Exposure indictor not at '0' in A, S, P modes

[hjoseph7]

When I press the shutter button halfway on my Nikon D7000, I noticed that the Exposure Indicator inside the viewfinder is not sitting squarely on the '0' mark when in A(aperture priority), S (shutter priority) and even P (program mode) ? I have to adjust the exposure by turning the control wheels to get the assumed proper exposure. On all my other cameras this only happens in 'M' manual mode. The camera always chooses what it thinks is the proper exposure which is the '0' mark on the Exposure Indicator scale. Is there something wrong with the camera,  or am I doing something wrong. 

[kmac]

It's probably nothing to worry about. How do your images look, are they so bad the camera needs a service ?

[hjoseph7]

Diregard, I figured it out. The exposure compensation was set to +1... The thing is, the pictures look better with the exposure compensation on !

Edited April 11, 2023 by hjoseph7

[ShunCheung]

It highly depends on the particular scene. For example, if it is backlit, some overexposure may be preferable. Can you post same examples?

[mike_halliwell]

I guess your +1ev, is just manually input ETTR!

[John Seaman]

When I first had my D700, it consistently over exposed.  There's a custom setting called Fine Tune Optimum Exposure, which lets you change the settings for the different exposure modes, spot, centre weighted and matrix. By setting them to minus one, the exposure is fine. To test it, just take a picture of a plain grey surface and check that the spike on the histogram is centred. I don't know if this custom setting is available on the D7000, it certainly is on my D7100.

[ben_hutcherson]

When I read this question, my immediate thought was to check EC. When I set it in something other than M on all of my cameras(or at least the ones I use regularly-that list is now the D800, D810, D850, D5, and sometimes the Df and D3s) the exposure bar graph in the finder reflects that EC has been set. Truth be told I don't use it that often as when I need to use EC I typically find it easier to go into manual and just over-ride the exposure as I see fit, but it's there. About my only exception to not using EC is when I anticipate routine exposure variation through a shooting session(I'm normally an aperture priority guy).

Having manual take into account any applied EC makes sense, and it would actually be kind of pointless to even have it if you had to remember to shift the exposure null point. Back in the days of cameras with minimal automation when EC dials first started appearing, they often stacked on top of the ASA dial and essentially were just a quick and dirty adjustment of the ISO(where actually changing it required deliberate action like lifting and turning). On a lot of cameras, if you were at the extreme end of the available ISO settings, you'd lose some range on the EC dial.

Edited April 11, 2023 by ben_hutcherson

[mike_halliwell]

2 hours ago, John Seaman said:

Fine Tune Optimum Exposure

If it was implemented in the same way as other Nikon DSLRs, this 'internal' compensation mechanism didn't even reset with a Full Factory Reset for some crazy reason.

[AlanKlein]

5 hours ago, John Seaman said:

When I first had my D700, it consistently over exposed.  There's a custom setting called Fine Tune Optimum Exposure, which lets you change the settings for the different exposure modes, spot, centre weighted and matrix. By setting them to minus one, the exposure is fine. To test it, just take a picture of a plain grey surface and check that the spike on the histogram is centred. I don't know if this custom setting is available on the D7000, it certainly is on my D7100.

I suppose you mean an 18% gray card?

That's an interesting point though, John.  I have to check my camera to see if it keeps the histogram in the center when on shutter or aperture priority or whether it's offset.  If it isn't, could the metering be off?  Factory set? I don't believe my Olympus micro 4/3 E-PL1 has Fine Tune Optimum Exposure feature or its equivalent.

[mike_halliwell]

29 minutes ago, AlanKlein said:

I suppose you mean an 18% gray card?

If i remember my metering, any monotone background subject to Auto, be it black, grey or white, should register as a centered mole-hill on the histogram.....

that's how they're calibrated.

[John Seaman]

1 hour ago, AlanKlein said:

I suppose you mean an 18% gray card?

Not necessarily. As long as it's a neutral surface with no colour cast.

All the camera sees is an illuminated area, it doesn't "know" what the reflectivity is, or how brightly it is lit. No matter what automatic exposure mode or metering pattern is used, the meter should set the camera to place the histogram centrally.

1 hour ago, AlanKlein said:

If it isn't, could the metering be off?  Factory set?

I was surprised to find my D700 overexposing, it's not impossible for metering to misbehave.

[hjoseph7]

7 hours ago, John Seaman said:

When I first had my D700, it consistently over exposed.  There's a custom setting called Fine Tune Optimum Exposure, which lets you change the settings for the different exposure modes, spot, centre weighted and matrix. By setting them to minus one, the exposure is fine. To test it, just take a picture of a plain grey surface and check that the spike on the histogram is centred. I don't know if this custom setting is available on the D7000, it certainly is on my D7100.

Actually I turned this function off, or disabled it before i checked the EC. I think it was set at -1 1/16 or something. I still had to go in and set the EC to '0' though. lt's a good idea to check all of your settings before a shoot, because if you forget to reset something it might affect a Ton of pictures before you realize it. I once had my Metering set to Spot  and could not figure out why I was getting so many blown out areas. By the time I did, it was too late.

[AlanKlein]

10 hours ago, mike_halliwell said:

If i remember my metering, any monotone background subject to Auto, be it black, grey or white, should register as a centered mole-hill on the histogram.....

that's how they're calibrated.

 

9 hours ago, John Seaman said:

Not necessarily. As long as it's a neutral surface with no colour cast.

All the camera sees is an illuminated area, it doesn't "know" what the reflectivity is, or how brightly it is lit. No matter what automatic exposure mode or metering pattern is used, the meter should set the camera to place the histogram centrally.

I was surprised to find my D700 overexposing, it's not impossible for metering to misbehave.

Metering is based on 18% gray scale.  If you use a white card, shouldn't the histogram data show on the far right?  If using a black card, shouldn't it be on the far left? Shouldn;t the 18% gray be in the middle?

 

[John Seaman]

3 hours ago, AlanKlein said:

Metering is based on 18% gray scale.  If you use a white card, shouldn't the histogram data show on the far right?  If using a black card, shouldn't it be on the far left? Shouldn;t the 18% gray be in the middle?

No. With auto exposure. providing that the card covers the whole of the frame, black, grey and white cards should all be recorded as 18% grey, and all made to look the same. Try it. They will look different if you photograph them in manual exposure mode with the same settings. Or if you photograph all three cards together in the same frame.

[mike_halliwell]

If you set any of the modes to Auto and select LV, then pop a white card to fill the frame it goes mid grey, black card shows as mid grey, mid grey shows as mid grey.

Depending on your metering pattern 1/2 white and 1/2 black is metered as mid grey too. 

Adding +1EV with EC moves the mole-hill spike a bit to the right but all 3 greys are still the same, just light grey!

Using coloured cards is different as it messes with WB and such. Primrose might be mid grey, but Lime might not.

As a handy teaching aid, I photographed a colour paint chart, with about 50 colour swatches in camera MONO. With that info you can select all those that show the same grey and paint a colour picture that's invisible in camera MONO.  However, if you change the lighting balance, to say Fluorescent, colours now record as different greys.

😀

Edited April 12, 2023 by mike_halliwell

[AlanKlein]

John and Mike.  I stand corrected.  You both make sense. 

 

I have a question. Regardless of white, black or 18% gray, the histogram should show the data in the middle? What if it's slightly off middle?  Is that calibration or something else? 

[John Seaman]

2 hours ago, AlanKlein said:

What if it's slightly off middle?  Is that calibration or something else? 

A quirk of the lens can cause this, for example, if the aperture opening is slightly inaccurate. I had a Canon 50mm lens which consistently gave 1/2 stop overexposure, on a camera which gave accurate exposure with all my other lenses, I never worked out why.

[mike_halliwell]

Mirrorless renders this kinda weirdness... gone. WYSIWYG.

LV on DSLRs is almost as good, but the implementation is occasionally clunky/quirky.

[BeBu Lamar]

You have your flash on?