Adventures with the R8

[ted grant <75501.3002@compuserve.com>]

Richard wrote:

<<<Only odd thing I noticed about the R8, left it on matrix metering most
of the time, was that if I took a picture along a street with the
foreground in a shadow and the background in the sun, that the shadow area
was properly exposed and the background overexposed.>>>>

g'day Dick,

I have found of the three metering systems in the R8 I prefer to work with
the Intregal  (center weighted ) mode for much of the general scenes,
simply because I prefer a slightly richer and more saturated transparency.
The "selective or spot meter" mode is something else as it is extremely
accurate for situations of concentrated light.

The Multi-pattern mode attempts to balance all aspects of the scene and in
the case of the strong shadow area in the foreground, the meter would be
trying to get a balance between highlight area and shadow that works ok on
"negative film", however screws-up transparency film. IMHO.

When I was in KL shooting in the airport under construction I used both
Intregal and Multi-pattern, as there were some very strong back light
scenes where if I had of used my normal center weighted mode I'd have made
the inside area where I wanted to show the workers, go too dark.

But the multi-pattern balanced inside and outside to the extent that I was
quite surprised how excellent the slides were. It does seem that because
they are effective in certain modes, they are not the be all to end all for
every scene. I'm sure for anyone who has not had the opportunity to work
with two modes of metering, it is a learning experience until we can make
the meter system be as efficient that it can to produce the correct
exposure.

A bit long, but I'm still learning also. But I do lean towards the Intregal
mode as first choice. It certainly matches more along the readings of the
R7 results.

ted