On Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:48:20 -0400, "Rob Bonow" wrote:

>I have a Nikon 8008 that I bought used not long ago, and so far it's been an
>absolutely fabulous camera. Pictures taken in pretty much uniform light
>come out very, very well. Unfortunately, I do not have the "s" version, so
>there is no spot metering, and I've have had some lackluster results so far
>from relying on the camera's center weighted and matrix metering systems in
>adverse lighting conditions. Would selling my 8008 and picking up an 8008s
>for a little extra money would be worth it for spot metering? I'm a
>student, so I don't have too much money to throw around. Any and all advice
>would be appreciated.

I dislike spot metering built into camera bodies for two
reasons: unless you take the time to do a proper multiple
reading of many subject tones and then place them in a grey
scale (with knowledge of what that grey scale is for your
particular film and developing - otherwise known as the
"zone system"), it is likely the spotmetering will mislead
you and result in poor exposures (the meter can only tell
you how to get a medium grey from its reading, assuming
good calibration and regardless of the subject brightness
read); the camera spotmetering can cause a "null" in the
center-weighted meter patch area, confusing readings
made this way (this is true for the 8008s, BTW). Better:
consider the large circle in the finder as the metering
area (this is close to correct) and place in it a mix of
subject tones in proportions similar to what the overall
photo would have. This is also more reliable than using
the "who knows what 'corrections' the camera is making"
Matrix Metering - and can, with experience, result in very
reliable metering. I used three 8008 bodies for years, with
very consistent exposure results even with slide film...
(BTW, if you still must have an "s" version, I know where
there are some...;-)