Regarding gain adjustment....

you can adjust it independently of the iris and turn it down.

the gain only kicks in when the iris is fully open. to assess whether the gain is on or not simply press the shutter speed and go down one notch. If the image brightens you are at max gain on the previous shutter speed.

go back and reduce the exposure by 3 notches. Boom, zero gain nirvana (and often a useless dark image).

In summary, gain only kicks in when the iris component of the exposure control is wide open. Hence, all adjustments in exposure downward, in that condition, apply only to gain......

so gain can be reduced independent of the iris at that point.

it did take a day or two to figure this out in the absence of documentation though. I simply shot many scenes and played them back with the cool datacode on to see what the relationship between exposure, iris and gain was.

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Sony DCR-TRV950 [Mini-DV Vid](2003)
Canon ES-970 [8mm Video] (1998)
Canon Z135 [35mm] (1995)
Yashica Mat-124G [2/14x2/14] (1994)
Canon Elan [35mm (1994)]
Canon AE-1 [35mm] (1981)