80-400G Focus Hunting

[AlJohnston]

No worries - a learning experience

 

[colincarter]

No, your expectation of what matrix metering does is wrong - what you're describing is simple average metering; matrix does more complex calculations than a simple average.

Point the metering spot at the shadow area and the difference between spot metered and matrix metered exposures will be obvious.

Your scenario where both methods give 'correct' exposure does nothing to prove that one method is inoperative - you need a scenario where one or the other would give a 'wrong' exposure to show that there is (or is not) a difference.

Exactly right, thank you.

I gave it a go last night on a backlit subject, exactly the scenario that would show a difference if everything was working correctly.

single point AF in both cases (spot Af for you LZ just in case you didnt understand single point Af and thought i meant spot metering)

with matrix metering the subject was in darkness (under exposed) and the background correctly exposed as the camera exposed for the whole scene.

in spot metering with the single active focus point over the subject, the subject was metered / exposed correctly and the background was over exposed.

both scenarios exactly as you would imagine and exactly how cameras have been operating since electronic metering was introduced.

some people just wont listen.

 

[Robert S]

https://support.nikonusa.com/app/an...en-spot,-center-weighted-and-matrix-metering?

 

[Palouse]

https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13774/~/what-is-the-difference-between-spot,-center-weighted-and-matrix-metering?

What are we supposed to get from this?

 

[trenchmonkey]

I dunno...but on my D810/D800/D600/D7200 NO FOCUS HUNTING, ever. Just sayin'

 

[Robert S]

What are we supposed to get from this?

There is a bunch of erroneous information on this subject on this thread, I thought maybe it might help.