RustyBug Offline Upload & Sell: On
|
p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Is this a metering or shutter problem in my Mk2N | |
This is a very bad scene to use for evaluting your camera's metering.
Given the large amount of highly reflective water in your scene (akin to shooting snow), a properly working meter will probably render your highlights (dominating the scene) as middle gray (or closer to it) anyway ... variably so depending on metering mode used.
I'd suggest repeating your test using a more controlled subject (i.e. gray card, etc.), or at least a subject that doesn't have such a strong highlight weighting to it. For scenes like this, the EC isn't indicative of your metering being errant ... it is simply to compensate for the fact that you are metering off of a scene that does not "average" to middle gray (as your meter assumes the "average" scene to be). I realize that you were using "matrix" mode, but the principle still applies that the camera was expecting the scene to "match" something it was programmed for ... and the scene presented a "mismatch", so it got fooled.
Outdoors, I'll just point my lens at a dry patch of green grass to meter off of (assuming same lighting conditions) when I know I"m shooting into a "non-average" scene. That will "clue me" as to what exposure to use. I also, may use an incident meter or the Sunny 16 rule (modified to Sunny 13) for a "cross-check" ... and of course, there is always good old fashioned bracketing.
Anyway ... I wouldn't worry at all about your camera's metering based on it's response to metering this particular scene. I would have expected it to be underexposed, due to the high reflectivity and particularly with a large expanse of it in the center of your composition.
If you shoot a sheet of "white paper" filling your frame ... and your camera meters it such that it comes out "middle gray" ... your meter is doing its job just fine.
Likewise, if you shoot a sheet of "black paper" filling your frame ... and your camera meters it such that it comes out as "middle gray" ... your meter is doing its job just fine.
The camera doesn't know what you are pointing it at (white vs. black) ... it only is programmed to assume that you are pointing it at a scene that approximates middle gray, and provides you with an exposure that will help you achieve that middle gray. From the exercise of shooting an "all white" scene vs. an "all black" scene and seeing that the camera yields the same histogram @ middle gray, we can realize that the camera's meter is doing its job ... trying to place things in the middle. When we KNOW (the camera doesn't know) that we are shooting a scene that has values that are a significant departure from "middle" ... that's when the use of EC comes into play ... i.e. us "telling" the camera that it is NOT looking at an "average" scene.
BTW ... I use both a 1D MK II and a 1D MK II N ... interchangeably without any consideration for EC between bodies. Admittedly, I've never been compelled to compare them against each other, but I think the main issue here is simply the scene doesn't fit into the programming of the meter and it "got fooled". While "middle gray" is important, it is the "gray" matter that is in the "middle" of our ears that can be of even more value than the camera's meter. Sometimes, you just have to "out-think" your camera, rather than expect it to be smarter than you are ... it isn't.
Here's a link that compares the ISO of the II vs. the II N. Both are slightly under the OEM rating (hence my modified Sunny 13 rule), the II N just a smidgeon more so, but certainly not anything that would suggest the difference you're asking about.
DXOMark II v. IIN ISO
(Click on "measurements" tab ... mouse-over orange vs. red circles on graph)
HTH
|