When do you use spot metering?

[Drizzt321]

I don't use spot metering, and with the instant feedback of an LCD i don't know why anyone would. I really don't know why i would want it linked to differing AF points either. But i'm weird....

This is something I would love in the 5d3. Lets say you have a composition where the center is something very bright, say a window on a very bright day, but you're subject is inside in a fairly dark room. The metering would automatically expose for the very bright light from the window, so your subject would be very underexposed. If the metering was linked to the AF point, and you put the point over the subject, it'd meter for the subject instead of the window. You can still do similar to that, you just need to put the center over your subject, hit the AE-lock button, then recompose. But that's a bit of a pain sometimes, and one more thing to remember to do.

 

[smithy]

I don't use spot metering, and with the instant feedback of an LCD i don't know why anyone would. I really don't know why i would want it linked to differing AF points either. But i'm weird....

This is something I would love in the 5d3. Lets say you have a composition where the center is something very bright, say a window on a very bright day, but you're subject is inside in a fairly dark room. The metering would automatically expose for the very bright light from the window, so your subject would be very underexposed. If the metering was linked to the AF point, and you put the point over the subject, it'd meter for the subject instead of the window. You can still do similar to that, you just need to put the center over your subject, hit the AE-lock button, then recompose. But that's a bit of a pain sometimes, and one more thing to remember to do.

Yep - it's more than a pain. I was taking shots of my mischievous nieces running around recently, and it's just not possible to AE-lock at centre and then suddenly shoot on an outer AF point within the millisecond time frames available. So I just had to make sure that the background was similar enough in brightness to the girls' skin tones.

 

[paul13walnut5]

@bdunbar79

Correct. NEITHER the 1V nor the EOS-3 has AF point-linked spot metering.

Corr-wrong!

I don't know about the 1V, but the EOS-3 does.

Custom function 13.

Focusing Point-Linked Spot Metering.
With Custom Function CF-13, you can limit the manually- and eye-selectable focusing points to only 11 of the 45. This makes focusing point selection faster.

Spot metering (about 2.4% of the viewfinder area) is also linked to the eye-selected or manually-selected focusing point.

&

The selectable focusing points are limited to 11.
This makes focusing point selection faster and links spot metering to the focusing point you select.
This setting is effective for spotlighted subjects on-stage, etc., when you want to maintain the framing of the subject.

From pages 56 & 119 of EOS 3 manual.

 

[mb66energy]

I use spot metering exclusively.

Av + spot + AE lock
or
M + spot

The most important thing for me is to set the active spot region to that part of the picture where I see the "gray card"-gray - sth. like "medium brightness" - this works very well after 5 years of training

 

[bdunbar79]

@bdunbar79

Correct. NEITHER the 1V nor the EOS-3 has AF point-linked spot metering.

Corr-wrong!

I don't know about the 1V, but the EOS-3 does.

Custom function 13.

Focusing Point-Linked Spot Metering.
With Custom Function CF-13, you can limit the manually- and eye-selectable focusing points to only 11 of the 45. This makes focusing point selection faster.

Spot metering (about 2.4% of the viewfinder area) is also linked to the eye-selected or manually-selected focusing point.

&

The selectable focusing points are limited to 11.
This makes focusing point selection faster and links spot metering to the focusing point you select.
This setting is effective for spotlighted subjects on-stage, etc., when you want to maintain the framing of the subject.

From pages 56 & 119 of EOS 3 manual.

Interesting. I'm reluctant to shoot film in difficult or harsh conditions where I'd even need spot metering, but I'll have to try it out. I did not know about this custom function.

 

[paul13walnut5]

There are 3 modes to the custom function so please consult the handbook to see what may work for you.

All this talk of EOS 3's might just see me cracking open a cheeky wee roll of XP2 this weekend.

 

[smithy]

@bdunbar79

Correct. NEITHER the 1V nor the EOS-3 has AF point-linked spot metering.

Corr-wrong!

I don't know about the 1V, but the EOS-3 does.

Custom function 13.

Focusing Point-Linked Spot Metering.
With Custom Function CF-13, you can limit the manually- and eye-selectable focusing points to only 11 of the 45. This makes focusing point selection faster.

Spot metering (about 2.4% of the viewfinder area) is also linked to the eye-selected or manually-selected focusing point.

&

The selectable focusing points are limited to 11.
This makes focusing point selection faster and links spot metering to the focusing point you select.
This setting is effective for spotlighted subjects on-stage, etc., when you want to maintain the framing of the subject.

From pages 56 & 119 of EOS 3 manual.

Interesting. I'm reluctant to shoot film in difficult or harsh conditions where I'd even need spot metering, but I'll have to try it out. I did not know about this custom function.

Me neither - I'll have to go back to my 1V manual to check.

 

[bdunbar79]

There are 3 modes to the custom function so please consult the handbook to see what may work for you.

All this talk of EOS 3's might just see me cracking open a cheeky wee roll of XP2 this weekend.

Thanks. I think now you have a bunch of people going out and shooting film this weekend Time to grab the EOS-3 again...

 

[paul13walnut5]

Cool. What film are you all choosing?

 

[bdunbar79]

Cool. What film are you all choosing?

Oh I don't know. We have a crapload of Fuji. And I mean a lot! What's good in your opinion?

 

[Daniel Flather]

I only use spot metering, I've never have used the other settings. I can't even tell you what the other modes are named!

 

[paul13walnut5]

@bdunbar

Oh I don't know. We have a crapload of Fuji. And I mean a lot! What's good in your opinion?

Always liked Velvia 50, Reala 100 & 800, and 160nps.

 

[sawsedge]

When do I use spot metering? Almost never. Current meters are pretty good, but it depends on the light. I use it in conjunction with manual mode in tricky lighting. When the part of the image you want to expose "correctly" is a fairly small part of the frame, it works well.

Which reminds me, I need to post my Pentax digital spotmeter for sale.

 

[paul13walnut5]

Do any of canons current cameras feature the multiple spot averaging function (again an old but useful feature on the EOS 3, I'm sure it was the FEL button) I can see more folk having a practical use for that than simple spot metering...

 

[paul13walnut5]

For info, the 1V also features focus point linked spot metering as a custom function, with a choice of either 11 active AF points or 9 active AF points (3 only offers 11 points) reduced from the systemic 45 points.

The 1V also features multiple spot averaging.

 

[Loswr]

Do any of canons current cameras feature the multiple spot averaging function

The recent 1-series bodies, including the 1D X, have multi-spot metering (up to 8 points averaged).

 

[paul13walnut5]

@neuroanatomist

Thank you.