X100 Metering

bwcolor · 05-22-2011

The structure of the X100 subgroups doesn't seem to provide a good sub-forum for this discussion, but here it goes.

I've only been out with the X100 for one day. It was a fairly sunny day at the rodeo. I noticed that the matrix exposure mode had a real tendency to blow highlights when shooting a contrasty scene. When I'm shooting people, I think that I'll resort to shooting in spot metering mode off skin tones and using the exposure compensation. I've yet to try external metering to see how the expected and the manifest exposure differs. I've unlocked AF/AE and use the button for locking exposure and partial push of the shutter for AF. I think that I'll pickup the EF-20 for fill flash...should it ever be released to the retailers. I found that my little Metz 20 C-2 doesn't work well with the camera set to Auto-ISO.

How about your X100 metering tips?

mrjam · 05-23-2011

The camera defaults to "Multi" metering mode. I had noticed a number of my shots that were slightly blown. So, about a week ago I changed the camera to "Average". For me, that worked extremely well until yesterday. I had a number of pictures that were about a full stop underexposed. Haven't figured out the cause yet.

I am curious who is using "Multi" versus "Average"....

Jeff

_larky · 05-23-2011

I'm using the 'guess in my head' method as the built in meter was never quite correct. It's working well for me so far

GaryLH · 05-23-2011

I use multi by default with slight minus exposure compensation setting and I use raw format.. I tend to use spot if shooting into the sun and adjust accordingly..

Gary

peripatetic · 05-23-2011

Multi and RAW.

I almost never have to dial in negative compensation, the X100 is very protective of blown highlights, far too much so for my style. I often find I dial in +2/3 EC. Even shots which would be horribly blown in JPG have tons of headroom (maybe 1.5 stops?) with ACR in Lightroom.

I err on the side of ETTR, accepting the occasional pure white in my pictures (also curiously known as "blown highlights") to get lots of shadow detail. But as I mentioned in RAW there is a lot of headroom for highlight recovery.