Exposure on X-T3 is acting strange with the new 33mm f1.4

Hi all,

I wanted to see if something I've recently observed is something that others might be running into, or if by chance could be isolated to my X-T3.

Background:

Typically I will shoot in Aperture Priority mode, so I will have shutter and ISO on Auto and set my Aperture to a setting of my choosing.  I set this up with my X-T3, X-Pro3, and X100V.

I typically will remain in single-point AF, with the occasional move to Wide.

Issue:

Today on my X-T3, which had the 33mm f1.4 WR mounted, I noticed that a lot of my pictures turned out underexposed despite the light metering was at 0.

When I got home I conducted a few tests to see if I could replicate the issue and here's what I found.  
When I have my metering set to Matrix, and I have backlit subjects, typically the metering will prioritize the backlight to keep the highlights underexposed.  This of course darkens my subject.  If I want to bypass that, I typically will switch to center or spot metering.  I am noticing no change when switching to other metering modes.  Exposure locks to the same exposure as Matrix.

I tried the same test with my other cameras and got more consistent and desirable results.  With my X-Pro3, with the same lens, I got much better-balanced exposure in Matrix, and as soon as I switch to spot to prioritize the subject, exposure goes up on the backlight and brightens my subject.  Same test with my X100V and with the same results.  Exposure properly behaves to it's specific metering modes.

It appears this issue is isolated to my X-T3.  I just reset the camera and blew away all the settings to factory default to see if there were any changes, however it still underexposes subjects, and despite changing my metering mode subjects continue to stay underexposed, unless I jack up the Exposure comp dial, or focus somewhere else and recompose (which doesn't always work) or go into full manual mode.

My question is, that the X-T3 is the oldest of my cameras.  Is this an inherent issue with the X-T3, with the newer lenses, or has my X-T3 meter started malfunctioning?

Would love to get some insight into this issue.  Thanks in advance!

I never seen a good reason to use anything other than Multi with exposure compensation with my mirrorless cameras, but I have experimented a bit - center weighted and spot metering typically underexpose a bit (relative to Multi) on all my Fujis (X-T2, X-T20, X100V), with the metering being pretty consistent between models. I did own an X -T3 for a while as well, and while the metering modes behaved much the same relative to each other, the X-T3 metering, on average would underexpose a tad relative to my other three Fujis - normally requiring 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop of extra compensation to produce the same RAW exposure. It didn’t really make any significant difference to the way I shoot, but I did notice the consistent extra EC tweak. I don’t know if that’s a regular X-T3 thing, or just sample variation, but the X-T3 is the only Fuji I’ve shot with that was different than the others (just a little). I haven’t noticed any particular lenses behaving any differently from the others in the exposure department (I don’t have the 33mm, but I do have the new 18mm).

"When I have my metering set to Matrix"

What brand do you think you are using?  Fuji has something similar to Matrix called Multi.

All metering modes should be considered a starting point.  Use exposure compensation to get the exposure to your liking.

Morris

syrcular wrote:

Hi all,

I wanted to see if something I've recently observed is something that others might be running into, or if by chance could be isolated to my X-T3.

I have this same issue on my x-t4. I find every shot taken with the 33mm using any kind of photometry ends up about 1-2 EV underexposed. I can't seem to find any other reference to this issue other than this thread.