GXR spot light metering: where is the spot ?

[nbpf]

Do you have any idea how to set up the GXR to display the area in the middle of the frame (spot) which is actually used for spot light metering ?

So far I have not found a way to have the camera show the area in the middle of the frame which is actually used for spot light metering. I find this very annoying. I systematically use spot light metering for selecting the exposure in M mode: I just point to something I want to expose, say, 2 f-stops brighter / darker than the middle of the brightness range and press Fn2 which I have assigned to AEL. This sets the time (I have set One Press M mode to Aperture Priority) to the value that would bring that spot in about the middle of the brightness range. I then adjust time, aperture or ISO manually to increase / decrease the brightness of the selected spot by 2 f-stops.

This is for me a very fast and effective way for selecting the basic exposure prior manual fine tuning (and a way to apply a little bit of zone system methodology in the digital era). Of course, spot light metering is not very helpful if you cannot see the spot where the brightness is actually measured !

Thanks,
Nicola

 

[odklizec]

Hi Nicola,

By default, the AE spot is exactly in the center of the screen (represented by the small rectangle in center of the screen). However, you can manually move the AE "spot" around the screen. Just go to the ADJ menu, scroll to right and select the Target selection icon (compass icon). Then from the appeared popup select the AE icon. Now you can "freely" move the AE spot around the screen and you will see where exactly it is. It's described by details in the GXR help, page 66. Hope this helps?

 

[nbpf]

Thanks Pavel !

I know the spot is in the center of the screen and can be moved around. However, I'm not primarily interested in moving the spot around for the time being, I would be happy to have the spot marked in normal operations.

When using autofocus (e.g., with the 50mm module) the small rectangle is a good indication of where the center of the screenn (and, therefore, the area used for exposure metering in SPOT mode) is. In manual focus, in particular with the M mount, the small rectangle is not displayed and it becomes difficult to point the center of the frame to a selected target for spot metering. One could of course use a framing grid (page 144) to display the center of the frame but this is just a workaround.

The area used for exposure metering (in either MULTI, CENTER or SPOT) is a well defined region of the frame. Even in SPOT it is not just a point. It seems to me that this area deserves to be showable. In fact, I would expect the metering area to be marked on the screen per default. At least, there should be a setting which allows users to have this area marked.

Best,
Nicola

 

[nbpf]

Pavel,

another thing which I find quite strange is that, in manual focus, for instance with the M mount module, and independently of the metering setup (SPOT, CENTER or MULTI), the same frame is displayed in the middle of the screen in shooting modes. The frame is marked through its 4 corners. These are white in normal conditions and turn green when the shutter is half pressed.

So one natural question is what does this frame actually represent ? One would expect, in these conditions, the frame to indicate the metering area and to change color when some well defined metering event occur, e.g., when AEL is pressed. Instead, the frame does not appear to mark anything relevant to metering, focus or composition. Its turning green just indicates that the shutter is about to release an event that, anyway, is also signaled by other changes in the display.

I am probably missing something important but it seems to me that the UI in shooting modes supports exposing quite inconsequentially. This is a bit strange because focusing, on the other hand, is quite well supported through focus aid modes 1 & 2 and user-dependent enlargements. Maybe something for the next firmware update ?

Best,
Nicola