D800 matrix metering vs. D600 matrix metering.

Hi again

I did a few more tests and also a few more comments.

1) Re my previous example, to give more details, it was a single 7w bulb that was lighting the entire room. The light was very low and looked much darker than any of the photos make it seem to be (obviously).

2) AFAIK Matrix takes into account the entire frame but might give more significance to the focus point sometimes. In my previous example, I'd expect the slightly shorter exposure when the lamp was in the frame since it caused the entire frame to be a little brighter.

3) I've tested in the extreme way you suggested and found some things. I used the same lamp to light from much farther away so it was very very dark. Darker than my usual concert photos where I often use f/2 or larger, ISO 3200 or higher and hope for over 1/100 shutter speed. I then put the lamp in the frame, meaning the lamp was also much closer to the camera than the dark background.

The exposures were significantly different, well, at least more different than in my previous exmaple. In this case, that's exactly what I'd expect. The background was exteremely dark and the lamp then became a significant bright part of the frame (eventhough it was in the corner). In a case like this I wouldn't expect (or probably even want) the camera to expose like this in Matrix mode. I'd use Spot mode if I wanted it to ignore the light and expose for the background.

However, it seems that your D600 didn't have just this "problem" (which to me is not a problem). It seemed to simply underexpose in Matrix mode in certain situations, such as your bulb photo which isn't completely different from my lamp photo. I am guessing that it's likely your D600, if it really had this problem, would underexpose my lamp photo. Here is why...

4) Look at this test of a chess board. It's not as bright and dark as yours but you can see that in Matrix mode it exposed the same whether the focus point was on a dark or bright area. In Spot mode it changed significantly. I checked a few times. Sometimes it would slightly changed exposure in Matrix mode when focusing on the different colours and sometimes not. Change was at most half a stop.

D600, Matrix mode, focus on black square

D600, Matrix mode, focus on white square

D600, Spot mode, focus on black square

D600, Spot mode, focus on white square