mpstan wrote in post #13903639
I'm also gathering that many people did not realize that this same button activates the metering also, unless the use AE lock.
It does meter, but I don't find this to be a problem in practice - largely because you're going to meter before taking a shot anyway, and the focus happens pre-shutter (single shot) or during the shutter (ai servo), so it doesn't really affect things - in many ways, it's desirable so you can see your readings the second you focus long before you decide to take a shot and hit the shutter.
mpstan wrote in post #13903639The other thing I learned is that some people like to define both buttons as focus buttons, but assign both of these buttons to different focus points, which I didn't consider. For AE Lock they just use the shutter. That way you can bounce to three different focus points..... two of them via the backbuttons, and the other using the center joystick button. When I tried this the shutter wouldn't lock AE unless I kept the button down, so I don't think that is for me. Plus I couldn't figure out how to assign the backbuttons to focus points
The thing I found is that it's easy for the focus points to become a little overwhelming. For instance, you basically have two focus points immediately available - one you move to, and the centre point, which you can flip between (I use the center joystick for this). Multiply that by two when you have set up independent focus points for portrait and landscape (and actually, it's not just focus points, but also focus *modes* which can be independent), and it's easy to get a little lost as your focus oints jump around. Adding more complexity on this would make my head spin ( ! ) until I got 100% muscle memory familiar with everything (I'm not there yet).
mpstan wrote in post #13903639If you are using AE Lock prior to recomposing, focusing and shooting, do you use a more specific metering pattern like center or center weighted? Or just zoom into the area you want to meter using Evaluative?
I don't tend to use AE Lock for me, I've never found it particularly useful, or at least got the hang of where it would be good to use it. I will on occasion, and for video it often makes sense as you are moving the camera around but want the exposure to remain constant (although usually here I'm in manual mode anyway).
mpstan wrote in post #13903639I'm curious to know how often people use AE Lock with their photography, For the past year I have not used AE Lock once.
Like I say, fairly rarely (ie, almost never). If I want a static exposure for some reason, I'll usually take a reading and then flip into manual and set up that exposure manually. However, I can see in run and gun situations where you don't have time to set up manual, it could be a useful feature. On my old XSi, the default AE lock time was very short, so I always used to get frustrated when trying to lock an exposure, because it would be forgotten moments later. At least on the 7D you can increase that metering timeout, which helps.
I'm also curious as to how people use the AE lock feature as well - I might learn something too...!
, Canon SX1 IS, 
