Amit Chugh
New member
Hi,
I am an amateur and this is my first DSLR. To get better at the exposure, I have been reading Nature Photography Field Guide By John Shaw's. In this book John talks about testing the in-camera meter to make sure that the camera's metering should match the standard f/16 Sunny Rule when using SPOT metering. He then states that once the in-camera meter is calibrated, certain standard rules and conditions can be used to get a better exposure control on the final image.
So, I set my camera to Av, ISO to 100, and f-stop to f/16. Then I tried to meter the roof of an apartment which appears to be middle grey on a bright sunny day, when the roof was front illuminated by the sun. My in-camera meter gave me 1/100s. Which means it agrees with the Sunny 16 rule.
Here are the questions I have with the above knowledge now given about this test:
Q1: It has been stated at DPREVIEW's 5D review that 5D is about 1/3 stop more sensitive i.e. at ISO100, the camera is really running the chip at ISO125. Since the internal ISO is different than what I set on the camera's LCD does this mean that the in-camera metering is wrong because at ISO125 the sunny 16 rule should give me 1/125s instead of 1/100s?
Q2: I also own Sekonic L558 flash meter. When I use this meter to meter the same roof at ISO100, f/16 with 1 degree SPOT reflected light, the meter suggests me 1/125s. If I set the ISO on this meter to ISO125, I got 1/160s reading. I know this meter is calibrated for sure. So, I took one shot of the scene at 1/100s (camera suggested meter value) and the same shot at 1/160s (Flash meter suggested value). Did anyone else did any kind of field test like this? What is your conclusion from this test? I did find that the in-camera metering was better i.e. 1/100s did not need any exposure adjustment in RAW (I shot RAW+Small JPEG and used ACR 3.4).
In short, do you think the in-camera meter in 5D is accurate?
Thanks in advance.
-Amit
I am an amateur and this is my first DSLR. To get better at the exposure, I have been reading Nature Photography Field Guide By John Shaw's. In this book John talks about testing the in-camera meter to make sure that the camera's metering should match the standard f/16 Sunny Rule when using SPOT metering. He then states that once the in-camera meter is calibrated, certain standard rules and conditions can be used to get a better exposure control on the final image.
So, I set my camera to Av, ISO to 100, and f-stop to f/16. Then I tried to meter the roof of an apartment which appears to be middle grey on a bright sunny day, when the roof was front illuminated by the sun. My in-camera meter gave me 1/100s. Which means it agrees with the Sunny 16 rule.
Here are the questions I have with the above knowledge now given about this test:
Q1: It has been stated at DPREVIEW's 5D review that 5D is about 1/3 stop more sensitive i.e. at ISO100, the camera is really running the chip at ISO125. Since the internal ISO is different than what I set on the camera's LCD does this mean that the in-camera metering is wrong because at ISO125 the sunny 16 rule should give me 1/125s instead of 1/100s?
Q2: I also own Sekonic L558 flash meter. When I use this meter to meter the same roof at ISO100, f/16 with 1 degree SPOT reflected light, the meter suggests me 1/125s. If I set the ISO on this meter to ISO125, I got 1/160s reading. I know this meter is calibrated for sure. So, I took one shot of the scene at 1/100s (camera suggested meter value) and the same shot at 1/160s (Flash meter suggested value). Did anyone else did any kind of field test like this? What is your conclusion from this test? I did find that the in-camera metering was better i.e. 1/100s did not need any exposure adjustment in RAW (I shot RAW+Small JPEG and used ACR 3.4).
In short, do you think the in-camera meter in 5D is accurate?
Thanks in advance.
-Amit