Why does'nt the 10D have a spot meter?

was da deal?

TIA

Just to piss us off!!!!

It is truly a PITA that there isn't one,. you can by a bare bones under $200.00 35mm SLR and get a true spot meter....

Oh well,.

Buy a 1Ds and you might be happier.

Because 95% of photographers don't know how to use one properly.
Because what is touted as a spotmeter in most cameras isn't.
Because Canon didn't consider it a good idea at the time for the price.

The idea to buy a 1Ds goes some way to solving the problem. Alternativly you can use some of the money you saved by buying the 10D over a 1D or 1Ds, buy a real spotmeter and then totally confuse yourself!

Take a zoom lens. Zoom in so that the area you want to meter off of, fills the viewfinder. Voila, a spot meter.
Scott

lol,.. only works if you aren't zoomed all the way allready,. and still wishing you had a spot meter,..

Seriously,. for shooting wildlif outdoors,. a spot meter can be an absolute must...

It's especially fun to have some critic say,. "you should have metered the birds head,. " when clearly with the eyes in focus that is exactly what you did,. only the damn meter coveredge was too big and thus you got enough of the body and surrounding terrain to completely alter the metering.

I have a Pentax Spotmeter I carry for situations where I'm not inclined to trust the camera's metering. It's saved my bacon a few times, especially in strongly backlit situations.

I'd say a spotmeter is a 'must have' for a truly serious photographer. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing with one.

Yep, I'm still trying to decide which manual is the most complicated, the one for my Canon 550EX flash or the one that came with my Sekonic meter

Cheers

Ian

iwatkins wrote:
Yep, I'm still trying to decide which manual is the most complicated, the one for my Canon 550EX flash or the one that came with my Sekonic meter

Cheers

Ian

I'm interested in one of those Sekonic meters...can it meter small areas far away? Say a single flower at 25 meters or so? From what I have observed, people hold them next to what they are shooting. I'm almost completely ignorant on this subject...

A light meter measures ambient light in one of two ways. The one most people are familiar with is the reflected light measurement. Whether the light meter is built into the camera or is a handheld unit, this meter measures the light that is reflected off the subject and surroundings, depending on how narrow or wide the angle of "view" of the light meter is. When taking reflected light readings, the meter is always pointed at the subject.

The other way of measuring ambient light is to directly measure the light that is falling on the subject. This is called incident light measuremen. In this case, the meter is pointed not at the subject but at the light source itself. If a person is holding the meter next to the subject, the flower in your example, but isn't pointing it at the subject but away from it, he's measuring the incident light. Usually, this gives the most accurate reading for setting the exposures.

Reflected light readings are not as accurate because it is affected by the actual reflectivity of the subject. Both incident light meters and reflected light meters set exposures for an average 18% gray tone.

And, as a side note, most if not all handheld meters can measure both incident and reflected lights because all it takes to measure incident light ia a white dome placed over the light sensor. Actually, it's a little more involved than that internally, but that's the main idea.

PacAce ,

Thanks! Are the reflective metering capabilities of these type of meters very selective? IE: measure differences of reflectivity from one small area to another, from a distance...

Yes it can be, depending on the angle of view of the spotmeter. For example, I believe the Sekonic L-558 has a 1 degree spotmeter. I'm just guessing but I think that would make it very selective.

The L-358 doesn't come with a spotmeter but you can get different attachments with different angles of view, from 10 degrees to 1 degree.

The spot meter looks like a little telescope and you look through it to find the spot you want to meter.

You 1Ds owners really need to be a little more sensative to others.
We have feelings, you know!!!
Lucky Dawgs!

It was certainly a brusk answer and to imply that one needs a $7,000.00 camera to get an onboard spot meter is ridiculous.

Many sub $400.00 film cameras have them as do a number of "Prosumer" Digitals as low as $500.00 in cost. That the $1,500.00 10D did not have a spot meter is simply pathetic.

All kidding aside, I started out with the L358 with 1 degree spot attachment. It worked fine but was cumbersome to use. I recently bought the Sekonic L558. It has a built in 1 degree spot meter with a digital read out in the viewfinder. Sweet!