable exposure range.

Both the EL Zone system and ARRI False color are only available for Log or RAW camera signals:

To choose between ATOMOS, EL ZONE SYSTEM or ARRI, tap on the gear icon to reveal the shelf menu then you can select the False Color format in the menu. Tapping the (X) where the Gear icon was and displayed will hide the shelf menu.

The important bits

We disable LUTs while the False Color is on screen and when the input is in a RAW format the false color is based on the normal LOG for the camera.

A word of caution before you use False Color, try it out first so you know how it works with your camera. For the majority of cameras, the exposure or false colors will present an accurate guide to the exposure. However, there are a number of steps between the sensor capturing the image and the file that could impact this output and cause inaccuracies.

For example, Atomos don't have details of the dynamic range of the camera sensors, so what might appear to be over or under-exposed could be clipped. Also, there could be a transform or LUT on the camera output that would lead to the false color or a waveform giving false results, though this would also be transferred to the recorded media.