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Evaluative Metering: The Wrong Way

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No intentions of listening to other people's viewpoints here.

He says evaluative sucks....

That It averages the entire scene: It does not work like this!!! WRONG!!!

He tells us to use CW...then "Expose the subject close up, use exposure lock, or, if your camera doesn't have exposure lock, meter the scene up close and then use manual mode to regain the proper exposure setting after you recompose"

In Evaluative you can do this simply by putting the AF point on the desired subject...! This is how it works!!!

CW is not backlight aware...neither is spot..thus multizone metering "has a very real use" to the photographer..being able to balance ambient with flash is another one..AF based means most of the time your point of interest is exposed for..

OP is utterly wrong in his summary of evaluative..he trashed the wiki article..(I wrote a lot of it!!)

Ist get your facts right..then start talking..because you just got it badly wrong indeed.



Clint is on holiday! Soon to return! ;-)
 
Staxis said:
In evaluative metering the exposure is biased for the focal point, if
I understand it correctly. Doesn't that mean that if the focal point
is not 18% grey, an error will be introduced?
--
Greg

When you've got a moment, have a look at my newly updated site:
http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk
also http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk/FromeInFocus

And now the blog: http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk/blog

Winner of the South West Rural section of the BBC's Picture of
Britain Competition.
Click to expand...
That is not my experience at all. Though I admit I have far more minolta metering experience...some with a 30D....

Dont forget its not like spot metering, the pattern overlayed is a lot larger..and variable too..it just gives a bit more to the AF point.

Best way to see is try it yourself...

I would say whilst these metering systems are not bulletproof..the design thinking behind them is pretty logical...
--



Clint is on holiday! Soon to return! ;-)
 
Thanks for you prompt reply. I have tried the evaluative metering on my Sony A100 and I don't get on with it. I sometimes get severe underexposure for no real reason, which is why I prefer centre weighted on this camera. My Minolta Dimage A2 is set to evaluative however.
--
Greg

When you've got a moment, have a look at my newly updated site:
http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk
also http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk/FromeInFocus

And now the blog: http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk/blog

Winner of the South West Rural section of the BBC's Picture of Britain Competition.
 
Staxis said:
Thanks for you prompt reply. I have tried the evaluative metering on
my Sony A100 and I don't get on with it. I sometimes get severe
underexposure for no real reason, which is why I prefer centre
weighted on this camera. My Minolta Dimage A2 is set to evaluative
however.
--
Greg

When you've got a moment, have a look at my newly updated site:
http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk
also http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk/FromeInFocus

And now the blog: http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk/blog

Winner of the South West Rural section of the BBC's Picture of
Britain Competition.
Click to expand...
Well not had enough A-100 time to really say one way or the other, I hear some complaints about underexposure..

Sony changed the metering, its still honeycomb..and they increased it to 40 segments from 14, but that doesnt mean its better as such.

The KM5D isnt bulletproof either..but its rare for me to be in any other mode.

Just curious do you have the habit of focus then re-composes? I used to a lot..aka AF central af point, AEL (which is auto on the sony and km)..then re-compose..

Than can make a difference..
--



Clint is on holiday! Soon to return! ;-)
 
Barry Fitzgerald said:
Just curious do you have the habit of focus then re-composes? I used
to a lot..aka AF central af point, AEL (which is auto on the sony and
km)..then re-compose..
Click to expand...
Often, yes. Let's face it with the Minolta 7000 I had to do this. I've got used to it over the years. I am increasingly selecting which focus point to use with the A100. They are fairly well sited in the frame but aren't always in the correct place.

Another point. When I'm taking scenics, I often do not focus on the subject, but focus to optimise DoF. I am not convinced that coupling exposure to focal point is a good idea. It is a recent development. A couple of my Minolta film cameras had evaluative metering but it was not linked to focal point.

--
Greg

When you've got a moment, have a look at my newly updated site:
http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk
also http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk/FromeInFocus

And now the blog: http://www.wrightphotos.co.uk/blog

Winner of the South West Rural section of the BBC's Picture of Britain Competition.
 
Staxis said:
Often, yes. Let's face it with the Minolta 7000 I had to do this.
I've got used to it over the years.
Click to expand...
Long time since I use that one ;-)...that was early days for minolta and metering.

I am increasingly selecting
Staxis said:
which focus point to use with the A100. They are fairly well sited
in the frame but aren't always in the correct place.
Click to expand...
Placed at 3rd points...not a bad idea really.
Staxis said:
Another point. When I'm taking scenics, I often do not focus on the
subject, but focus to optimise DoF. I am not convinced that coupling
exposure to focal point is a good idea.
Click to expand...
Wide angle scenics may cause trouble in high contrast..reason being 9 out of 10 the AF point will be over a midtone or shadow point..pattern goes over that part..not much on the sky.

If you switch to MF, the metering is no longer AF based (for obvious reasons)

If I want to hold highlights in scenics..I AF off of or near to highlight points...bring up the shadows later on. I dont see it as a meter issue, if you cannot capture the entire range, something has to give..

Trouble is not linking to AF, ala pentax/Oly E-510 etc default (you can link it, out of the box its not linked)..if you get really strong highlights, it just tends to major underexpose...in fact it underexposes a lot really..

If you remember its AF based, its fairly predicatable..

Test the A-100...get someone of an object placed near to a bright window, but to the side, AF on that..the metering should expose more for the off centre subject, if it doesnt..and gets fooled and underexposes it..then its got an issue.

7D did this sometimes as well, KM tweaked the metering 5D.......

AF based its very easy for it to meter if the background is out of focus..it knows that..

--



Clint is on holiday! Soon to return! ;-)
 
Your understanding of how it works is flawed. I suggest you study it carefully before knocking it. All metering has some flaws. Knowing the advantages and disadvantages of each it paramount. On the average, an average based metering system will give better results than a simple spot reading - almost by definition.
 
boxf1 said:
Why do people on this forum call anything they don't like or don't
understand a "rant?"

Do you know what a forum is? See my corrections to your false
assertions below...
Brian said:
Boy, someone must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed to go
off on a rant about how bad evaluative metering is.
Click to expand...
I got a nice pay increase at work today and am feeling very good
actually. :-)
boxf1 said:
The fact is that it is quite useful a lot of the time. It is like
any other tool. If you use it a lot, you'll learn how best to handle
it.
Click to expand...
That is nonsense babble - made with a poor attempt - to sound like
something credible.
boxf1 said:
If you don't like evaluative metering, don't use it.
Click to expand...
Wow - what genius! Tell us more, please.
boxf1 said:
It certainly works for me most of the time and when it doesn't I try
a different method.
Click to expand...
What mastery of the subject you possess!
boxf1 said:
It certainly isn't rocket science.
Click to expand...
No, it isn't, but it seems you need to read a book or two on the
subject though.
Click to expand...
"It is amazing how narrow some people on this forum are. "
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1018&message=24009096

It is, isn't it. Pot, kettle...
 
Not to mention, that face detection stuff (which I don't think is all that useful anyway) is more about focus than exposure.

I think people get way more bent out of shape about metering when they are really bent out of shape about dynamic range. REgardless of what kind of metering you use, there are only 3 parameters that affect exposure. There are limits to what you can do with that.
--



A small but growing collection of my photos can be seen at
http://www.pbase.com/poliscijustin
 
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