Spot Metering

I have never heard of a firmware hack for cameras produced later than 300D..

e r y k wrote in post #2396076
why doesnt the xti have spot metering? my canon point and shoot has it o.o

I think that if you carefully checked the sensitivity of your PowerShot's "spot" metering, you'll find that it actually corresponds more closely to "Partial" on the EOS cameras (about 9% of the image area).

I don't think there's much difference between 3% and 9% in practice. I've never had exposure problems due to the 'spot' being too small.

The main reason to upgrade to a 30D because of the better feel and slightly more robust construction. After all, a camera is just a hole to let light through.

curiousgeorge wrote in post #2399088
I don't think there's much difference between 3% and 9% in practice. I've never had exposure problems due to the 'spot' being too small.

The main reason to upgrade to a 30D because of the better feel and slightly more robust construction. After all, a camera is just a hole to let light through.

One should not let the 'spot' vs 'partial' occupy a position of too much importance! In the case of 20D vs. 30D, the difference of 9% vs. 3% translates to, in terms of a circle diameter for the spot area in the frame, 6.2mm vs 3.6mm, or 42% smaller. In terms of angular measurement, with a 50mm lens it would be seeing 7.1 vs. 4.1 degrees (...and keep in mind that spotmeter attachments for handheld meters are 10 degree and 5 degree, so both cameras technically have what would be termed 'spot' by that measure!) Translate that to actual physical distances, at 20' with 50mm lens the 20D would measure 29 inches vs. the 30D measuring 17 inches.