Metering mode 'Expose to the right' ?

[peatoire]

With it being comonly accepted that with dslrs, exposing to the right giving better dynamic range and less noise, would it not be an obvious choice to include an 'expose to the right' metering mode where it would stop just short of highlight clipping. I'd certainly use it.

[PacAce]

Auto "expose to the right" might look good in theory but you'd have too many people complaining that it doesn't work right and that Canon does't know what they're doing. Look at all the complaints you hear about ETTL and ETTL-II with the exposures being too underexposed.

The problem with doing an automatic exposure to the right is that if there were any very bright spots in the frame from, say, a bright light or specular reflections, the camera would adjust the exposure so that they do not get clipped. And when that happens, the whole picture would be severaly underexposed.

[PhotosGuy]

See my post in My typical sports shooting error- help needed (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=345968)

[Curtis N]

Regardless of your intentions, proper exposure depends mostly on the spherical object behind the camera. Do you want to save the sky, or let it blow out and expose a shaded area better? What about reflections on water or small areas of shiny metal causing small clipped areas? These are the kinds of decisions that camera algorithms can't make in any predictable way.

[peatoire]

Good points.
Fairy nuff. :-)

[mnealtx]

I think an even better solution would be a live, in-eyepiece histogram....*drools*