Reading mode: Light Dark

Sony Highlight Metering Fails in RAW on A1, A7R III, and A7R IV

Go to last post
janbanan

janbanan

Well-known member
Messages
127
Reaction score
24
Location
SE
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.

I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
 
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.

I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
Yes it is set for JPEG's. You can adjust the zebras to be closer to RAW. The histograms seem better.
 
Set and use a custom UniWB and expose to histogram. I only bother to do that with my MFT bodies, but it does recover a lot of exposure headroom.

A
 
RaysJ said:
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.

I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
Yes it is set for JPEG's. You can adjust the zebras to be closer to RAW. The histograms seem better.
Click to expand...
agree, set he zebras to 109+3 and the histogram is near spot on ( its to small to see the ends with my aging eyes), the histogram is out 0.3 stop for adobe correction. you can lift just about any sony FF sensor 4 stops with near perfect results, so its good enough in my book.
 
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.

I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
It isn't useless, that's the way it is supposed to work. They are reading off the jpeg files. It's up to the user to adjust the settings as recommended here or understand and allow the extra headroom.
 
Mike Fewster said:
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.

I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
It isn't useless, that's the way it is supposed to work. They are reading off the jpeg files. It's up to the user to adjust the settings as recommended here or understand and allow the extra headroom.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

It sounds dumb, but there's no way to tell if an area is over exposed or not on Sony cameras. Even the Zebras set at 109+ is only looking at green pixels, so if you're shooting a sunset you're over exposing a lot with 109+ as reference.
 
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.
Click to expand...
Simply, user error.

Why do you use an exposure setting intended for jpg files when you want maximum DR from your raw files?
janbanan said:
I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
There are lots of camera settings and visual tools to get the exposure exactly where you want it to be.
 
Last edited:
Hotel Lonely said:
Exactly.

It sounds dumb, but there's no way to tell if an area is over exposed or not on Sony cameras. Even the Zebras set at 109+ is only looking at green pixels, so if you're shooting a sunset you're over exposing a lot with 109+ as reference.
Click to expand...
Excactly! This is one good visual tool and setting for taming RAW highlights. :-)
 
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.
Click to expand...
For years I've used highlight metering set to overexpose by about 1 2/3 stops to good effect for raw files on an A7R III. (I set the default exposure for +1 EV in the menu and +2/3 on the dial.) If I have time I fine tune the exposure as needed using zebras set to 108+ or 109+. This is fast, easy, and it works well according to the raw histograms in FastRawViewer.
 
RealWorldPhoto said:
Hotel Lonely said:
Exactly.

It sounds dumb, but there's no way to tell if an area is over exposed or not on Sony cameras. Even the Zebras set at 109+ is only looking at green pixels, so if you're shooting a sunset you're over exposing a lot with 109+ as reference.
Click to expand...
Excactly! This is one good visual tool and setting for taming RAW highlights. :-)
Click to expand...
109+ doesn't work well for sunsets :(

Again, 109+ only looks at GREEN pixels, so if your scene is red or blue themed, then you would get a lot of over exposure, if you rely on zebras.

So no there's simply no good accurate tool on Sony cameras to do RAW ETTR.



Highlight metering works well enough though, I often use it then +1 or 2 ev based on the suggestion and where I can take the over exposure sacrifice.
 
Last edited:
Hotel Lonely said:
RealWorldPhoto said:
Hotel Lonely said:
Exactly.

It sounds dumb, but there's no way to tell if an area is over exposed or not on Sony cameras. Even the Zebras set at 109+ is only looking at green pixels, so if you're shooting a sunset you're over exposing a lot with 109+ as reference.
Click to expand...
Excactly! This is one good visual tool and setting for taming RAW highlights. :-)
Click to expand...
109+ doesn't work well for sunsets :(

Again, 109+ only looks at GREEN pixels, so if your scene is red or blue themed, then you would get a lot of over exposure, if you rely on zebras.

So no there's simply no good accurate tool on Sony cameras to do RAW ETTR.

Highlight metering works well enough though, I often use it then +1 or 2 ev based on the suggestion and where I can take the over exposure sacrifice.
Click to expand...
I dont understand, i clipped the red on the cameras histogram. and have my blinkies set to blink which they did on the white to the right.

d6c434b0a30d4cc4a4bcfbd1bee552ed.jpg



a4b2e43c2ea84fb69cea4e3ea2ce3e5a.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hotel Lonely said:
RealWorldPhoto said:
Hotel Lonely said:
Exactly.

It sounds dumb, but there's no way to tell if an area is over exposed or not on Sony cameras. Even the Zebras set at 109+ is only looking at green pixels, so if you're shooting a sunset you're over exposing a lot with 109+ as reference.
Click to expand...
Excactly! This is one good visual tool and setting for taming RAW highlights. :-)
Click to expand...
109+ doesn't work well for sunsets :(

Again, 109+ only looks at GREEN pixels, so if your scene is red or blue themed, then you would get a lot of over exposure, if you rely on zebras.
Click to expand...
Of cause zebra works well for sunsets, since the photographer has to evaluate light quality and what the zebra pattern covers to set the best exposure! Part of this is to judge what should be highlights with detail and what should be shiny highlights without detail.
Hotel Lonely said:
So no there's simply no good accurate tool on Sony cameras to do RAW ETTR.
Click to expand...
If you can't take a few test shots and evaluate the result to learn how to deal with more extreme situations, then you might be left with underexposed or burned highlights.
Hotel Lonely said:
Highlight metering works well enough though, I often use it then +1 or 2 ev based on the suggestion and where I can take the over exposure sacrifice.
Click to expand...
There is no over exposure sactifice unless you burn out highlight detail.
 
Last edited:
Hotel Lonely said:
Mike Fewster said:
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.

I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
It isn't useless, that's the way it is supposed to work. They are reading off the jpeg files. It's up to the user to adjust the settings as recommended here or understand and allow the extra headroom.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

It sounds dumb, but there's no way to tell if an area is over exposed or not on Sony cameras. Even the Zebras set at 109+ is only looking at green pixels, so if you're shooting a sunset you're over exposing a lot with 109+ as reference.
Click to expand...
Use one of the hard clipping profiles like HLG or Log, set UniWB and then the zebras accordingly.

Your JPEG will look almost unusable now, but you have accurate clipping information for all channels
 
bpatient said:
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.
Click to expand...
For years I've used highlight metering set to overexpose by about 1 2/3 stops to good effect for raw files on an A7R III. (I set the default exposure for +1 EV in the menu and +2/3 on the dial.) If I have time I fine tune the exposure as needed using zebras set to 108+ or 109+. This is fast, easy, and it works well according to the raw histograms in FastRawViewer.
Click to expand...
My experience is the same. I set the Zebra's for 109+ and it works really well.- much more accurate than when I used the Histogram.
 
A74Me said:
RaysJ said:
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.

I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
Yes it is set for JPEG's. You can adjust the zebras to be closer to RAW. The histograms seem better.
Click to expand...
agree, set he zebras to 109+3 and the histogram is near spot on ( its to small to see the ends with my aging eyes), the histogram is out 0.3 stop for adobe correction. you can lift just about any sony FF sensor 4 stops with near perfect results, so its good enough in my book.
Click to expand...
Yes, but I’m shooting in Aperture Priority mode, and I’m specifically referring to the metering mode not zebras or the histogram.
 
Mike Fewster said:
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.

I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
It isn't useless, that's the way it is supposed to work. They are reading off the jpeg files. It's up to the user to adjust the settings as recommended here or understand and allow the extra headroom.
Click to expand...
 
janbanan said:
A74Me said:
RaysJ said:
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.

I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
Yes it is set for JPEG's. You can adjust the zebras to be closer to RAW. The histograms seem better.
Click to expand...
agree, set he zebras to 109+3 and the histogram is near spot on ( its to small to see the ends with my aging eyes), the histogram is out 0.3 stop for adobe correction. you can lift just about any sony FF sensor 4 stops with near perfect results, so its good enough in my book.
Click to expand...
Yes, but I’m shooting in Aperture Priority mode, and I’m specifically referring to the metering mode not zebras or the histogram.
Click to expand...
Obviously a problem with the manufacturer.
 
RealWorldPhoto said:
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.
Click to expand...
Simply, user error.

Why do you use an exposure setting intended for jpg files when you want maximum DR from your raw files?
Member said:
I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
There are lots of camera settings and visual tools to get the exposure exactly where you want it to be.
Click to expand...
Not even close. I shoot RAW for a living and know how to expose properly. Highlight metering on Sony blindly underexposes by 2 stops regardless of actual RAW headroom. That’s not smart metering it’s a JPEG bandaid. If you think that’s working as intended you clearly don’t understand how exposure or dynamic range works.
 
bpatient said:
janbanan said:
A74Me said:
RaysJ said:
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.

I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
Yes it is set for JPEG's. You can adjust the zebras to be closer to RAW. The histograms seem better.
Click to expand...
agree, set he zebras to 109+3 and the histogram is near spot on ( its to small to see the ends with my aging eyes), the histogram is out 0.3 stop for adobe correction. you can lift just about any sony FF sensor 4 stops with near perfect results, so its good enough in my book.
Click to expand...
Yes, but I’m shooting in Aperture Priority mode, and I’m specifically referring to the metering mode not zebras or the histogram.
Click to expand...
Obviously a problem with the manufacturer.
Click to expand...

yes they could make a switch meter in raw or jpeg the setting and problem solved for jpeg shooters and most photographers that uses raw
 
janbanan said:
RealWorldPhoto said:
janbanan said:
Sony’s Highlight metering mode is basically useless for RAW shooters. It underexposes by about 2 stops to avoid clipping, even when there’s clearly headroom. That’s not ETTR, it’s just overly cautious and defeats the purpose. It might work for JPEGs, but most photographers shoot RAW and in that case, it just doesn’t do what it claims.
Click to expand...
Simply, user error.

Why do you use an exposure setting intended for jpg files when you want maximum DR from your raw files?
janbanan said:
I’ve seen the same issue on the A7R III, A7R IV, and A1. If this is fixed in the A1 II, great but it’s long overdue. As it stands, it’s not a reliable tool, and needing to manually add +2 EV just to get proper exposure makes the whole feature pointless.
Click to expand...
There are lots of camera settings and visual tools to get the exposure exactly where you want it to be.
Click to expand...
Not even close. I shoot RAW for a living and know how to expose properly. Highlight metering on Sony blindly underexposes by 2 stops regardless of actual RAW headroom. That’s not smart metering it’s a JPEG bandaid.
Click to expand...
Of cause, since the camera light meter is calibrated for jpg and non-flat video profiles, and so is the live histogram!

As a photographer you should be able to use the available camera settings and in-camera tools to expose the raw files perfectly, so that the brightest higlights still keep some detail.

You have to do something similar when shooting flat profile video (Log2/Log3).
janbanan said:
If you think that’s working as intended you clearly don’t understand how exposure or dynamic range works.
Click to expand...
The camera metering is calibrated for jpg files and non-flat video profiles. This is the starting point. As a photographer, you just have to add some exposure when shooting raw. This is a well known exposure strategy from the earliest digital cameras that stored files as raw. Super simple to calculate on the fly, no matter if you use auto or manual exposure settings.

And yes, I fully inderstand light metering, exposure and how to squeeze the most dynamic range from the camera sensor. This is why I use raw for stills and and flat profiles for video, and then expose the files so that the brightest highlights have some detail and shiny highlights is where everything turns into pure white. By exposing like this, shadow detail will follow as deep down in the shadow areas as possible, all the way down to the noise floor.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Martin Ocando
It happened A7R IV -> A7R V
2
Replies
26
Views
8K
Martin Ocando
Martin Ocando
Hotel Lonely
  • User review User review
a1 II: the camera that the original a1 should have been
Replies
9
Views
15K
Interceptor121
I
janbanan
Not So Great Color on Sony A7R III
2
Replies
28
Views
5K
Docno
Docno
R
Sony A1, A7R V & Godox flash trigger max sync speed, TTL, HSS
Replies
5
Views
10K
Brett8883
B
D
a1 II vs. a9 III Field Comparison
Replies
16
Views
43K
Foxjet
F

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top