D7000's tendency to over expose - I see it now

Dave_W

The Dude
For nearly a week now I've been using my D7000 while my D800 is visiting its maker and I now see exactly what people were talking about when they claimed the D7000 matrix metering tends to over expose images. I've read such claims ever since I started with the D7000 but I wrote them off as being either an isolated issue or just personal taste. But using my D800 for the last 4 months and getting use to the way the D800 meters light I can now see what these people were talking about. Reviewing images made with the D7000 vs. the D800 really underscores the D7000's tendency for over exposures. To be fair, it seems to only over exposes when you have a large dynamic range between the lights and the darks. When there isn't such a large range the exposures seem spot on but when you have bright sun light combined with a dark shaded area the problem really stands out.

So I'm curious if any other D7000 owners have noticed this issue and how they're compensating for it? I've gone back to shooting in manual mode and shooting a step or two below suggested metering when I have a large dynamic range and then pushing it back up to neutral when the range is low. I guess i should be grateful because I've been wanting to move back to manual but have been getting lazy with A mode. Hopefully I'll not get lazy again when the D800 comes home.
 

Billy Y.

Senior Member
Mine did that exact same thing, in bright light situations it was always exposing for the shadows and blowing out the highlights. I always adjusted for this, but you are right, the D800 doesn't do that.
 

jpgray

New member
Same here ,I've had mine for 3 weeks ,I use the bracketing for exposure.starts at +2 then what the camera thinks then the last pic I have the exposure set to +03 to +07.there is always one or two of the shots that look great..but I'm still learning the camera and what in can do.
 

D12345678

Senior Member
90% of the time i set mine for a third of a stop down and go from there. The only other DSLR cameras i've used, a D80 and D5100 are the same, so its just become a habit to leave them at -03 or sometimes -07, except in low light or at night. In fact, i do the same with my Canon compacts.
 

grandpaw

Senior Member
If you are consistently needing to use the EV adjustment I would like to suggest checking out my "Nikon D7000 Tips" thread that can be accessed from the bottom link in any of my posts. My tip #24 may be the answer that you are looking for. Each of the metering options can be fine tuned individually and tip #24 will explain it. I will cut and paste it below so you can view it quicker, but you may want to check out all of the tips for information that may be useful.






Tip #24 Customizing your metering system
Customizing your metering system

You can choose from Matrix Metering, Center Weighted and Spot Metering. You can also custom adjust each of these choices to get exactly the exposure that you desire. The EV adjustment on the top right hand side of the camera is fine and very useful for individual shots to get them just the way you like, but if you find that any of the three metering choices need to be adjusted on an ongoing basis due to consistently being a little over or under exposed you can custom adjust or tweak each one and save your setting. Using the EV compensation is great for individual images but does not work well for correction of an on going need.

It is easy to fine tune each of your camera's metering choices so that you will consistently get the exposure you want and still have the option of using the EV compensation if you need it for single images.

Here is how you do it

Go to the CUSTOM SETTING MENU which is the third one down on the left and looks like a red pencil
Toggle to the right and scroll down to "b" Metering/exposure
Toggle to the right and go down to"b5" Fine tune optical exposure
Toggle to the right again and scroll up to "Yes" and click OK
Choose the metering choice that you want to adjust and toggle to the right
Use your up and down arrows to select the amount of adjustment you think you need and then press OK

Remember that you may need to go back a few times to make additional adjustments to get it exactly how you want it. You can adjust one, two or all three metering choices differently with their own custom settings. One of the reasons that you probably decided on the Nikon D7000 is it's ability to get it to due exactly what you want it to do, so take advantage of the options and control over the settings that you have with this GREAT camera.`
 
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