Looking to get into photography

Wynsam said:
Why go to the effort of taking it out? Spot metering that is.

Is there a way of getting partial metering on a button as opposed to a menu item with a 1000D or 350D, I dont know?
Click to expand...
I have no idea (on either question).

TBH I rarely pay attention to what metering mode my camera is in. :o
 
I don't *need* Auto-ISO either, but there are times when I would like to have it. My gripe is more about the half-arsed way they implemented it - might as well have left it out altogether.
 
My only complaint about the 400D is that when I'm shooting in manual I invariably poke myself in the eye when I want to adjust the aperture - I guess that's why I'm almost always shooting in AP. :o
 
Naah, the wheel on the back is far enough to the right. Unless your eyes are really far apart :)

Why on earth did they have to go and get rid of the aperture ring on the lens? It's so much more convenient.
 
koffiejunkie said:
Naah, the wheel on the back is far enough to the right. Unless your eyes are really far apart :)

Why on earth did they have to go and get rid of the aperture ring on the lens? It's so much more convenient.
Click to expand...
Or left eyed. I just tried mine with my right eye and it was a snap to operate.

The ring was a better way.
 
I use my left eye since my right eye isn't all that good. But if I did use right eye - it would have been well out of the way.
 
Wynsam said:
Maybe its not far off. Live view was thought almost impossible and not necessary not that long ago. Now almost everyone has a version of it.
Click to expand...
I think the problem with it is how SLR's work.. You are looking through the lens. For this to work, the mirror is in the way of the shutter and the CCD/CMOS/Film. The Mirror has to be moved out of the way in order for the histogram to actually meter things?

That being said though, I did read somewhere today of a new DSLR that had live view, with some sort of split system... cant remember what it was though.. just saw the price and closed the tab on the browser :eek:
 
Kalvaer said:
I think the problem with it is how SLR's work.. You are looking through the lens. For this to work, the mirror is in the way of the shutter and the CCD/CMOS/Film. The Mirror has to be moved out of the way in order for the histogram to actually meter things?
Click to expand...

Well, it meters with the mirror down. I think the bigger challenge is how to display the histogram in the viewfinder. You'll need to overlay it somehow - hologram maybe? The other problem is also, your eye is not focussing on anything in the camera - it's focussing on what the camera sees - so if you put something in the viewfinder (or at least, in-between the lens and the viewfinder), it will be out of focus to your eye.
 
marine1 said:
A HUD in a camera now there is an idea. Maybe you should patent that idea. Can you imagine having that in a digital camera? Awesome
Click to expand...

I think we might be getting carried away here. What was this thread about anyway...:)
 
Look at the pic that bwana posted earlier. The grey circle is the area that the camera considers when reading the light. It pretty much ignores the rest. Why would you use this? Well, if you're taking pictures of, say, your kid singing at the talent show, and everything on stage is black, so you have a brightly lid kid in the spot-light with a completely dark background, you don't want the camera to consider all the dark bits, because 1) they don't interest you and 2) they'll cause over exposure as the camera tries to make up for it. So you narrow the scope of that the metering will see.

Spot-light - spot-metering

That kinda explains it :)
 
Aah, I see. Thanks. So without this, what are my options? I've read so many sites and the one constant is that the 400D is a great camera.
 
Try the ones you can afford, take the one that's the most comfortable to use.

Yes the 400D is a great camera. But so are just about every other DSLR available on the market today. If spot-metering is important to you, skip the 400D/450D/1000D - they don't have it. If you want both spot-metering and Canon, get the 40D - but that's way more money. If brand is not the ultimate consideration for you, but spot-metering and money is, look at the Nikon D40 and Pentax K100D Super. They're both great camers, they both have spot-metering, and they're both selling for peanuts.
 
Cool. I'm just leaning toward the 400D cos I've read on many sites that it always performs very well with low light. If I don't have spot metering, what other functionality do they have to compensate for this?
 
koffiejunkie said:
Try the ones you can afford, take the one that's the most comfortable to use.

Yes the 400D is a great camera. But so are just about every other DSLR available on the market today. If spot-metering is important to you, skip the 400D/450D/1000D - they don't have it. If you want both spot-metering and Canon, get the 40D - but that's way more money. If brand is not the ultimate consideration for you, but spot-metering and money is, look at the Nikon D40 and Pentax K100D Super. They're both great camers, they both have spot-metering, and they're both selling for peanuts.
Click to expand...
Correction - the 450D does offer spot metering.
marine1 said:
Huh? How does that happen Bwana?
Click to expand...
I'm left handed/eyed and most cameras seem to favour right eyed people wrt the placement of the controls.
mercurial said:
Cool. I'm just leaning toward the 400D cos I've read on many sites that it always performs very well with low light. If I don't have spot metering, what other functionality do they have to compensate for this?
Click to expand...
Partial metering works just fine on the 400D - its only a slightly larger area than a spot reading would use. Keep in mind what that one article had to say about the Pentax K100D and its unsuitability for astrophotography.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X