What do you use for everyday Metering?

[jimsloy]

Which metering do most of you use? I'm your average joe everyday shooter from landscapes to vacation pics. Regular day shots to indoor flash shots. What is my best bet for the metering?

Thanks!

[ilya]

Which metering do most of you use? I'm your average joe everyday shooter from landscapes to vacation pics. Regular day shots to indoor flash shots. What is my best bet for the metering?

Thanks!

Average Joe = Evaluative Metering
Bright Background Joe = Partial Metering
:)

I've never used the Center Weighted, and if anyone here has, I'd be also interested to hear in what circumstances

[nosquare2003]

Evaluative metering most of the time. I have a habit (maybe bad) to adjust by exposure compensation instead of using partial metering.

Yes, I have the same query when to use centre weighted anyway.

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Partial 99% of the time. I just find the results more consistent. I wish the 10D had a spot meter option.

Regards,

[AndrewEllinas]

i completely agree with roger.

i still use an olympus OM4 for film that i've had for over 15 years. it not only has standard spot metering but you can also spot meter for highlights and shadows and it will compensate for the 18% grey reading that it is actually taking. so if i take a shadow spot reading i know that the darkest areas of my print will be dark but will still have some detail. likewise, spot metering the brightest areas produces correctly exposed highlights, useful in snowy conditions.

i think any pro or semi-pro camera should have spot metering and i just hope that this is something that is added in the next version of the camera.

is this something that could be added via a firmware update?

[scottbergerphoto]

For situations in which the lighting is fairly consistent, I find the 10D's meter in evaluative metering is very close to what I get with an incident meter so I use the camera meter in evaluative metering for even lighting. When there are alot of shadows or sun and shade, I switch to a spot meter like the Sekonic L358 with 1 degree spot meter attachment, or use the Sekonic as an incident meter if I can easily walk over to the area I want to meter, or in a pinch zoom in on the object I want to expose for, take a reading using partial metering, zoom out and recompose the picture.
Scott

[Jim Larson]

is this something that could be added via a firmware update?

The difference between a spot meter and partial meter is merely the sensor coverage. I suspect there is a physical component involved.

Generally, I use evaluative. Works great.

Personally, I could not give a hoot about spot metering. Partial metering serves for 95% of the tough applications that evaluative metering doesn't work for. When it doesn't, the histogram and LCD will let me know.

Followup question (especially for the spot meter crowd): Do you meter in 1/2 or 1/3 stop increments?



on my wish list: True average metering for E-TTL flash, as a second mode to the strong focus point biased evaluative metering currently used!

[CyberDyneSystems]

Also,. Partial 95% of the time... And even with partial,. it is not enough to get the correct exposure for a birds head when it is taking up only 5% of the overall image...

Another individual that longs for a true spot meter... My little Olympus C2100 had a spot meter... :(

The desire or need for a spot meter may depend entirely on how you shoot and what you shoot. For Wildlife a spot meter is a neccestiy. It helps a lot in a theatre as well to meter for differing costumes Vs. faces in the heat of the action.

I use Evaluative for sunsets, landscapes etc... which makes up about 5-10% of my shooting.

I've toyed with center weighted. The need for it would be pretty specific I think. And still,. partial would do just as well in most cases.

I meter in 1/3 stop increments.
Jim,. I'm not sure why you would take offense to others desire for a spot meter based only on your lack of a need for one? :)

Sure,. it is a matter of personal taste what tools we use in our photography. Some would never dream of owning a dedicated meter.. some don't use 3/4 of the functions that there camera provides.... etc.

Spot metering is a tool and technique that has been used in photography and provided on SLRs for decades. The lack of one on the 10D is truly glaring. $170.00 Sigma film SLRs have spot meters.

[chris.bailey]

Which metering do most of you use? I'm your average joe everyday shooter from landscapes to vacation pics. Regular day shots to indoor flash shots. What is my best bet for the metering?

Thanks!

Evaluative most of the time and off camera flash meter in the studio. Even in Eval, now and again I dont believe what it is saying and will either bracket or swap over to manual and play around a bit. I think that in some situations spot, CWA, Eval or anything else is no substitute for a bit of gut feel