Camera Labs

Can you please explain metering mode to me and when its best to use which setting. I know its for setting exposure on different types of pictures but im unsure which option to use for what. I have the following options on my sony A100:

Multisegment
Center Weight
spot

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Tobywuk personal website || My Flickr
Gear: Sony a700! || CZ 16-80mm! || Sony 75-300 || bag: Crumpler PB xxxl / Lowepro slingshot 200

Metering means the way the camera figures out the correct exposure,

Multisegment or Matrix determines the correct exposure based on small portions of entire frame, good for all round use, not so good when subject is back lit.

Center weighted means it only meters the center area, good for portrait effects, close-ups, and brightly back lit subjects like buildings, not so good for wide landscapes.

Spot is just what is sounds like, the entire exposure is based from a 3% spot in the center of the frame, good for extreme backlighting situations, concert photography, and special effects. Not good for sports or landscapes.

Hope this helps!

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Assistant News Photojournalist
Nikon and Canon Systems
A variety of f/2.8 lenses from 10.5 to 400mm
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Thanks, but i dont see much difference between Center Weight and spot. From your description they seem to do the same sort of thing

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Tobywuk personal website || My Flickr
Gear: Sony a700! || CZ 16-80mm! || Sony 75-300 || bag: Crumpler PB xxxl / Lowepro slingshot 200

They pretty much are the same thing, I hardly use sport metering since it only meters, say a button on a person's shirt, I'll never get that detailed but it's certainly nice to have just in case, you know...

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Assistant News Photojournalist
Nikon and Canon Systems
A variety of f/2.8 lenses from 10.5 to 400mm
Support Cameralabs!

Centre-weighted means, as the name suggests, that the whole image is metered but prominence is given to the central portion of the frame.

Spot metering only meters the very centre of the frame.

I like centre-weighted personally. Obviously it's especially good at social gatherings and the like. Spot metering is good for portraits I believe (not my field).

Zorro

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http://zorrofox4.deviantart.com/



Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Center and Spot metering are about the same except that Spot metering only uses a very very small area (usually in the middle, but it can be moved around) to set the focus. I mostly use spot metering because I shoot birds and wildlife. I don't want the auto focus to mistake a nearby branch for the bird I'm looking at -- for me the smaller the focus metering area the better. Center metering lets the camera evaluate more of the focus possibilities. Sometimes the camera is smart enough to figure out the specific thing you want to caputre in Matrix metering, but not always. Slecting Auto Mode on your scene dial will always uses Matrix metering.

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BrianS
D50, 70-300mm VR, 50mm f/1.8

I am going to be taking a team photo for an u7's football team next weekend. I am still getting to grips with my a200 and am after some metering advice.

The picture is most likely to be in this field.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13254521@N06/2409895060/

As you can see there is no shade and it is very open. I obviously don't want the sky to overwhelm the picture.

The picture above was spot metered, I am wondering if center weighted migh be better for the team picture.

I was thinking -
Aperture priority, low f number to blur background.
Centre weighted metering.
Maybe shoot downwards to the kids, to keep sky to a minimum.

Spot metering is supposedly faster too, since only one point has to be measured. This might be important sometimes!

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