Exposure

throttlemeister

Senior Member
Forgive me if asking a stupid question, but is the D800 prone to underexpose? I walked around doing some test shots outside, and found most shots needed about +0.7 exposure compensation (using matrix metering). On my Canon I generally needed -0.7 compensation.

Is the D800 more conservative of highlights?
 

Dave_W

The Dude
I've not noticed it, so far the exposures seem about right. Are you judging this "under exposure" on your computer screen vs. the histogram? Could your monitor be in need of calibration? Maybe the alpha is tuned a bit low?
 

throttlemeister

Senior Member
Both actually. But I also only have something like 30 shots with the camera and metering is probably different from what I was used to as well.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
 

JDFlood

Senior Member
I set mine to -2/3 EV, like all my cameras (D800, D700, Leica X2, Fuji XE-1, Cannon G12) to prevent blowing out the the high lights. Mine Acts exactly like every other. JD
 

throttlemeister

Senior Member
Did a lot of reading, and apparently the D800 puts a lot of emphasis the focus point when in matrix metering. My old 5D on the other hand, besides having a rather limited matrix grid compared to modern cameras, would just look at the scene.

In order to avoid blown highlights, I used to (with the 5D) make sure a significant portion of the brightest part of the scene would be in the viewfinder when determining exposure and then recompose. This often meant exposing for the sky to keep highlights in check, and fix the rest in post if necessary.

The D800 seems to be MUCH more advanced (duh). Not only does the matrix metering do a lot better job evaluating the entire scene; it actually does what you would expect matrix metering to do, but with the focus point emphasis, you actually need to be a bit careful how you point the camera when metering.

Conclusion, I need to change the way I make the camera meter the scene.
 
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