Actually it is pretty good. People who complain about it frequently
don't understand it in the same way they frequently don't understand
spot metering and avoid it.
Matrix metering used to just divide up the frame into a large number
of zones and give the readings different weight. Now the readings are
fed into a chip, the Digic for instance in the Canon or the unnamed
chip in a Nikon. The chip does a comparison between the pattern of
readings and an enormous data base of readings for which the
exposures are already known, and does an exposure based on that
comparison.
Next you have the maker's philosophy for exposure depending on who is
likely to buy the camera. Someone who buys an inexpensive DSLR is
someone most likely to prefer the bright colors of the digicams they
learned on. So the manufacturer tends to have a higher default
contrast, saturation, and sharpening for that model. Complaints here
if any are about blown highlights.
The manufacturer is likely to consider that someone who buys one of
their more expensive models is likely to care more about the
integrity of the image and not mind working with it a bit in post
processing software. So the matrix metering is going to be modified
towards preserving all the information in the image. So while most
images will look perfect, some will look dull with lower saturation,
contrast, and sharpness as the default and no blown highlights. Many
of the complaints you hear are from people who buy cod pieces to hang
around their neck instead of cameras and are upset that a pro camera
does not produce eye poppingly colorful, crisp jpegs right out of
camera with no need to change default settings or to do any post
processing like their Coolpix did.
I almost scream now when I see someone who has just bought a $4500
D2Xs and posts his question, "What settings do you use?."
That said it is refreshing sometimes to do it your self with the
other metering modes giving the little brother chip a rest. All of
them can be checked with the histogram which I always have on.
Since you decided on a Nikon you might find it interesting to know
that they have had a CCD in their cameras since the F5 film camera.
It is a 1005 cell sensor in the viewfinder used to obtain the
readings used by increasingly sophisticated generations of processors
connected to it. Did you get your camera yet?
Winsor
Long Beach, California, USA
On Nov 9, 2006, at 5:48 PM, Ali Shah wrote:
> I am a newbie to all of this. I have read and perhaps
> mis-understood, however it seems that Matrix Metering
> is not very dependable. Experienced photogs switch out
> of Matrix Metering. I just heard about of Matrix
> Metering recently...and no clue how it is different
> from SPOT, Center Weighted, etc.
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