Damn! Another D7000 Related Query!

[MiniChris]

Do you also spot meter with the spot focusing? By the way, I love Sonoma County...one of my good friends teaches photography at Santa Rosa High School.

[PhotomanJohn]

Chris - I am not an expert on these things but about the only time I use spot metering is with flash other than flash fill applications. The rest of the times I use center weighted or matrix depending on the scene. I would be interested in other folks comments on the subject. As I have said before, my background is manual medium and large format photography and I am learning about modern digital photography like you are.

John

[Colin Southern]

Do you also spot meter with the spot focusing?

Hi Chris,

I can't speak for Nikon, but with the Canon 1Ds3 there is an option to link the spot-metering point to the active AF point - Nikon might have a similar option.

[Sahil]

Even I use single spot focusing & find it very convenient.

[Sahil]

Hi Chris,

I can't speak for Nikon, but with the Canon 1Ds3 there is an option to link the spot-metering point to the active AF point - Nikon might have a similar option.

Is there an option to have spot-metering point different from the focusing point? I have no clue about it. I thought it always is the same.

[Colin Southern]

Chris - I am not an expert on these things but about the only time I use spot metering is with flash other than flash fill applications. The rest of the times I use center weighted or matrix depending on the scene.

Hi John,

Spot metering is often mis-understood (as is, in fact, all metering). In a nutshell, all metering works on the "assumption" that what you're pointing the camera at is a medium gray. For Matrix and centre-weighted metering - normally - it's pretty close because most scenes average out to a medium grey anyway, but with spot-metering, it's often a different story (because the measured field of view is so small). So what this means with all metering, but spot-metering in particular, is that you have to apply exposure compensation (up to plus or minus 2 stops) depending on how far the spot-metered item varies from a medium gray.

Or to put that another way, if what you spot-meter ISN'T a medium gray, it WILL be when you capture it if you don't apply compensation.

Hope that helps somebody!

[Colin Southern]

Even I use single spot focusing & find it very convenient.

Same - in fact, it's pretty much all I ever use.

[Colin Southern]

Is there an option to have spot-metering point different from the focusing point? I have no clue about it. I thought it always is the same.

In most cameras spot-metering is only ever done from the centre of the screen.

[Sahil]

In most cameras spot-metering is only ever done from the centre of the screen.

I will have a look at it today. Thanks for the info, Colin.

[Dons]

what mode do you use when shooting birds in flight?

Sorry to budge in, Chris i always used AF-C 39 points with spot metering when shooting birds...
And I feel bad for your D7000 .... My D7000 works great...

[PhotomanJohn]

Colin - Thanks for the comments which were good as always. I understand the basics and was looking for comments from people's experience. Donny's comment is a good one and in line with what I meant for bird photography. And as he demonstrated with the beautiful photos, it works.

The reason I mentioned using spot metering for flash photography (especially close up) is that it takes the camera out of the flash fill mode and adjusts the flash to be the main source without regard to ambient light. I forget what they call that.

These discussions about the basics are good. In my case, I know how to expose scenes properly but I am still learning how to make these "smart" cameras do what I want them to do.

Thanks all,

John