5D3 and 24 1.4 II L Edit, and other Lenses, owners please read!

[tpatana]

Does spot metering only use the center circle area?

 

[GMCPhotographics]

Re: 5D3 and 24 1.4 II L owners please read!!!!!!!!!!!!

What Neuro said is also applicable to the 7D, metering is weighted more towards what is in focus [...]

This is how Canon's evaluative metering worked since the 300D (at least). I noticed however that my 350D and my 50D were more sensitive to the AF point than my 5D2.

Yep my old 5D classic was really AF hotspot prone too. In fact every Canon SLR I've used has always been highlight shy, even my old A-1 film slr. In the Digital world this is a good thing because we should all be shooting to preserve our highlights if possible.
AF linked metering is a good thing and not a bad thing. Otherwise all our compositions would be centrally placed to match out metering.

 

[canikon]

Re: 5D3 and 24 1.4 II L owners please read!!!!!!!!!!!!

I shoot other Canon and Nikon bodies, a 40D, a 600D, a D800, and I must admit that they have much better and more enjoyable evaluative metering algorithms, and I actually trust those cameras much more than my otherwise beloved 5DmkIII, that actually I trust not at all in high contrast situations.

What do you mean by "trust"? You are the one responsible for the exposure. You just need to understand the algorithm and use it appropriately. There is no perfect algorithm and the camera cannot know how you want to expose.

You are right, knowing and using the equipment is owner's responsibility. But let me give to you one real example. I was in NYC last year, and at night I suddendly saw a Fire Brigade truck coming full throttle to cope with an emergency, with all the light on, and lots of people staring. I felt it was a nice shot to catch, pulled out my 5DmkIII with 24-105 and fired a couple of shots. Well, both those shots were unfortunate in the sense that the AF point was near or on one of the head light of the truck, and the pic was completely dark except 5 or 6 perfectly exposed head light of the truck. Now that pic was pretty unusable, and a waste.
The real problem is that the designer does not consider two important things:
1. to put a "cap" on the exposure shift, say max 2 stops
2. to consider that with a 63 zone metering system, you cannot distinguish if a light source is wide enough to be "significant" to the photographer, or if it is a 1% of the image area completely irrelevant as in my case was the truck head light.
I assume that 1DX (and D800 as well) having a metering system with 100K points, are far more "intelligent" in knowing if a bright point source is big enough to be of some significance or not.
All in all, this evaluative metering is not evaluative at all, and should be marketed as AF-linked spot meter, giving *another* exposure choice as true evaluative metering option.
Note that in the last 3 images I linked above, the "evaluative" metering when in MF gave the same result as the average metering, so that the evaluative is not "intelligent" or "different" at all, at least in this example.
Tis is my opinion btw, just my feeling about this feature.

 

[tpatana]

Best would be if they had couple custom metering settings, where (advanced) user could input they own formula how to calculate the exposure based on the information coming from the metering system.

 

[alexanderferdinand]

I had several cameras, analog, digital.
The 5d3 is the worst one in the discipline "exposure to the left".
Too conservative. A very small bright spot- a very dark file.
(good for high contrast, but .....).

The 1d4 is more honest (?), more intelligent(?).
And so is the Sony RX100.

Didnt notice a difference using af- mf, will watch this in the future.

 

[bdunbar79]

Does spot metering only use the center circle area?

On a 5D Mark III, yes.

 

[tpatana]

Does spot metering only use the center circle area?

On a 5D Mark III, yes.

So to use spot metering on the focus point, you actually have to select evaluative metering. Canon-logic I guess

 

[canikon]

Does spot metering only use the center circle area?

On a 5D Mark III, yes.

So to use spot metering on the focus point, you actually have to select evaluative metering. Canon-logic I guess

Yes exactly, on the 5D mk III actually "Evaluative" metering = AF point "spot" metering. On a low contrast scene you would not notice this, but on a high contrast scene you better to go for the old average metering if you need a consisten "reasonable" exposure. For me even for portrait the AF linked spot metering is not always trustworthy, since if I pick a eyebrow or some dark hair with a focus point, the picture will result blown up overexposed.
I do have a 40D and a 600D, none of them act like this.

 

[tpatana]

Does spot metering only use the center circle area?

On a 5D Mark III, yes.

So to use spot metering on the focus point, you actually have to select evaluative metering. Canon-logic I guess

Yes exactly, on the 5D mk III actually "Evaluative" metering = AF point "spot" metering. On a low contrast scene you would not notice this, but on a high contrast scene you better to go for the old average metering if you need a consisten "reasonable" exposure. For me even for portrait the AF linked spot metering is not always trustworthy, since if I pick a eyebrow or some dark hair with a focus point, the picture will result blown up overexposed.
I do have a 40D and a 600D, none of them act like this.

So funny.

Now knowing this, it doesn't really bother me too much as I can use it to my advantage. But not knowing, that might screw up the exposure. I've never trusted the camera anyway too much, I always chimp my pictures constantly.