Camera built in spot meter

[koraks]

Note what your eye thinks is 'middle tone' vs. what a spotmeter finds...

Excellent illustration; thanks for posting that. It's precisely what I referred to earlier.

 

[Chan Tran]

I use the multispot metering on the OM-4, and while my Minolta Spotmeter F can average two readings, it does not have multi-spot capability.
The Canon EOS 3 and digital Canon EOS-1D C has multispot capability

The Minolta Flashmeter VI can do average of up to 10 readings.

 

[xkaes]

Note that only three color patches exactly matched the 18% gray reference value.

An excellent example of why incident metering makes much more sense.

 

[xkaes]

Are there any handheld meters with a matrix mode?

That would be pointless because no hand-held reflectance meter will match exactly what the camera is seeing -- and that changes every time the lens is changed (or zoomed).

 

[ic-racer]

Just be careful to have the same number of high and low readings, otherwise the exposure will be skewed.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I can see how useful this is. My wife bought an Olympus micro 4/3 some years ago - I wasn’t impressed! But it has its uses as you point out. I do prefer porting around only a light meter though - as opposed to a second camera.

Some of the fancy digital meters are pretty big.

 

[wiltw]

I much prefer Nikon's matrix metering. It never let me down!

Years ago I conducted an experiment with Canon dSLR to assess various available metering capabilities. Here is the result...

Control shot: handheld spotmeter on 18% gray card

Evaluative (Canon matrix metering)

All the other modes tested (metering biased to AF point, Center-weighted, Partial, etc.) also resulted in significant underexposure of the 18% gray card and exposure bias for the sky..
Admittedly, when the desire is to take a shot with little to no forethought, Evaluative does a prettty good job except for the extreme case depicted via my test.

 

[koraks]

significant underexposure of the 18% gray card and exposure bias for the sky..

A very appropriate compromise given that it's a DSLR.

except for the extreme case depicted via my test.

It does a good job in specifically that situation. No blown highlights. All recoverable shadows. Exactly what you need.

 

[Chan Tran]

Years ago I conducted an experiment with Canon dSLR to assess various available metering capabilities. Here is the result...

Control shot: handheld spotmeter on 18% gray card

Evaluative (Canon matrix metering)

All the other modes tested (metering biased to AF point, Center-weighted, Partial, etc.) also resulted in significant underexposure of the 18% gray card and exposure bias for the sky..
Admittedly, when the desire is to take a shot with little to no forethought, Evaluative does a prettty good job except for the extreme case depicted via my test.

That is why I don't use matrix for color negative film. It burries the shadow and you lose all the shadow details. Even though the one you spotmeter on the gray card which is equivalent of incident reading would make the sky too bright but with negative film you still have lots of details there. For digital or even slide film it's OK. For digital it's no problem at all.

 

[Paul Howell]

Over the years it has been posted and I've been told that Nikon matrix favors slide film, wonder if the same is true for Canon and Minolta.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

My Canon EOS-1V has spot metering, but I tend to use the evaluative metering mostly which is equivalent to the Nikon matrix metering. It has always given me good exposures.

 

[Bill Burk]

None of analog cameras have histogram display

Sure, the OM-4 and OM-3 display diamonds at the spot readings, so you are free to emphasize exposure as-if it were a histogram.

 

[Castrillo]

I hope to have a good day with English:

The spot-ttl is in my opinion the metering system that offers the most control for the photographer.

If you have a scale of at least 5 EV in the viewfinder of the camera, example: Nikon N8008s/F801s, and later Nikon models. You don't need to average or memorize anything. The spot tells you where each zone falls on the scale. it is a faster and more accurate system than averaging memorized measurements.

 

[1957ExaktaVarexIIa]

I like to use spot metering with the Canon New F-1, of course it doesn't have an averaging function, but I calculate the average value from several measurements myself.

I was recently lucky enough to be able to repair my defective Gossen Spot-Master which I banged onto the tarmac from chest height just after I had bought it, a year and a half ago - but only a small mirror had come loose, which I had to re-glue, the rest still worked: Compliments to the designers at Gossen . Since then I've been practising using the average value function here - but the "zone system" function seems even more interesting to me (the Spot-Master can actually do this). Of course, I still have to practise its use a lot more extensively I guess .

 

[koraks]

Ok, so far we have about...three (?) people with hands-on experience with the question asked, correct? That's interesting; I would have expected there would be more people using multi-spot metering built into one of the few cameras that have this functionality (Canon T90, two digital EOS cameras: a 1 model & 3, Olympus OM3 & OM4 - any more?).

 

[Chan Tran]

Ok, so far we have about...three (?) people with hands-on experience with the question asked, correct? That's interesting; I would have expected there would be more people using multi-spot metering built into one of the few cameras that have this functionality (Canon T90, two digital EOS cameras: a 1 model & 3, Olympus OM3 & OM4 - any more?).

That's why I think it's a rarity and I wonder why they don't have that in newer cameras? I think now it would cost more not so much for the circuitry but for the buttons and display needed to do that.

 

[MartinCrabtree]

Sounds like few here have taken advantage of it.

 

[koraks]

I think now it would cost more not so much for the circuitry but for the buttons and display needed to do that.

Yeah, or rather - the cost of maintaining the software/firmware functionality. The display & buttons are there already. It's really a matter of including it in the software engineering roadmap. Apparently camera manufacturers don't see the added value.

Sounds like few here have taken advantage of it.

Somewhat surprisingly; I'd love to have this on all my cameras. It was a modest eye-opener for me.

 

[chuckroast]

The Olympus OM-4 and OM-3 were the first to have built in spotmeter (I think) and they can do an average of several readings. All modern cameras have spotmetering but none I know has the averaging function. My handheld spotmeter has the function but I never used it. I wonder if anyone uses it?

The Leica M5 has what amounts to a spot meter built in.

 

[Chan Tran]

The Leica M5 has what amounts to a spot meter built in.

Great many cameras have spot meter built in (almost all new cameras have this capability) but very few have the ability to average several spotmeter readings. Even with today digital camera with computing power much more powerful than a mainframe back in the 70's they just don't have this function. My question is why the averaging of several spot readings isn't common.

 

[GregY]

The Leica M5 has what amounts to a spot meter built in.

as does the CL

 

[GregY]

Great many cameras have spot meter built in (almost all new cameras have this capability) but very few have the ability to average several spotmeter readings. Even with today digital camera with computing power much more powerful than a mainframe back in the 70's they just don't have this function. My question is why the averaging of several spot readings isn't common.

IMO it's just an unnecessary complexity. Cameras for decades have been capable of appropriate results both negatives & transparencies. Not everything that's possible is necessary.

 

[chuckroast]

IMO it's just an unnecessary complexity. Cameras for decades have been capable of appropriate results both negatives & transparencies. Not everything that's possible is necessary.

I tend to agree with this. Averaging multiple spot readings is almost certainly not going to return meaningful overall "average" exposure information.

However, taking multiple readings carefully to understand the Subject Brightness Range can serve to decide how to place the exposure and determine film development discipline (at least for monochrome). This isn't about averaging anything though. It's about analysing the dynamic range of the scene to figure out how to best capture it on film.

 

[ic-racer]

I don't think it ever was a popular feature. I did have my Rollei 6008i out the other day and , because of this thread, I was using the spot/averaging function to see how it works and get a feel for it.
Every time one pushes the meter button forward, it saves another reading. Pulling the meter button backwards where it locks, shows the average of the spot readings.

The Rollei Hy6, however, dropped that function in favor of matrix metering. You still can spot read with the Hy6, but the camera won't average the spot readings.

 

[MattKing]

Ok, so far we have about...three (?) people with hands-on experience with the question asked, correct? That's interesting; I would have expected there would be more people using multi-spot metering built into one of the few cameras that have this functionality (Canon T90, two digital EOS cameras: a 1 model & 3, Olympus OM3 & OM4 - any more?).

My OM-4T has it.
I use it rarely.
It is nice that it is built in, and not another accessory to be added to the bag.