Hi,
I check my raw histograms using RawDigger, which I feel gives a good representation of the real histogram. That is done in post.
With ETTR I mean maximum exposure not clipping non specular highlights. Something like attachement, having very little clipping in sky.
Anyway, I have been shooting with Sony cameras for something like seven years and I have not observed any posterisation issues, except on shots including the sun. That doesn't say that issues don't exists, just that I have not observed it.
But I seriously doubt that the compressed tone scale used by Sony has visible artefacts as I think that the effects of compression are significantly less than shot noise. Very clearly, I don't think that having a non linear coding is a good thing, but I suggest it may not be a bad thing either.
I have not studied it in detail. I guess the best way to check it is to write code to compress the data with Sony's algorithms and decompress it using the same algorithm and subtract from the original data. I might test it, but it takes some time to write the code.
Best regards
Erik
1. Correct (certainly with Adobe raw processors).
2. Which Histogram? They lie big time on the camera if you're shooting raw.
3. If you over expose the CC-card, the Passport software will tell you it can't build the profile. I'm not sure it's necessary to apply ETTR to the target anyway but if you're not clipping, you're fine.