Metering Mode ??

[aparmley]

I was curious what everone thought was the best for all around use.. or is should this be a consideration for each and every photo.. The XT gives you three options, evaluative metering, partial metering, and center weighted average. I have found a lot of my pictures either get over exposed or under exposed and have fingered this setting... I have been using partial metering.. but now I am wondering if I need to be using centered weight or just the standard evaluative...???

[Bluedog]

Mine stays on Evaluative Metering/Center Point Focus for the best results. Even taking the closeup photos.

[Rhys]

Mine is on centre weighted average unless I need spot metering.

[erichlund]

So, you guys with XT's. I understand Evaluative and Center Weighted Average Metering. Those have rough equivalents on the D70. But, can anyone describe what Partial Metering really is. I seems to me, it uses the same area as in Center Weighted, but doesn't use the rest of the meter. Is this correct, as in, is this Canon's version of spot, just not a very tight spot.

Cheers,
Eric

[Cold Snail]

90% of the time, mine's on spot.
Got to love Nikon for a decent spot meter.

Edit, Spull chuck.

[Rhys]

So, you guys with XT's. I understand Evaluative and Center Weighted Average Metering. Those have rough equivalents on the D70. But, can anyone describe what Partial Metering really is. I seems to me, it uses the same area as in Center Weighted, but doesn't use the rest of the meter. Is this correct, as in, is this Canon's version of spot, just not a very tight spot.

Cheers,
Eric

No.. it's not a very tight spot but it's ok for most things.

[aparmley]

Thank you for your comments guys!

Erich - from what I understand Partial metering is much like spot meter, and on the canon cameras its the same as centerweighted average metering, except it does not average for the rest of the frame. It only considers the center 9% of the viewfinder, right around the center focus point.

I had kept mine in partial, thinking that as long as I had my subject in the middle of the frame I would expose properly for it... I have realized that I do use center focus only but then I somtimes recompose the the picture after locking focus, but don't always remeber to lock exposure too... So This weekend, when my brand-spanking new Sandisk 1GB ultra II memory card gets here I am going to be testing all of the metering modes out as thorough as I can handle...

Thanks again for your input guys!

[Bluedog]

In most situations I've found that the Evaluative Metering works best giving an accurate exposure. The only time the Center Weighted option has come in handy is when the subject is against a bright background ... but there again I only shot in RAW so most stuff can be easily compensated for.

I don't understand someone keeping there camera set to spot metering all the time unless all you do is portrait work or are concentrating on one particular subject in the frame.

[jeisner]

I use matrix metering or spot metering (yup, true spot, thanks Pentax)

On my film cameras I use center-weighted as they are pre-matrix. I generally don't use center-weighted on DSLR though as Matrix works very well..