On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 13:20:09 -0000, "Gil"
>"Frank S"
>news:iKacnVBrFsZrqGqgXTWcqA@giganews.com...
>> Almost any hand held meter will do. No need to spend a fortune on one.
>> Built in camera metering is always a "guess" as to what your subject
>> actually is and what part you want to expose for. Hand held meters meter
>> exactly what you want to meter and nothing else. Problem? You have to
>know
>> what you want to meter and why. IOW, it takes education and experience to
>> use a hand held meter successfully.
>> -Frank
>For the most part you're right. However, if the user has a Nikon body with
>Matrix metering, centre weighted and spot metering, then surely the approach
>that should be adopted is to master the use of the camera's own meter? It's
>a simple case of selecting the subject you wish to expose for and then using
>the AE-L button on modern Nikon AF-SLR's. It's not rocket science! I can
>certainly see the merit of adding a light/flash meter to your kit if you're
>using studio flash for example but for the most part, it's simply not
>necessary. Spend the money on a lens instead!
>Paul
The problem that arises with "it's a simple case of
selecting the subject you wish to expose for and then
using the AE-L button on modern Nikon AF-SLR's" is that
--> NO <-- subject, metered close (or spot-metered
from a distance) will likely be the correct tone for
arriving at a good metering of the overall area
covered by the photograph (and even the area metered
is unlikely to be correctly metered - try metering for
slide film using this technique, and all will be
rendered "middle-tone", whether this is appropriate or
not...;-). Good metering using spot or close-up
areas actually is "rocket science", if done
properly - which is why I prefer mixing a representative
range of subject tones within a wider metering area
to arrive at a good average (with "Matrix"-mode turned
off...). If I'm shooting color negative material, and
shooting fast, I rate the film 2/3rds stop slow, and
turn on all the auto-exposure features - and depend on
the ability of the film to accept overexposure
gracefully, and the printer to correct exposure and
lighting color-balance errors...;-).