D80 Spot Meter frustrations

<p>I have had my D80 for a bit over a year now... love it.<br>

Except, I like to shoot in spot metering mode, and there is nothing in the view finder that denotes exactly which area is being metered.<br>

Obviously, its the dead center, but if one has composed and focused off of the center focus area it is easy to lose track. Seems like an oversight on Nikon's part.<br>

-Ofer in Iowa City</p>

<p>The primary advantage of spot metering is that it allows you to meter from a specific point within the frame, regardless of how you have framed the image. My procedure is to meter and then lock exposure. Thereafter compose and focus.</p>

<p>I shoot in manual, much of the time, so, I just find something like the blue sky to meter off, make my settings, and then ignore the camera suggestions after that. If you are using some auto mode, you need to use the exposure lock to do the same thing.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>It meters from the chosen focus point, which you have the option of being highlighted while focusing or not. See pages 52 and 95 of your manual.</p>

<p>Ray,<br>

is that true? I had no idea. I'll check it out when I get home.</p>

 

<p>Ray is right if you've selected Single Area in custom function 2 to tell the camera to use the focus point that you've selected yourself . If you've chosen Auto-area AF, then the spot metering is always from the central focus area. If you've chosen Dynamic Area, things get tricky. For one thing, if the subject moves to a different focus point from the one it was originally under and which you originally selected then you won't see which focus point is active because it's not highlighted, regardless of which option you chose for highlighting focus points. Trickier yet, spot metering will be done on that active focus point, and (as above) you might not know which point that is. I avoid that combination and tend to stick to Single Area. I choose the focus point and hence spot-metering area.<br>

<br /> I'm very often shooting things outside the dynamic range of the D80 (scenes that include light sources, for example) and tend to use spot metering in manual mode, with the Single Area option rather than let the camera decide what to blow out. It works really well and the D80 makes it easy to switch between spot, centre-weighted and matrix. For less contrasty scenes, I stick with matrix and aperture-priority and am then happy to switch on dynamic area focussing and AF-C as required.</p>

<p>Thanks for the clarification. I thought I had read the manual thoroughly, I guess I had not. I like to shoot in Manual most of the time and set my exposure, then compose using whichever AF area I choose. I've been metering from the center while I had an off-center AF area selected, well, I THOUGHT I was metering from the center. That explains some confusing readings.</p>

<p>That's why the camera has an exposure lock button. (It does, doesn't it? I don't own a D80)</p>

<p>The other replies have it right about where it meters, but I have a question for you. Are you using spot in conjuction with M or with some other mode (such as A, S or P)? <br>

It has always seemed to me that spot only makes sense with M as otherwise you go crazy locking exposure and dialing compensation around. I shoot almost exlusively in spot and M, and I'll have a rough exposure guess set before I bring the camera to my eye and then do some scanning of the scene with the spot meter to see where things are falling (like zone system except I don't think in traditional zone numbers but in terms of the +/-3 stops of metering range). I also look to histograms and blinkies and adjust after my first shot, if time allows. Once I'm happy with the exposure I may take a number of shots without giving any further thought to exposure settings. I find this way of operating helps to separate exposure, focus and composition.</p>

<p>David, <br /> I mostly shoot in M. So usually I dial in the exposure and compose, as you suggest. However sometimes I would have one of the non-center af areas selected, meter from the center (thinking I was anyway) and then recomposing, focusing, etc. I think that's where the confusion lay. I would prefer if the spot meter stayed in the center of the view finder with a nice circle to tell me exactly where that was, and then I could just select my focus and compose separately.<br>

--Sorry I don't know how to verbalize this process without creating tons of word spray :-)</p>

<p>Again, I suggest the simple solution is: select the center focus point and use it to spot meter whereever you wish. <em>Lock exposure</em>. Then compose and focus using whatever method suits your style.</p>

<p>David, I shoot the way you do, for the most part, and increasingly so. You can't really beat the control of manual exposure and if you're shooting M, can even dive into the menu system and back out without losing your exposure settings. And if you're choosing your own focus point, it makes sense (to me) to have the metering done by the active point. It's easy and harmless to move that spot around to meter on various objects but isn't so harmless to move the central focus point around, focus and recompose. (At least if you're shooting close subject wide open with a fast lens. If you aren't, focus-and-compose is usually fine.) But Mike, the D80 does indeed have an exposure lock function. I use it when I shoot Aperture priority but I do that less these days than I used to.</p>

<p>Ofer,<br>

No problem with your verbalizing. I can see how it would be nice to not have the spot linked to AF point. My D50 doesn't allow changing that though. My habit is to meter first, then focus and compose. I use the the AE-L/AF-L button for locking focus only.</p>