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Using the evaluative metering
of your 35mm EOS cameras. I liked the partial metering of the New F-1 and never thought of switching to the focusing screens having the spot metering option until I bought my Canon T90. The built-in spot metering of the T90 made my job easier and the multi-spot metering does its job quite well, too. Its ability to get correct exposures was only limited by the latitudes of the film used, especially colour slides. Multi-pattern metering was not introduced by Canon. In fact, the first Canon camera to have this feature was the EOS 650, the first AF 35mm SLR camera in the EOS System, launched in 1987. The EOS 650 has its 6-zone Evaluative Metering, aside from Partial. But it does not have a built-in Centre-weighted average metering option. As I was happy relying on my New F-1 and T90's partial and spot metering features, that gave me perfect exposure readings (with some help from my own knowledge of metering techniques), the Evaluative metering of the EOS 650 and available on the EOS 620 and 630 models, did not attract me to invest in the EOS System, yet. That changed with the introduction of the original EOS-1 camera, which was launched together with three wonderful EF lenses, the EF 20-35mm f/2.8L AFD, the EF 50mm f/1.0L USM and the EF 80-200mm f/2.8L AFD. Needless to say, Canon's first professional EOS model was enough to influence me into investing in the EOS System. Before I go on, there's one fact about the built-in metering systems of any camera, regardless of whether it is Centre-weighted, Partial, Spot, Multi-spot or multi-pattern systems, since all shared the same limitation. They can be fooled by other brightly lit elements within your pre-visualised images and thus cause incorrect exposures. Since this issue's focus is about using the Evaluative metering of your EOS cameras, I am showing the EOS users how to make the best use of this feature and create better pictures with perfect exposures and cutting down on the number of imperfect ones.
Canon's Evaluative metering system has come a long way since its introduction on the EOS 650 camera. From the original 6-zone version, we now have the 3-zone (for the entry-level EOS) to 16-zone (EOS 5, EOS-1N/EOS-1N RS) as well as 21-zone found on the recently introduced EOS-3 and now, the 35-zone (you got it!) version available on the new EOS 300 entry-level camera. Regardless of which EOS camera you may have, all of them are designed to give correct exposures in any shooting conditions or subject matters using their respective Evaluative metering system. In the instruction manuals of any EOS camera on the metering segment, Canon did recommend to use either the Partial or Spot metering options should you encounter subject matters that are difficult for the camera to get the exposure correct by relying on Evaluative system alone. What I am going to show you is how to use the Evaluative metering mode for most shooting situations without resorting to using the Partial, Spot or Multi-spot metering options. It all boils down to knowing which AF point is going to be used on the main subject as well as the composition of the scene. Let's start with the new EOS 300 entry-level model. With the inclusion of the newly-developed 35-zone Evaluative metering system, getting incorrect exposures will be a thing of the past for beginners (the targeted buyers for this model) - provided they know where to point their cameras at. Having the 7 AF-point feature
already helps a lot in getting the exposure correct. All you need to do now is to
get the EOS 300 camera and its 7 AF-sensor to pinpoint the main subject correctly
and the intended composition for your pre-visualised images. |
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