2OD\10D Metering - are my expectations too high...

[Croasdail]

Okay - I moved over to digital about 6 months ago - bought a 10d just to test the waters, then got a deal on a 20D I couldn't pass up - so I didn't. I used to shoot with an EOS 3 which I gave to my son. I am making progress learning the ins and outs of digital SLR photography. But one thing that is dissappointing me is that the metering on the 10D \ 20D - it seems to be by far sub par to what the EOS 3 had. In fact, when the meter broke all the way on the 10D, I actually did better results guessing and using rule of thumb rather then what I got from the old D. The 20D is somewhat better, but I find it reads White Balance wrong... a lot... and tends to underexpose. I am spending way too much time fixing images exposure. So a couple of things... 1) is it just me that is experiencing this... 2) do I really have to spend 4x on a digital camera to get the same quality of metering I got with the EOS 3... and 3) do I just go and buy a real quality meter and live with it. What I have seen so far is I have lost eye control and good metering.... do I need to go and steal my old camera back and wait for canon to fully bake out out these cameras.... who cares about 11... 16 megapixals if they are exposed wrong. I will feel better tomorrow.. but felt the need to rant here.

[Marvinspu36]

The 10D & 20D set the exposure assuming that, overall, the image averages out to 18% gray. Which in general is a good starting point. However, dependent on the composition of your particular shot, the camera can either overexpose or underexpose. I recommend that you use the Historgram to determine if your exposure is correct. Then, use the exposure compensation on the camera to adjust your exposure. This will result in the best use of the dynamic range of the camera as well as result in better exposed images with less post processing for exposure.

Check out this article on Luminous-Landscapes.com:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

[Bob_A]

I was having a lot of the same problems that you mentioned, and when I first got my 20D I couldn't get the same results as with my Elan II. After some practice though my results are quite good and my flash photography is way better than anything I have done in the past.

For your white balance problems, are they with flash ... or outdoors in natural light? I've found the white balance for my 20D to be excellent except for the following cases, which are not the fault of the camera:

1. When I use flash (even in bounce mode) in a small room the images take on a bit of color from the walls. However, if I use a flash diffuser (Lumiquest 80/20 or Lumiquest mini softbox) the white balance is always excellent.

2. When I use my B+W Circular Polarizing filter I have to increase white balance by about 600K or else my images look a bit blue.

Also, the 20D has been designed to slightly underexpose (according to replies to my emails to Canon Support) to ensure that you don't blow the highlights. I put my camera away with +2/3 FEC dialed in as my default starting point since I find that this is what I typically need to get proper exposures. Depending on the scene I use anywhere from +0.5 to +1 1/3 . If I use flash exposure lock off of a grey card +2/3 is about spot on.

One way to get greater consistency with flash is to practice using flash exposure lock (*), where the flash exposure will then be based on whatever is inside the partial metering circle. You just have to be sure that whatever is inside the partial metering circle approximates 18% grey. Using a grey card helps big time.

[TheObiJuan]

when comparing prints between my 20D and my film camera I noticed that the 20D was underxposing a tad. Well, I thought about it a little and decided that the camera is just preserving highlights. The 20D has less dynamic range than film, so to keep highlights, you will have to underexpose slightly. This can be fixed in PP, so no biggie. If you don't want to fuss with it, then simply adjust to +1/3EX or more.

[tim]

Film has much more lattitude for exposure than digital, so with digital you have to get it spot on. Film has about a 2 stop lattitude, digital has about 0.8 stops. Have a read of this article (http://www.shootsmarter.com/infocenter/wc024.html) (free registration required), and read around the site - it's got a lot of great information.

[Croasdail]

Good reading guys. There are a lot of good techniques for me to learn here. I shoot mostly action based stuff so I am not used to all the thinking that goes into good landscape photography. I will try to learn to read the histograms more and interpret them more then the image itself. Thanks again.